HONFLEUR
Today the goal was to drive from Giverny to our next B&B just outside Bayeux with a suggested stop for lunch in Honfleur. Honfleur has long been on my list of French towns to visit, mostly because it has been a favorite of painters and other artists for years. It’s a fishing town with a harbor and plenty of boats.
The town attracts tourists and its narrow streets are full of shops with colorful awnings on tall buildings in muted shades. Restaurants abound with many local specialities on offer, particularly oysters, fish, shrimp, cider, Calvados, and Camembert. We dined well on several fish preparations plus succumbed to dessert at Entre Terre et Mer.
TIDBITS
B&B Hospitality
Breakfasts at La Reserve in Giverny were lovely, and host Valerie could not have been nicer. There was always coffee and tea, a plate of ham and other meats, several kinds of cheese, cereal, croissants (of course!), several baguettes, and orange juice and fresh oranges. She would happily prepare eggs if you wished. Valerie has some pretty collections of mugs and tea cups, glass pitchers, and some of the small statues of Queen Elizabeth in her dining area. Over the meal, we also enjoyed chatting with other guests including a young French couple from Paris and two British couples, one who were winding up their month in France.
Challenges
One of the challenges of traveling in France is making sure you eat meals at the proper times. Lunch is generally available anytime from noon until 2:00 pm, but not later! The greater challenge can be locating a restaurant open on Monday for dinner. It’s frequently a day restaurants choose to be closed, but now in October, it seems to be more so.
We headed to a recommended restaurant in Giverny for Monday night dinner. It was supposed to be open, but wasn’t. Two men on the street stopped and kindly gave us directions to a restaurant they like in a nearby town. We drove there, it looked attractive, but it too was closed. Another place across the street was also closed so, we returned to our B&B and dined on granola bars, cider, and slices of cake. As it was Day One of our trip, we were fine with it and retired early.
Learning New Things
Today the Chief Penguin mastered getting us successfully in and out of a paid parking lot in Honfleur: getting a parking slip on the way in, walking back and watching someone else to see how you check yourself out at the machine, and then actually echoing those actions to get the green light and a raised mechanical arm when we wanted to leave. He also figured out how to buy gas at one of the rest areas on the superhighway. It turns out some of the steps are in the opposite order from the U.S. He was able to fill the tank!
Note: Photos ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved.)
