Kavey's Normandy Trip Report/ Diary May 2001
 

NB Please remove the XX from above email address to use it. <BR> <BR>5-day Trip to Normandy, France - 25th to 29th May 2001 <BR>Kavey and Pete <BR>Ruth and John <BR> <BR>The report will be in parts, and I have only written the first day up so far. It's quite long... <BR> <BR>NB When writing down the french names of dishes we ate, I didnt copy them directly from menus so have very likely made errors of memory and spelling. Should be close enough to be useful though. <BR> <BR> <BR>25th May <BR>An early start to get to the coast in time for our 10.06 crossing on le Shuttle (the Eurotunnel service for passengers in vehicules). We were so ahead of time that we stopped for breakfast at a preceding service station only to linger so long we had to make a bit of a dash to check in. <BR> <BR>Had great fun convincing John we were travelling on the ferry (he was soooo wanting to try the Shuttle) and worryingly he was so engrossed in his book that we went right through check in and were queuing to board when he finally noticed! <BR> <BR>Shuttle trip, as usual, running spot on time, quick, no nonsense loading and off loading, smooth journey, 35 min crossing. <BR> <BR>Arrive in Coquelles, near Calais, straight off the shuttle onto the A16 motorway, heading to Montreuil sur Mer where we had decided to stop for lunch. (Those who havent been to this pretty and historical little town in the Pas de Calais area should note that despite it's name it is quite some distance from the sea, nearest coastal town is Le Touquet). We drove into the town, up a winding road which gave us wonderful views of the ancient town walls, those hulking brick ramparts that you can walk around. We drove under a bridge in one wall to enter the town, and with most of us in desperate need for a toilet stop, parked in the first little square we found, and immediately chose to dine in a nearby restaurant with a huge restaurant sign we could see from a distance. <BR>

Le Relais du Roy <BR>58 Rue Pierre- Ledent <BR>Tel 03 21 81 53 44 <BR>Montreuil sur Mer <BR>The restaurant was a great choice, and I would certainly recommend it. We ate from a set menu priced at 78 Francs per person for 2 courses plus drinks. Ruth and John both had the wonderfully tender, fall-off-the-bone Jarret de Porc pot au feu d'epices served with a pleasing variety of vegetables. Pot au feu is a dish made with your own choice of meat, vegetables and spices/ herbs, cooked for as long as possible in a broth base. The longer it is cooked the softer and better it becomes. This version had unusual and delicious spices which gave it a very gently Asian feel. I had the Confit de Cuisse de Canard, a lovely piece of duck's leg, also very soft and tender, and served with a lovely mix of veg. Pete had L'Onglet (steak) with a red wine (Medoc) reduction sauce, very tender, very flavoursome. <BR>We really enjoyed the desserts. John and I went for the dessert du jour, a warm apricot and almond tart, Ruth enjoyed a warm waffle (gauffre) with a wonderful caramel butterscotch sauce, and asked for the cinammon icecream to be replaced with vanilla, which was a lovely creamy one with lots of little vanilla seeds. Pete had chocolate mousse. With a couple of beers and drinks the bill came to under 400Francs. <BR> <BR>We left the restaurant, passing through the main square of the town on the way out, and headed for Yvetot, but decided to avoid motorways and take smaller roads. Motorways are not at all unpleasant in France though, and are uncrowded and scenic. <BR> <BR>We arrived at our Auberge just outside Yvetot at about 5.30 that afternoon. Wow! <BR> <BR>Auberge du Val au Cesne <BR>Yvetot <BR>This auberge is absolutely delightful and we loved it. It comprises two typically Norman timbered buildings, the main one houses a very popular restaurant, and the hotel reception, as well as owners quarters. The other smaller building across the other side of the garden houses the 5 rooms available. The garden itself is wonderful, full of a riot of colour and flower and a myriad of birds and poultry in various coups, birdcages and aviaries. It is strewn with little gnomes and little nooks and crannies and has several garden tables and chairs for guests. The rooms themselves are spacious and charming and I believe all have a different colour scheme. The beds are a little soft for my taste, and the bathroom very plain, with a weak shower, without a hook to hand the head, but all very clean and perfectly serviceable. They keys are quite quirky, on a chain attached to a giant wooden duck, with a TV remote control glued onto it! I would request an upstairs room (slightly larger and sloping sides make it even more charming) like the one Ruth and John were in (35) though ours, on the ground floor (33) was very pretty too. Breakfast was a revelation, served either in your room or in the garden, we ate together in the garden. Served from reasonably early all the way through to 11am. It consisted of generous helpings of coffee, tea or hot chocolate, fresh pastries, cake and toast, with good local butter and the most delicious home made marmalade and jam, also home made plain set yoghurt, and freshly squeezed juice. It was a healthy serving and we really really enjoyed it. <BR>The rooms were an incredibly reasonable price of about 550F per room per night including breakfast. <BR>

