B29 HONFLEUR – A FADED BEAUTY

It was a beautiful day to drive along the coast road and pass through resort towns with such famous names at Deauville and Trouville.

We stopped for the night at the small fishing port city of Honfleur, just across the bay from the shipping port city of Le Havre.

Honfleur is not the typical cutsey poo resort town. It has an active harbor where fishing boats are tied up next to luxurious yachts and when they sail to sea they pass this ornate and active merry-go-round on the jetty. The surrounding buildings have the look of harboring serious small businesses and not just junky souvenir shops although there are many of those too.

You would never starve in Honfleur (unless you run out of Euros) because the harbor is lined with side-by-side restaurants all serving just about the same thing.,

Lisa, in an after-midnight effort, managed to secure a room in the Hotel La Diligence, a three star hotel that should be re-evaluated. Aside from an decorating style that mimicked early bordello and a blanket with an image of a dolphin performing at Sea World, it just didn’t seem as clean as others of that rating.

Before leaving for Le Havre we made it a point to visit their Saturday farmer’s market in the plaza in front of Saint Catherine’s church. We tried to replicate our Saturday mornings at the Calabasas farmer’s market by purchasing items for breakfast.

We liberated a table and chairs from a shop not yet open and enjoyed our croissants and ham slices at curbside.

Really thin hot coffee was delivered in even thinner plastic cups. Never did figure out how to pick one up without burning our fingers.

Louise especially enjoyed watching the seller/buyer relationships being formed at the stalls while we ate.

The MG was a big hit with camera toting tourists who couldn’t resist it. Neither could an organ grinder who set up shop just off the grille. His face was immobile…like none of us was there…but he knew how to work the angles. Instead of using a monkey, he had a tiny puppy in a box at his feet.

He also used psychology. As coins dropped into his cup he’d deftly scoop them into his pocket. Tourists, feeling sorry for him, kept pitching coins into the empty cup and in the pocket they’d go.

It worked on me too. Capping my camera after taking this picture, I dropped a coin in the cup. He looked at me, cracked a slight smile and almost gave me a wink.

If you’d like to HEAR as well as SEE the organ grinder, just click on the URL below.  There’s another musical surprise at the end.

On to Le Havre for the ferry to Great Britain.

Louise and Ray