LEHAVRE'S BUSY PORT AND THE PICTURESQUE VILLAGE OF HONFLEUR, BEAUTY ABOUNDS!

Regal Princess/Port of LeHavre/Honfleur
Saturday, October 5, 2024
Sunny, 57F

Honfleur reflects its beauty

I have been in LeHavre twice before today—it is the port where I arrived from NYC off the Holland America Rotterdam in 1967 with my trunk and suitcase, eagerly anticipating my year of studies in France.  My first remembrance of France is that there was no bus to take the hundred American students just off the boat, into Paris for a few days before we were all were taking a train to our school in Aix en Provence. We spent all night in a bar, which now I realize was a bar right on the port—really high class. Just kidding.  We had no French money at that time, so I don’t know how that all worked out, but I do remember learning that men and women in France go to the bathroom in the same place at the same time.  I had so many things yet to learn!  A year later, much wiser, I left France from LeHavre.

Bridge spanning the Seine near the Port of LeHavre

Today LeHavre, a city in the province of Normandy, has a population of 172,000 people. It is the 2^nd largest port in France, the 5^th largest in Europe. I was amazed to learn that the port area itself is 18 miles long, and it costs 27,000 euros (almost $30,000) for a container ship to dock for 24 hours. Since container ships can have up to 42,000 containers per ship, they figure out how to unload in about 3 hours with cranes, and our guide told us it is like a game of Tetris.  LeHavre is the biggest container port in Europe.

LeHavre was heavily damaged in World War II, because of the value of its port, with 82% of its buildings destroyed, leaving 32,000 people homeless.  Today the city is thriving, but since it was a Saturday there were no ships unloading.

History Lesson: Normandy, defeated by the Northmen or Norsemen (from Denmark) previously (800s A.D.), was the home of William the Bastard, who went on to become William the Conqueror, overcoming his cousin to become King of England after the Battle of Hastings in 1066 AD.  In 1204 Normandy was surrendered to France. 

Honfleur, a small French village on the Seine River, was not destroyed in WWII and preserves its older heritage. This city, with a population of about 7500, was our destination today. According to our guide, its name is derived from the Norse language and means Bay or Estuary (floo) of Hona (Huns), even though we know the word “fleur” means flower in French.

So picturesque, this village!

Market vendors were on many streets

Books here

These are the same buildings that appear in the first photo

Again, the some of the buidlings from the first photo in the blog. I hope I can explain this fascinating detail. To use space to its optimum, narrow two story buildings were constructed.  Not much later, someone got the idea to build more stories on top of the original building, with the door of the top building facing the street behind the original building---the first two stories were built into a hill.  If you can look very closely, you can see the difference in color and construction.

Vegetables at the market in Honfleur

Boiling cabbage and sausage in the large pot!

Our guide (Princess Tour) showed us around the town, pointing out some interesting sites. It was Saturday, Market Day, in France and I was most anxious to just walk around such a delightful town. TK agreed and we headed for a coffee shop and a croissant—it was still cool in the morning, and we needed to warm up.  There is a HUGE difference between a croissant from a patisserie in France and one from the ship or even Panera Bread or U.S. Starbucks for that matter.

We definitely did not have enough time in this picturesque 11^th century Norman fishing village—scallops were in season, fresh lobster was on the menu everywhere, seafood galore, small shops, and the market. Plus, this is the birthplace of the Impressionist art movement-with a museum nearby.  Claude Monet (think paintings of water lilies) spent considerable time in Honfleur and painted several studies of the harbor and the mouth of the Seine.

On the way back to LeHavre, we saw thatched roof houses, fields of corn, baled hay, dairy cows, chalk cliffs, and even hunters who must have been hunting hares.

Out the bus window--TK did a good job of catching this 

home with thatched roof

Our guide mentioned that when anyone builds or owns such a home with thatched roof, he cannot get insurance. The roofs are a fire hazard.

In the distance, the chalk cliffs

When we returned to the port, we decided to take the shuttle into nearby LeHavre and walked around this much bigger city—and because it was almost completely destroyed in WWII and rebuilt, it has a more modern feel. Of course we found a mall to wander through. We even scored a LeHavre Starbucks coffee mug. 

A mall in LeHavre

Some people opted for the Princess tour to Paris, a three hour bus ride one way—that was not our choice no matter how much I love Paris. At least four bus loads of our fellow passengers opted for such a tour.

TK’s Takes:  He spotted a Lidl.  He thinks we have enough Starbucks cups.

Sunrise yesterday on the North Sea by TK

Sea Day