Shortly after arriving my French friend Agnes, and her husband Sylvain arrived at the auberge. Agnes was my partner for our school exchange programme, about 12 years ago, and I went to their wedding in 99 before we headed down to the Loire for a week. <BR> <BR>We enjoyed drinks in the garden for a couple of hours before heading to a local restaurant which Agnes had chosen from the Guide du Routard and booked ahead for the 6 of us. <BR> <BR>Le Vieux Normand <BR>Allouville-Bellefosse <BR>Tel 02 35 96 00 00 <BR>The town of Allouville-Bellefosse contains a wonderful curiosity which is located directly opposite the restaurant, an ancient oak, of vast girth, into which a chapel has been built, with winding staircase around the trunk. It looks just like a miniature version of the Robinson Crusoe/ Swiss Family Robinson tree at Disney, but this one is genuine, ancient and charming. I didnt get a photo as local teenagers were milling around when we arrived and it was too dark when we left. <BR>To the restaurant, we were all offered a free aperitif (pre dinner drink) on arrival on display of the Guide du Routard before spending an agonising time trying to narrow down our choice from a series of fixed price menus. <BR>We all ordered from the 75 Franc set menu which included 4 courses!!! <BR>Two of us started with the Tourteau Mayonnaise, which is a whole, cooked, crab, served cold, with mayonnaise in a side bowl. We cracked and picked our way through this wonderful fresh seafood. Another started with Feuillete de Saumon, a succulent pieces of salmon, enclosed in puff pastry with a flavoursome tomatoe sauce, and three started with great huge slabs of delicious Terrine de Campagne, a coursecut set pate. For mains, we tried between us only two choices, the Bavette au Sauce Poivre (Pepper Steak) and the Escalope de Volaille Normande, a chicken escalope with a creamy cidre/ calvados sauce, both dishes served with fries. This was followed by the cheese course, the cheese board was left on the table for us to each choose and help ourselved to a variety of local cheeses. We finished with Tarte Citron, Tarte Framboise, Tarte Myrtle (all very very delicious). Total bill for 6 people including only a few drinks and 1.5 bottles wine, was just under 535F. <BR> <BR>Returned to our auberge for the night. <BR> <BR>More later on rest of trip.

Thank you Kavey! And we want moooooooooooore. <BR> <BR>If you want any pictures posted to the "fodorite" page email the files to me as attachments at the above address!

Sally, will send pics once developed, THANKS! <BR> <BR> <BR>26th May <BR> <BR>After breakfast we made a brief stop at the local Leclerc supermarket, just at the top of the D5 on which our auberge sits, where it enters Yvtetot. Weather was so much hotter than we had expected (all forecasts predicted 22 degrees max each day, with partial cloud, but instead it was at least high 20s every day, mostly full sun). We thought we had better make sure we drank enough water... Did try and wonder around a bit but being a Saturday it was a little crowded... <BR> <BR>We headed first off for Rouen, which is beautiful. There was plenty of parking, though we had a struggle getting into it... We chose the digns to the parking Place St Marc, and once we had turned off onto the side road, lost signs to it and ended up in a square where a market was being held. On the 3rd trip round this large block, we finally noticed that the parking sign mentioned a height restriction which suggested to me that the parking may be under the square, and that we had missed further signs to the car park entrance as they were all painted on the road surface and none on sign posts!!! <BR>We started off spending a little time wondering through the market, which encompassed a flea market area, flowers, fruits, clothes (old and new) and all sorts of other things. I am a sucker for flea markets, and picked up 2 more eggcups for my collections. <BR> <BR>We headed off for the cathedral spires we could see and absolutely loved the buildings in this old part of Rouen. Rows of ancient timbered houses, with the timbers and walls painted in different colours, higgledy piggledy, nothing was a straight line. John and I were in photo heaven and went through lots of film. After a coffee stop we continued to enjoy walking round before stopping for lunch at La Voute Musicale, a creperie restaurant. The meal was actually very nice, despite what it lead to... We each had a main meal crepe, and between us had a plain dessert crepe, a more substantial dessert crepe and an icecream dessert. We also got through some lovely local cidre. Total bill was just over 300F and despite getting ill later, which was very clearly from my main course crepe, I would recommend this creperie, as I think I was just unlucky this day. None of the others were remotely ill... perhaps just one ingredient in my crepe was off colour that day. Anyway, at the time itself, we all enjoyed the meal.

