Vieux Bassin, the lovely harbor of Honfleur
Late evening descends on the town
To get to Brittany from the Hauts de France region where we’ve made our last couple stops, we needed to pass through Normandy. We’ve traveled through Normandy in the past, so we made just a couple one-night stops in order to break up the trip. We never like to drive more than 2 or 3 hours a day. These were our only one-night stops of this trip. Both were very pleasant, but we’re glad not to have any more one-nighters.
First was the lovely harbor town of Honfleur, complete with loads of pretty shops, great restaurants, and a very comfortable hotel. And if Amiens offered up the largest medieval building in France, Honfleur tried to compete with the largest wooden church in the country. The Eglise Ste-Catherine was built around the turn of the 16th century after its stone predecessor was destroyed in the Hundred Years War. To save money to strengthen the town walls, local shipwrights built a “temporary” church out of wood. And there is stands today 500 years later.
We had an amazing lunch upon arrival in Honfleur, with the wooden church right behind Jim
The interior of Eglise Ste-Catherine
Taking a break in the beautiful courtyard of our hotel
Walking through a little garden, we were both hit by the powerful scent of jasmine before we even saw it
Touring the abbey
One of the “modern” parts of the abbey, added in the 15th century
Then we traveled a couple more hours to see Mont Saint Michel, one of the most iconic sites in all of France. I was actually there 42 years ago, on a high school French trip, at the tender age of 16. At the time I was blown away by the place — a soaring abbey rising from a rock outcrop surrounded by either sand or sea, depending on the rapidly moving tides. Indeed the bay here offers the most dramatic tidal variation in all of Europe. Water is said to move in and out of this bay at the speed of a galloping horse.
Mont Saint Michel made our agenda because Jim had never been here. So it felt almost obligatory. I can’t even say I was particularly enthused about coming back. But as we were approaching the area, still 5 or 6 miles away, the outline of the island suddenly and dramatically appeared on the horizon, across the fields, under a blanket of cloud and gloom. And we were both pretty stunned by how dramatic it was!
So we spent a night in the adjacent town, La Caserne; this is a mild sacrifice because, despite (or because of?) the huge tourist population here, the town is woefully absent of a decent restaurant. We trekked 35 minutes to the island, climbed the steep, busy streets packed with tourists, gift shops, pubs, and crepe restaurants. We toured the magnificent abbey at the top. And it was actually pretty amazing all over again. I probably won’t get back again for another 42 years, so we made the most of this visit to this magical place.
Approaching the area of Mont Saint Michel, we were pretty stunned when it suddenly appeared on the gloomy horizon a few miles away
Trekking toward Mont Saint Michel
Getting closer!
Much of the abbey was built in the Romanesque style in the 11th and 12th centuries
Tourists wading through the water and mud at high tide. You have to go out with a guide so you don’t get washed away or stuck in quicksand.
One of the charming cloisters in the abbey
One last pic!