Happiness in Honfleur

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Honfleur
We awoke at 5am to a beautiful, peaceful morning. Mike checked the forecast one last time and saw slight seas and gentle winds so we decided today was the best day to make the 8-9 hour trip to Honfleur. We were out of the harbour and sailing into the stunning pink, purple, orange and yellow sunrise before 6. The crossing under brilliant blue skies and gorgeous sunshine was calm and peaceful other than a choppy section when we accidentally went over a sand bar and more ‘confused’ seas as we rounded Point de Barfleur (the headland). Mike simply steered us further out to sea and the panic was over. I have decided I hate headlands. They cause havoc with the tides and sea state and need to head on out of my life.
At around 4pm we were nestled inside our first lock which was a lot easier to negotiate than we had thought. Alongside us were a French couple who had come from the inland waterways of Holland. ‘How long is your, err, vacance?’ asked the French guy. ‘1 year’ mike replied. Frenchie chuckled. ‘I am sorry I think you misunderstand me. For how long are you on your holiday?’ ‘1 year’ replied Mike ‘Une ans’ I clarified. His face beamed, ‘Really? No work for one year? Oh, you can do so much! You must go to Holland, it’s beautiful’. It turned out that he had had a boat just like ours previously and had traversed many on the inland waterways. He and Mike chatted boats as we waited for the locks to open. We managed to get out of the lock pretty much unscathed, other than Mike’s little toe which he bashed on a cleat and split as he walked along the side of the boat. I cleaned it up with TCP and put a plaster on it whilst we waited for the bridge to the visitors harbour to open once we were through the lock. Soon, the bridge opened and we went into the beautiful little harbour with several other boats. We had to raft as there were so many of us and we found ourselves alongside a Dutch yacht. As the guy was helping us secure the lines, he looked the boat up and down, spotted the British ensign, frowned then asked ‘You came across from where?’ ‘Dartmouth, in England’ Mike replied. Dutchies eyebrows shot up. ‘You crossed the channel in THIS boat?’ he asked, incredulous. ‘Yes,' Mike replied, cool as a cucumber, ‘it was pretty calm’. Dutchie looked Ozzy up and down again. ‘It would have to be’ he murmured with an awed look in his eyes.
Honfleur itself is a stunning 16th century town, with some buildings dating back to the 14th century, full of cobbled streets, beautiful architecture and cosy bistros. There is even a church built entirely from wood, which was built by shipwrights in the absence of masons and looks, on the inside, like the belly of a huge old upturned boat. We were both in awe of just how gorgeous the town was and spent quite a long time walking around reading the historical notices and taking photo’s. Mike remarked that bits of it reminded him of Dartmouth and said he imagined that a lot of England would still look like this had it not been for the destruction the bombings caused.
As it was a Friday night we decided to go for a beer and eat out (like we need Friday as an excuse!). We ordered 2 Grande leffe's from a pretty but overpriced bar next to the water and they came out in big stemmed glasses almost the size of my face - quite a contrast to the Gulliver glasses our cider had been served in the previous lunchtime! Next we went to ‘La Pele Mele’ for a Norman dinner. The waiter approached and asked if we wanted to speak in French or English. I told him, in my better than I’d realised French, that I could speak a little French but had not done so for 12 years so my French was pretty bad. He smiled, chuckled and replied in French that it was quite good. I then proceeded to order in French as he chided Mike for not knowing any. ‘It’s our first day here,’ he explained ‘and I was taught German at school’. The special set menu was 14 Euros for 3 courses with 2 choices for each course so we ordered both menu’s and tasted each others. Not bad - the dessert was really good though, the local speciality apple pie which was basically a pastry crust with a spreading of crème caramel, then apple slices placed on top and then glazed and baked. Tasty. After this lovely meal, accompanied by a jug of rose, we headed back to the boat. This was no mean feat as the harbour was very busy and we were rafted 6 deep which meant we had to climb across 5 boats to get to ours, and they were all big yachts with rigging and ropes everywhere. Not an encouraging prospect when you are as clumsy as I am1 I managed to negotiate the boats without falling into the water, but did trip on the rigging of the boat next tours, bruising my myself and pinging the ropes so hard that I startled the Dutch woman snoozing in the cockpit. The next morning Mike lost a flip flop trying to do the same trip and I was bent double laughing as he attempted to fish it out of the water with a boat hook. He succeeded.
Saturday in Honfleur is the day of the street markets, with vendors hawking everything from shoes and clothes, to food and drink to crappy plastic battery operated toys. We wandered about for a couple hours and settled on a nice piece of camembert. Saturday is also apparently the day when the locals torture their women at the water’s edge. At least that’s what the warbling screeching coming from across the harbour for an hour or so at around 2pm led us to believe. Seriously, it was truly torturous to listen to and one can only imagine the horrors that must have been inflicted on the poor woman to produce such a sound. We wanted to give up the information; we just didn’t know what it was. Fortunately, the microphone amplified caterwauling relented eventually to as little bubble of applause (I can only assume her Mother was in the audience) and Mike and I settled back to our reading in the hot sun.
A little later mike trekked into town armed with our remaining jerry cans to get fuel as we’d discovered there was no fuel barge at Honfleur. I poured a cider and re-joined Uhtred of Bebbanburg as he rampaged the English countryside, fighting Danes in the name of Alfred, making jokes and winning the heart of a princess...and I listened to the Dutch women on either side of me exchange pleasantries as they hung out their laundry. I could only identify the words ‘children’ ‘sun’ ‘good’ and ‘yes’, but it led me to conclude that idle chit chat over the washing line is pretty much the same in every language.
Around an hour later Mike returned sweaty, tired and carrying 20 litres of diesel. Dutchie was out on his boat. ‘Ah, whiskey?’ he inquired with a grin. ‘Sorry?’ said Mike ‘You have whisky in the cans?’ Dutchie repeated ‘No, just diesel’ said Mike. Dutchie chuckled, but looked a bit deflated. I think he’d built Mike up as some kind of heroic crazed Englishman for crossing the channel in a riverboat and was a bit gutted to have this image marred by the idea that Mike was carrying sensible fuel rather than crazy mans whiskey.
Mike offloaded the fuel, sat down tired and popped open a beer. He leant back, donned his hat, crossed his legs and sipped. I saw an opportunity for banter. ‘You might want to shift positions,’ I said with a grin ‘ you look very camp sitting like that’ ‘ Oh,’ he retorted ‘ so it’s OK for you to be manly, but not for me to be a bit feminine?’, ‘ I’m not manly’ I protested and took a swig of my beer. Just at that moment the mother of all burps decided to surface. I won’t lie to you; it even took me by surprise. Mike didn’t miss a beat. ‘I rest my case,’ came his satisfied reply. I laughed and shot him a big smile, ‘Oh, strap on a pair’ I said. ‘Can I borrow yours?’ he jokingly replied.

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Comments

[Dad]

Love reading your blog entries,glad your duck fetish has returned Car.love ya both dad xx.

[Sue Armstrong]

Brilliant!
Just wanted to say how much ive enjoyed reading you blog - my fiance and I are off gallavanting around Normandy just like you guys on 10th September and reading your experiences has made me look forward to it all the more! Sue Armstrong (Leeds.)

[CarMike2177]

Thanks Sue! You and your fiance are sure to have a great time. We absolutely love everything so far and are now in Burgundy (lots of blogging to catch up on!)