After lunch we left Rouen for Les Andelys and Chateau Gaillard, I would not miss this location. This stunning site is a short climb up from the car park to the chateau on the hill. (The car park itself is a little scarey to get to, you need to follow signs, and when you get to a car park for coaches ("cars" in french) and caravans you will see a sign for a road which is forbidden to coaches and caravans for further parking, follow this for car parking space. The ruins are beautiful and interesting to read about from a guidebook, and the views from the ruins over the smaller Andelys town and the river are breathtaking, the sun was shining, people were smiling, the views were great. It was wonderful. <BR> <BR>After this we headed for Lyons La Foret. By this time I had had a headache for a while and was feeling a little sick, but thought it might be the sun. This village is certainly very pretty, and if you are going to spend the time and see the abbey and sites here it might be worth it, but for our short coffee stop, it was too much of a detour. <BR> <BR>We headed for home mid afternoon, during which journey I had to unfortunately rely on my husbands very good driving and fast reflexes to stop at the roadside at my sudden requests. I am embarassed to say that a number of drivers will therefore have seen me at my worst, on all fours on the grassy verge, heaving the remains of the main crepe into the grass. Without going into detail there were certain things which made me very certain it was the main course crepe which was giving me this problem. When we finally arrived back at our auberge (after getting lost skirting round Rouen, towards Duclair, which takes you onto the D5 road towards Yvetot and the auberege - of course I was no longer navigating at this stage just breathing and trying to be calm) I went and lay down. <BR> <BR>Dinner tonight was the HB pre booked meal in the auberge restaurant, I had read great reviews of this in many places so was really looking forward to it. At 9pm I did get up and head to the restaurant, but when they placed the bread opn the table I realised I would have to miss the meal and rushed back to the room. The auberge offers a no choice meal for 150 F per person and I was told it was very very good, superb even. First of all they ate some amuse bouches little sausage roll type things, the starter was a rich terrine de canard, followed by a main of a steak in perigord (foie gras) sauce, which they all proclaimed fantasic, dessert was a red fruit melba. <BR> <BR>So ended the night... <BR>

27th May <BR>Pete's 30th Bday. <BR> <BR>We checked out of our auberge today. A down point was that I was charged for the meal I didnt eat. We had booked HB for one night thinking it would be better value than just booking a table at the restaurant when we arrived. Infact we found the HB charge was exactly 300F per room per night, and the normal restaurant price for anyone who came in and booked a table was 150F per person so no saving. Because we had prebooked they charged me even though I didnt have the meal, I literally came in, sat down for a moment, then left, explaining I was ill and couldnt eat so it wasnt a case of having ordered and then left. I would recommend if you stay here and want to eat in the restaurant, book BB only and reserve a table at the restaurant that morning, as all you have done this way is reserve a table, I cant see how they would charge you if you decide not to eat there for whatever reason. There seems to be no advantage to booking HB at all. <BR> <BR>We headed for a series of towns which I had picked from guidebooks, thinking to spend the morning and lunch tasting cidre and cheese before going to Honfleur. We arrived first at Vimoutiers, which we reached at lunch time. There was little here, except a road blocked off, with a couple race cars parked in it, and lots of locals sitting around eating picnics at the roadside and in the car park. All gave us very unfriendly looks as we drove around and this was the only time we encountered this in our trip. We drove around looking for a restaurant but could find nothing open and left for the next town. The only thing of interest was a fantastic cast iron statue of a bull cow in the town square. We headed next to Livarot, where we got out and were also unable to find anywhere to eat other than one restaurant serving 3 or 4 course meals. All the brasseries which advertised snacks or sandwiches werent making them when we asked. We moved on to St Pierre sur Dives and found same thing, it was only 2pm but the one restaurant, a pizzeria, we found open, said they had finished for the day. At this point, pretty hungry, disappointed and a little ticked off we decided to head for Honfleur, which would be a very late lunch but at least it would hopefully be friendly and open. On the way we passed through Crevecoeur en Auge which had an open looking restaurant, I hopped out, they were very busy but kindly agreed to lay out their last table for us. <BR> <BR>The restaurant was called the Auberge du Cheval Blanc (a coincidence considering where we were headed in Honfleur) and was very nice. Tel 02 31 63 03 28. Two of us enjoyed the Escalope de Dinde Normande (turkey), Pete had a very delicious and light fluffy omelette, all served with fries, Ruth had a generous and delicious warm chevre salad (goats cheese). Bill was about 300F total. <BR>

