Random road stop: Honfleur

Car = independence.  Having a car means stopping where you want, when you want and being able to see the little hidden jewels recommended by locals (and conveniently, being bilingual, I get many suggestions).
 This is why we rented our little car, Norm.

Nice wheels !

One of our first recommended places was Honfleur, recommended by our short-acquainted french copine Abigail who gave us a bed to sleep on at her place for the night (by the way, couchsurfing.com really works.  So far so good for us anyway!)  She lived in Le Havre, which is the biggest port city of Normandie.  Sorry, but it's kind of a modern hole, and Abigail totally concurred.  She said it used to be a beautiful, quaint port city before WWII, but alas, in 1944 it was all but obliterated during the war.  Now some would say that it's a love letter to concrete.  Abigail then recommended that we go see Honfleur, a great example of what Le Havre would be like today if it wasn't devastated by war.

 Just to show you how modern Le Havre is, this is the bridge leading out of the city.

Honfleur was beautiful ! Such a charming little town with very old yet brightly colored buildings.  We got there around 8am and enjoyed our morning strool stroll around town, taking a few photos, window shopping and starting our day with a nice cafe au lait. 

 

Good morning.

The quaint seaside harbour town

Small narrow streets with a lot a character.

Honfleur is also known as the "old harbour", from where explorers once set sail for the New World.  Samuel de Champlain set sail from this small town in 1608 on his way to founding Quebec City (and some would even say Canada). 

In the memory of Samuel de Champlain who started his journey to the New World here.