Weather a la Melbourne

Friday 3^rd June

We have spent a really lovely day in Honfleur. This place is just like you see in brochures and postcards and every building and house seems to be worthy of a picture. We started the day at the tourist centre and found that the town had a Petit Train so that was the first thing we did for the day. The train wound its way through the narrow streets – surely this can’t be 2 way? – and up into the hills above the town. Up in the hills there was the church of Notre Dame de Grace founded by Richard II and rebuilt in the early 1600s. The train stopped here for us to look at the church and then hear the lovely tune played by the bells. Some fabulous views back over the town but no opportunity for good photos.

For Shepparton folk - this cow was in the tourist information centre.

The inner 'eclus' at Honfleur. The umbrellas are all restaurants along the harbour.

Notre-Dame de Grace - 1600s.

These bells had a lovely clear sound when they played at 11am

The train then wended its way back down the hills through lovely garden areas and past some beautiful and interesting homes and finally back to the port area.

They have a beautiful carousel in the harbour area.

A cruise ship was in town today and we saw a lot of tour buses so their were a lot of tourists in every street, We heard a few English and American accents but they seemed to be mostly European tourists. Morning tea time and we found a lovely tea salon. We were joined for morning tea by a lady and her terrier dog who sat on the chair opposite her at the table. Yes – she even fed it, and she buttered the bread first and he also had some cheese. We snuck a photo – and look at the lovely china in the windows behind the dog.

Not the best photo - its hard to sneak photos sometimes.

This was the entrance we went through into the tea salon - there was a second entrance around the corner and in that window were all the delicious looking pastries and cakes. We didn't even know they were there so Rob had a scone and I just had the cup of tea.

We visited another church, the church of St Catherine, built in the 15^th and 16^th Century. This church was built by shipwrights and is the largest wooden church with a separate bell tower in France.

A real labour of love - just loved all the timber.

The inside was pretty spectacular.

More wandering of the lovely old streets and a little shopping led us to lunchtime. We enjoyed another lovely meal. I don’t drink very much coffee at home, the occasional cappuccino, but have got used to drinking their espresso and am actually enjoying the flavour.

The nougat shop.

Some gluten free jubes for Claire.

A couple of interesting looking buildings. Love all the timber work.

This shop had some really interesting and original jewellery. We made a small donation to the education of his children. One other shop we visited and we were talking about the weather in Honfleur. It has the same reputation as Melbourne; 4 seasons in 1 day. They have a saying. If you can't see Le Havre, it is raining; if you can see Le Havre, it is going to rain. 

Our last experience for the day was a short boat cruise. We lined up with a couple of tour groups – most would have been in their late 70s or 80s. We were told by the ticket lady that we should board before the groups. It turned out to be a real push and shove affair – these 80 yr olds can certainly hold their own in a scrum – and that is the ladies we are talking about. Today was very cold and got colder as we sat on the boat. At one stage the sun came out and the French were really excited about it. The boat cruise was a disappointment – we were assured that the commentary would be in English but all we got was a sheet to read, and it seems that the real focus of the cruise was just the bridge from Honfleur to Le Havre which at one time was the largest cable type bridge in the world, and it was aerodynamically shaped to stop the effect of the wind.

The boat cruise seemed to be all about the bridge. Shame we didn't get a verbal commentary as he seemed to be talking all the time so I am sure we missed out on quite a few pieces of information.

Laundry done tonight at the supermarket and all ready to move on tomorrow.