NB We did later find that there is a marked cidre route slightly further north, nearer to Honfleur, but by this time we were ready to get to Honfleur itself. Next time I will def look to drive this route and visit some local farms for cheese and cidre. <BR> <BR>After the late lunch we arrived in Honfleur at about 4.30 when it was very crowded with weekend visitors. We found the hotel easily but unable to stop infront, we had to park in a pay and display round the corner, unload from there, before Pete put the car into the space we had booked through them a little distance away. I would strongly advise thinking about parking before staying in Honfleur. Pay and display would not be cheap over the whole stay. <BR> <BR>The Hotel Le Cheval Blanc has a wonderful location looking out on the outer harbour. It is not directly looking out over the internal basin harbour which is featured in the pictures but is only yards away from that and you can see it from the windows at an angle. Perfect location. Rooms were quite small and very ordinary, considering I booked deluxe, but they were clean, and comfortable and had a harbour view. Ruth and John's room was smaller, and newly furnished and decorated, making it a little more attractive, ours was larger, being on the far corner, with lookouts in two directions which was a bonus, but with old, dated and tacky wallpaper, linens and furniture. Good size bathroom though plain, but with nice strong shower with hook attachment so can shower standing up. No A/C but swung the windows open. Both rooms were fine but nothing to rave about, however I would definitely stay here again for the location, view, comfort and friendliness. Friendly and helpful reception staff. Also the hotel offered a plastic card which gave discounts on local attractions, we used it once each for a discount on the boat trip. It also gave discounts on the horse and buggy rides around twon, local museums and purchases from local farm shops. <BR> <BR>Honfleur is even more beautiful than the guidebook descriptions and photos lead me to believe. A harbour town, where a few real fishing boats are still based, it is now in main part a visitor attraction. Many yacht and boat owners are moored in the internal harbour basin. This little square harbour is closed off by a road bridge which you will see being opened for boat traffic a few times a day. It is around three sides of this little harbour that the tall, slim buildings featured in guidebook photos sit, hugging each other like old friends who need each other's support to stay standing, they are individual and different and yet form a pleasing whole. Some are criss crossed by traditional Normandy timber beams, others reflect the sunlight in a myriad directions from their slate and wooden tile coats. Most of these house restaurants, cafes and a few little shops on the ground floors, with colourfully decorated tables spilling outside into the sun. On the fourth side is the road bridge and an attractive old brick and wooden building. From all sides of this basin are a series of little streets and allies, any path chosen leads to further surprises, including an old wooden cathedral like church, with a double arched roof, where it was doubled in size some time in its past. Lots of little shops selling local produce sit side by side with clothes stores, pharmacies, restaurants and cafes. Though Honfleur is clearly a tourist mecca, this doesnt detract from its sheer prettiness and strolling around is a true pleasure. Walking round the corner from our hotel on the Quai des Passagers, towards the main lock out towards the sea and estuary (and Pont de Normandie) there is also a little green park full of flowers and benches. <BR>

