Honfleur
 

We will be renting a car for a day in port in Normandy. We plan to visit Honfleur. Could anyone give us some tips on the best things to do there if you only have an afternoon? Also, since we must go by car, what's parking like?

My husband and I did not have any problems with parking in Honfleur.

We had a delicious and lovely meal at Hotel L'Absinthe. If you love seafood, I recommend the seafood platter and seabass. For dessert try the pistachio dream, I am not sure of the complete name but this dessert was one of the best I had in France.

I love Honfleur, it is so lovely!

If you can time your visit to market day, it will be an additional treat. My favorite picture I took on my trip to France is Honfleur in full bloom. Enjoy your visit!

Visit, of course, the port, and possibly the marine museum and museum of old Honfleur. Be sure to visit the wood church of St. Catherine, unique because of its two naves. The area around the church is also interesting.

We had no trouble parking in Honfleur in April. There are a number of lots as you enter the downtown.

Beyond the port and customs house is a public garden that was promising, even in April. We liked the rambling walk up the hill with narrow connecting stairways, nooks and crannies and found St Catherine's unique. Our favorite moments in Honfleur were spent seated at a sunny cafe table facing the port and the row of slate clad townhouses facing the water, imagining life inside a seven storied seaside house no wider than a kingsized bed! Honfleur is a great seaside cafe town to just sit and soak in the view.

In an afternoon, definitely visit Ste. Catherine's, the great wooden church built by ship carpenters. If your schedule allows for lunch there are two good restaurants on the quays of the Old Harbor - the Vieux Honfleur and the Bisquine - and a lot of not so good restaurants where you might have mussels and french fries. Other activities depend on your interests. Just wandering the streets in the historic district is rewarding. The Eugene Boudin museum has a nice, small collection of paintings of the Seine estuary. There's interesting shopping on the rue Homme de Bois and rue Haute, and a decorator's store on Place Ste. Catherine that's great. Also art galleries galore (Francis Vendeuge on the rue Homme de Bois across the street from the Boudin Museum is one of our favorites.)