France 2026 - Day 13 / Honfleur & Le Havre

Steps today: 21 493

Day tripping to Honfleur today, with the same bus we took from Caen yesterday. It's an easy 30-minute ride straight between Honfleur and Le Havre, but it's still a little complicated.  There are no trains to Honfleur so the bus is the best solution, but there are only 5 busses a day so you really have to time it well. Having a ticket in advance as opposed to buying it from the driver doesn't guarantee you a seat on any specific departure so you'd conclude that showing up early is key, but we noticed more than once on this trip that people don't line up respectfully. It's a scrum to get in. Sad. Thankfully we got a seat on the 9:30AM bus, had we not the next one would have been at 10:45.  No standing on the coach bus.

The jewel of Honfleur is it's Old Harbour. It's gorgeous! The sky was a little overcast when we arrived, but not grey enough to be depressing so we enjoyed strolling around.

We stopped for a drink to just sit and admire for a while

Then we started exploring the city. It's a post card. I can only imagine what it's like in high tourist season.

We hiked up to the panorama point on Mont Joli, and we couldn't believe how GREEN the vegetation still was in October.  Spectacular.

Nice views over the city.  The Old Harbour is in there but the water is not visible. Too bad, I would have liked to have seen that! The winding path down was even nicer than the street on the way up.

The Église Sainte-Catherine is known for it's construction. Double nave, all wood, built by ship builders, they say if you flipped it over it would float.

Next on the agenda was lunch, and we were willing to pay the touristy prices to eat back in the Old Harbour. Would have been nice outside, but still a bit too chilly so we sat inside however still had a sort-of-nice view.

The bus back to Le Havre was at 3:45PM and I was stressed about catching it because the next one would only be at 6:30PM! I wanted to get to the bus station good and early.  This bus would be coming from Caen so how many seats would be available by the time it got to Honfleur?  We still had about 2 hours to kill, so we wandered around a bit more after lunch...

... and then stopped for a drink. It was high time I tried Calvados being here in Normandy.  Glad I tried it but it's not for me. All fumes and fire!!  I'll think I'll stick to my Grand Marnier.

We got back to the bus stop at 3:30PM where there was group of people already waiting at the clearly indicated stop. 

The bus arrived and stopped a few yards away from the stop and the crowd turned into a scrum again and it was all pushing and shoving to get in.  We got in thankfully but didn't get seats together. After a few more people got on, the driver called out to see if there were any more seats left in back, yes a few more were available so she let a few more people in. Once all the seats were claimed, that was it, she told the people outside it was full and they would have to take the next one.

2 people who were standing in the stairs refused to get off. The woman said she didn't care, she had a valid ticket and a train to catch back in La Havre so she was entitled to a ride and refused to budge. She, the driver and few other passengers had some heated exchanges over the terms and conditions of the tickets but the couple would not be swayed and they stood their ground.  The driver said she would have to call the cops. The woman's companion scoffed sarcastically "OOO, the cops, what are they gonna do" and rolled his eyes. It was a standoff.

Eventually, 2 other people volunteered to get off the bus so we were finally able to get moving, I think almost 30 minutes late. Too much drama! I feel she acted like a bully.

We got back to Le Havre a little after 4:30 with no hard plans so we just wandered around

Stopped to have a drink with some 'friends'

And then around 5:30 or so started wondering what to do about supper. We were both reaching the end of our general overall ability to keep eating for the rest of the trip!  We found a Bouillon and had "something small"

We were back at the hotel by about 730ish. Frank didn't quite have a cold, but lost his voice a little. He felt ok, but was this the start of something? Let's not take chances - let's get some sleep.

France 2026 - Day 12 / Le Havre

Steps today: 28 750. Makes no sense. The big days are "too big" and the regular days are "too small". If in the future my Fitbit ever dies on vacation again, I just won't track. 

You'll recall we're travelling by bus to our next home base in Le Havre as opposed to by
train - it was perfect. The journey took a little under 90 minutes.

We arrived at our hotel around 10:45, fingers crossed that the room would be ready. The very friendly clerk told us she could not give us the room this early, so we left our bags and went on with our day.

Priority one was visiting the Quai Joannès Couvert, from where my father-in-law sailed to Canada almost 80 years ago. We got a kick out of the idea that we could stand where(ish) he stood all those years ago. 

This was also a lesson is Chat GPT prompts. We learned the name of the Quai by giving it the name of the ship on which he sailed and asked where it would have sailed from in the late 40s. We plugged it onto Google Maps and of we went - to nowhere. Despite the path Google was telling us to take, when we arrived everything was blocked off, no access at all. There was a cruise ship docked further down the next quai, but we could not get access to that either. I then asked Chat GPT: "can we access the Quai Joannès Couvert" and the answer was no. I should have thought to ask that question from the beginning!  So here's a picture from a far distance that shows us nothing.

Next was the Catène de Containers, I got a kick out of it. Those are full-size shipping containers. huge!

Onwards to the Notre-Dame Cathedral (ceiling needs work. ha!)

We wandered passed a few more interesting sights like "The Volcano" (a theater). I liked the way the dark cloud looks like it's coming out of it.

A twisty apartment building.

The Monument aux morts which honours soldiers and civilians who died or went missing in war or conflict.  That's a lot. Also a WW2 war memorial

Time for lunch now and it was just ok.

My starter was mayonnaise eggs again, but they need to up their prep-game because aesthetically the green rimmed yolks are not pleasant.

My main was a raclette salad which peaked my curiosity. It wasn't great - a blob of delicious hot melted raclette cheese plopped on top of a salad with too much dressing. The flavours did not mix well.

After lunch, we visited Église Saint-Joseph, possibly the most interesting church I've ever seen. It was built in the 50s and from the outside looks like a beacon or lighthouse. From the inside, it's a shaft of stained glass.  The whole building looks different depending on the sun. Morning, Afternoon, Summer, Winter, Sunny, Cloudy.... all different types of light that impact the radiance. So cool! The pictures don't do it any justice.

Next, a walk through the Square Saint-Roch, some interesting sights in there too!

We finally made it to the beach where the wind kicked up SO MUCH I thought I'd be blown off my feet!

Time for a drink... inside out of the wind!

Next was a visit to the Botanical Garden Greenhouses in the old Sainte-Adresse Fort.  No matter the city I always appreciate Gardens.

Great views over the city too.

Down from the fort we saw the City Hall

And around 5:30 we stopped for a drink again

At that point we decided to go back to the hotel to check in and unpack. I was still burping up my lunch, so we coped out of supper and just grabbed some grocery store sandwiches to plug the hole

We got to the hotel a little after 6PM, and while the clerk was checking us in (a different one from this morning) I just happened to notice a sign that read 15€ for early check in! GRRRR  we so would have opted in for that! Why didn't the other clerk tell us?  #notimpressed.

The room was fine. We like this chain and have stayed in many other locations before so we knew what to expect

We were comfortable here, but the abysmal almost non-existent water pressure in the shower was a downer. We mentioned it to them when we checked out in case they didn't know, turns out they DO know about it and it's common for rooms at the end of the hall.  Sigh.