<BR>After a short rest at the hotel we went for a lovely walk all around Honfleur looking for a place to eat dinner. As John and I eat seafood and everything else we had no difficulties in eating anywhere amongst the hundreds of restaurants, but Pete and Ruth dont eat seafood so as it was Pete's bday we suggested he choose, thus ensuring a restaurant suitable to all. Unfortunately both he and Ruth are not very decisive in this regard, and a lot of restaurants had only one non seafood (if that) choice per course on their set menus. Many had a perfect main meal but no non seafood starter and so on. We meandered around and around, John and I disappeared for a while into a little photographic expo which was running in a local hall, and was free to enter. Some wonderful photos which we really enjoyed. We came out to find our two other halves no closer to choosing a restaurant! <BR> <BR>We eventually settled on XXname to be provided later!!!!!!!XX (though we did have a bit of a laugh outside, as it had taken us so long to decide, and then having finally made a decision we noticed this place had plastic chairs - earlier we had discovered that both couples had often operated on this little rule of tending to avoid restaurants with plastic chairs!!) Anyway in we went and had a wonderful meal. The staff were particularly friendly, witty and helpful (Pete even got a candle in his dessert, as I whispered a request to the waiter in french on the way back from the loo) and the food was absolutely delicious. Only Pete ate off a fixed menu, the rest of us ordered a la carte, but the fixed menus were very very god and varied, and the meal would have been less expensive overall had we all eaten from these menus. Having said that it was still very reasonable. <BR> <BR>As I had chosen what seemed like it might be a huge main meal, I settled for a plain green salad to start, which, given the french skill for dressing, was lovely. Pete had a delicious warm camembert salad with chunks of warm cheese on bread in a green salad, it was even better than it sounds. John had a fish soup, served the typical way, with a little pot of fish paste (to make it even more fishy if desired) and a little pot of grated cheese. Ruth had a wonderful starter, described as camembert and chevre in filo pastry with cumin, paprika and something else. We couldnt figure out the filo pastry bit but it was a fabulous terrine made of the two cheeses with spices added in and a really great sauce over the top. For main meals I had the Royal Seafood Couscous, which was a regular size portion (thankfully) and was great. Around a pile of couscous (with raisins and pinenuts) was a chickpea and mussel curry (North African style), on top of these were 4 different types of fish, some regular shrimps (what you call prawns in US), the ones you peel and eat, a large langoustine, and a little deepfried filo samosa with crab meat inside. Pete and Ruth both had chicken with cider which came in a deep cast iron dish and had a really rich flavoured sauce, tender meat and soft vegetables. John went for the special which was out of this world, goujonettes of sole with a minted bearnaise sauce. For desserts, 3 of us had rasberry creme brulee and Pete went for Ile Flottante (Floating Island, pieces of very soft meringue, uncooked I think, floating on thin custard). Unfortunately it was very very liberally sprinkled in nuts so I donated most of my Creme Brulee to him instead and shared John's creme brulee. After all it was Pete's birthday. We also had some good wine and a few drinks and the bill came to 930F, we rounded it to 1000F. This would have been less had we stuck to their menus which included many of the dishes we chose. <BR> <BR>After the meal, we strolled a little more, I took some photos of the red light of a little light house (in a somewhat redundant position inside the harbour) reflecting into the water and we retired to bed. <BR>

28th May <BR> <BR>We had planned to visit Mont St Michel today but all in total agreement, all in love with Honfleur, all not keen on sitting in the car on such a hot day (even though my car is huge and has a/c), and keen to have an easy day, we all elected to skip it for the next trip and stay in Honfleur. <BR> <BR>After breakfast we had another walk around Honfleur before taking the 50 minute boat trip just out of Honfleur to see the Pont de Normandie, the very modern and impressive bridge linking Honfleur to le Havre. We chose the company directly outside the Cheval Blanc hotel and rode on a boat called l'Alphee. The trip normally costs 40F each but we each obtained a 5F discount with the hotel cards. You should be aware that a good 20 mins out of the 50 is taken with leaving and returing into Honfleur via the large lock. This is just like a canal lock, but bigger, and is used to keep the water level within the harbour constant despite the tides. Though you dont travel very far, the bridge is lovely (though you can see a lot of it from Honfleur anyway) and getting out over the water in the sun was great. <BR> <BR>After the boat trip we strolled some more before stopping for lunch at Cote Port, a water side restaurant looking out into the internal basin harbour full of yachts. I enjoyed Mussels in a Roquefort sauce, plump and fresh. I had fries on the side to dip into the sauce. The others all had galettes - savoury filled crepes. (Infact where I mentioned crepes in Rouen, the main meal ones were infact galettes, same difference, darker flour). We finished with 2 crepe suzettes, tasty but with a kind of marmaladey orange not fresh, and very stingy on the grand marnier. Ruth had a crepe just with butter, very nice, and Pete had his long time favourite, coupe colonel, a scoop of lemon sorbet floating in a glass of cold vodka. Total 500F. <BR>

