Honfleur is in many ways a quaint old town. I liked the contrast with this old (and, to me, Spanish looking) building at the corner of the harbour and the yellow motor bike:-

We found this fantastic iron gate (one of a pair obviously) at a side alley:-

The side alley:-

A typical narrow street:-

But there were some open spaces:-

And it wouldn’t have been complete without a touch of old France. A Clochemerle style outside toilet. (The grey hut behind is an inside toilet):-

I didn’t look behind us as we strolled fom the SS Black Watch to Honfleur. When we got to town I saw a sign to Pont du Normandie but I hadn’t realised how close it was.

I soon found out when we walked a bit west from Honfleur harbour:-

The bridge was very obvious when we were walking back to the ship but the best view was from the deck once we were back on board:-

Later in the afternoon the lighting conditions had changed. The rain clouds had gone away.

Over the other side of the River Seine near to Le Havre I could see this road bridge. Morning aspect:-

The same bridge in the afternoon’s lighting conditions:-

We discovered that Honfleur was the birthplace of composer Erik Satie.

It was his 150^th anniversary so the house had been bedecked accordingly:-

Birthplace plaque:-

The local music school is named in his honour though I see from the lettering above the central windows that it was (once) a Nursery School:-

There’s almost an Art Deco feel to this building. Canopy, long windows beside it, “jazzy” iron work on the gates:-

Satie’s Gymnopédie No.1 is a lovely piece of music. I also like the animation which accompanies it here.

Erik Satie – Gymnopédie No.1

From over the street:-

Honfleur is a relatively small town. Just look at all those names. “To her children of the armies of the land and sea killed for the homeland 1914-1918.” A measure of what France lost between 1914 and 1918:-

World War 2 names are at the base of memorial. In front is a stone poilu’s helmet above crossed swords with the inscription, “Gloire au Soldats Francaise”.

Off to one side was this plaque to Albert Manuel, “heros de la résistance, croix de guerre”:-

This plaque commemorates “The veterans of Indo-China in Normandy. To their lost and disappeared 1945-54.”

Another notes “19th March 1962. End of the war in Algeria.”

The final stop on our cruise trip last year was the fishing village of Honfleur in Normandy, France; across the River Seine from Le Havre.

This is a panorama from the ship’s berth on the River Seine.

At the extreme right above is one of those modern buildings we seemed to encounter at nearly every port. View from dock:-

View from town side of tower:-

Honfleur itself is a delightful village in the old style. Panorama of harbour from the direction of the River Seine:-

Honfleur harbour from the town:-

Harbour buildings:-

Just got back from a fortnight away. I’m knackered.

It didn’t help that I had a disturbed sleep on the ferry (due to the folk in the cabin next door) then the public address system boomed out at 7 o’clock British time.

The ferry crew kicked us off the ship at ten past nine and then we sat on the quayside for ninety minutes twiddling our thumbs. (Okay, we both actually had books we could read so it wasn’t all wasted.)

But it was as if passport control hadn’t realised there was a ship coming in. Either that or they don’t open up till ten o’clock. Most odd.

There had been no such problem at the other end. We just rolled off the ferry at Zeebrugge, went into a queue of about four cars at most, had our passports looked at and then we were off.

I took loads of photos. Goodness knows when I’ll get round to uploading them. There is still quite a few from the trips we did last summer I haven’t posted yet as I jumped to the cruise pictures – of which Honfleur is still to come here.