Help with Honfleur accommodations, please.
 

We will be in Honfleur the first week of July. We will be driving, want a nice place with "charm" and in short walking distance to the Harbor area. I have read many posts on the city and contacted some of the places mentioned in the post. The l'Ecrin is booked up. But several others had rooms. Maybe some of you who have stayed in Honfleur can give us some insight, please.

Also what are the hotels like without AC. It has been 18 years since we were in Normandy and heat bothers me more now. We live on the Gulf Coast and can't stand the heat and humidity of July with out AC!

Cour St Catherine has a room, very nice price. The pictres of the B&B on the web site look very nice. Seems to have lots of charm.

The La Maison de Lucie has a room that sounds nice, on he third floor(US forth floor) with "nice views" and a lot more money! The web site really doesn't show any full pictures of the inside of the hotel. Does it have a lift? Are the rooms nice? Is a room with view worth the extra $s? We usually will pick a view, but don't want to walk up four floors!

Also Hotel du Daphine has a sup. room, a little more than Cour St Catherine. Can't find much in the way of pictues for this Hotel either.

Based on my reading, I am leaning toward St. Catherine, but my husband wonders if the view and location might be worth the extra.

Thanks for helping.

I haven't been inside the Maison de Lucie. It's relatively new. Suspect it is nice, though. The Cour St. Catherine is very nice. Rooms generous in size. I believe all rooms are on the 1st floor. No elevator. The location of both is good. Short walk to the Old Harbor yet out of the throngs. The Maisons de Lea (the redone hotel Le Chat) is perhaps the other place with charm in the historic district. But again, the makeover is recent and I haven't seen rooms. From through-the-window views of the common areas, it's a bit too "Martha Stewart" for my taste. Great location for the latter, though, on the Square St. Catherine. (Potential downside noise, if windows were open, especially on Saturday moring when the market is held). Hard to say about lack of air in July. There is potential for hot weather, so it would be good insurance, but you might not need it.

We used to stay at the Dauphine. It has been years, but I doubt the charm level is very high. It was, at the time, simply a dood, moderately priced hotel in a very good location in the historic district.

Thanks Dave.

As of my morning email, l'Ecrin has a room on the first floor corner with AC. The on-lne booking said there were no rooms, but I sent a direct email to them anyway.

Finally got a repy. We had descided on the Cour St Catherine and I was just ready to reply to them! Now, the AC is really tempting plus the on site parking! I am going to reread the reviews. Any comments anyone? Thanks.

Hope someone has stayed at the l'Ecrin recently. I need to made up my mind and reply soon. The websites both look good. It is hard to pick!

We stayed there a few years ago and loved it. It is not for everybody, and is quite eccentric

Dave in Paris, the room that we stayed in at Giaglis' B and B was up a very narrow,winding staircase, and our cousins were in another of same nature. Super value for the $$ and very friendly people, but not "all on first floor", if we're talking about the same place. The room was large, as was the bathroom, and I do recommend it.

mulifut- what do you mean by eccentic? Does it have a different feel than the pictures indicate?

grandmere- I have enjoyed reading your posts before and after your trip. They have helped me a lot. Made lots of notes. Cour St Catherine sounds and looks really great, except for the steps. I have knee problems that like to show up when I do alot of climbing stairs and walking on uneven or hilly areas. Sounds like Honfleur might have a bit of that. Therefore the first floor and ac sounds worthwhile too!

We stayed at L'Ecrin in September 2004 and enjoyed the experience very much. The eccentricity mentioned is the décor in the ground-floor rooms of the main house; it's a bit over the top in terms of furnishings and objets d'art, but we thought it all great fun. The breakfast was quite good, and the walled parking area was the icing on the cake for us.

When we returned from the trip I discovered I had left behind somewhere a fairly expensive scarf I'd bought at the behest of a friend. I finally tracked it down to L'Ecrin and one other hotel. The owner of L'Ecrin responded to my e-mail by saying that the scarf had been found and that he had already mailed it on to me--and he didn't even ask for payment for the postage. I think that's the kind of service that is long gone in most places. (BTW, I did pay for the postage!)

You might ask the people at L'Ecrin to let you know if a ground-floor in the annex, just off the parking area, should become available. That's what we had, and my bad knee was very thankful.

Hi Grandmere,

I've been puzzled in the past by your reference to a winding staircase. Were you at the b&b itself, on the courtyard with a deck where one takes breakfast, or at one of the other apartments that the Giaglis' manage in Honfleur? It's true I haven't seen every room at the b&b, but the couple I have seen were one flight up "normal" stairs.

Those two rooms were in different buildings around the courtyard.

Yes, the two rooms were in different buildings; ours was in what I'd call the "main building", and cousins' was next door, with an entrance around the corner on another street.

Mme. Giaglis grabbed our bags and just charged up the stairs with our luggage, so how steep, etc., probably depends upon point of view! :-)

It's true that at age 63 ("Bonjour les degats," as the French say) I can still make it to the French 6th floor (a.k.a. the 7th) with only moderate panting. It sounds like the cousins may have been lodged in the spacious room (with a kitchen!) that we had - the "blue room." The other that we saw, where I recall non-winding stairs, was in the building to the right as one reached the courtyard via the main entrance.

Thanks everyone:

Guess we will see what "over the top means" as we are booking the l'Ecrin. It is a ground floor room. No stairs, enclosed parking and ac won out. If the decor is like the ornate stuff in the pictures, that is fine by us. It is fun for a night or two, but I don't think I would want in my house.

Have a great time in Honfleur!

Thanks, we are looking forward to our trip. I will post the whole plan in a day or so. Want to be sure we have a list of all the neat things to see and do along the way. Know we will have to save some for another trip. But I might have over looked something really great.

Thanks again for all the comments.

I'll be eager to hear about l'Ecrin since we had thought about it, too.

Have a wonderful time!

Recommend Le Bouillon Normand for dinner in Honfleur!

The décor in the ground-floor rooms in the annex aren't as over-the-top as those (perhaps) in the main house--at least, ours wasn't. Our friend's featured bright red flowered wallpaper and matching bedspread, but I rather liked the effect.