After lunch, Pete bought 2 leather belts at a shop on the main internal harbour basin, Ruth bought a lovely summer hat next door, very expensive but she is a real fair red head, it was hotter than we had anticipated and we were all the worse for wear with the heat. Then siesta till 7pm and back out for dinner... Mine and John's turn to choose, we headed straight back to one of the almost-ate-ats from the previous evening, which we knew had selections for all of us. We had a wonderful meal. <BR> <BR>Les Flots, 02 34 89 40 80. <BR>We had a table just inside but with huge sash windows open onto the street it was as good as being outside without the traffic and too much breeze... <BR>I got a little confused by the staff until I realised two must be brothers, I asked and they laughed and said yes! <BR>The Flot had a great choice on its set menus. Ruth chose from the Menu Flot, the rest of us from the Menu Terroir, slightly more. She chose Crudites (translates as raw veg, was a salad with leaves, grated carrot, sweetcorn, beetroot etc with a nice salad dressing). Then Turkey Normande, then one cheese from a choice of 3, then creme caramel. <BR>Pete and I chose smoked ham which they didnt have so I had the assiette de fruits de mer, and negotiated a warm camembert salad for Pete, and John went for another fish soup. For mains we had le duo de poissons, (2 types of fish), La Friture (calamari and whitebait, fried in batter) and bavette a l'echalote (steak in shallots sauce). We finished with 2 more creme caramels and a chocolate mousse. The creme caramels were home made, as they often are in french restaurants and particularly nice. The other 3 ordered coffee which came with a little meringue, but when I expressed mock sadness the waiter brought me an extra one... small, sweet and just slightly gooey in the centre - perfect. With wine the meal was only 750F for 4 of us. <BR> <BR>We ended the evening with another stroll, more photos and then to bed... <BR> <BR>

29th May <BR> <BR>We checked out after breakfast (nice late check out of 12 noon, though we were out by 10.30) and left Honfleur about 11. We headed up the motorway, doing exceedingly well at some old Daily Telegraph crosswords John had loaded onto his palm pilot and we had been working on over the weekend, and arrived in Montreuil for lunch. <BR> <BR>We should have returned to the same place as before, but instead hit the main square where one nice place was closed and another full and we settled on a local brasserie. Decent enough food but nothing special. Ruth and John both had a dish called Welsh, which I asked about in french enough to take it as a form of cheese on toast, which is often called Welsh Rarebit but when it came it was a bowl like dish, with bread and ham, completely covered till invisible in cheese sauce! I had Andouilette with mustard sauce (chitterling sausage) - nice but i have had better. Cant recall desserts. <BR> <BR>Next stop was Auchan, the big supermarket just outside Boulogne where Pete and I always do our french shopping. Amongst our purchases were 12 bottles cidre doux, 30 bottles good red wine, 5 bottles fruit juice (pear and apricot) and some olive oil, few bottles of white wine for a friend, lots of chocolate and sweets (for work) and some of Pete's fave biscuits! And thats just me and pete.... our boot was FULL let me tell you. We headed to le Shuttle where we checked in and were directed straight onto a waiting train, 2 ahead of the one we had booked. As usual arrived in UK 25 mins before we lef France (changed clocks) and headed home... On getting home, headed out for a Thai restaurant before getting straight onto Fodors for my fix.... <BR> <BR>Any questions please ask.... !!!!!! <BR> <BR>Kavey

I know I have posted in somewhat anal retentive detail and it must seem all we did was eat (which isnt too far off the truth) but this is partly because the notes I jotted were on hotel and meals which people often ask about... <BR> <BR>I have tried to include impressions of places too but please ask me for further info and I will be happy to help... <BR> <BR>Kavey

Kavey, <BR>Although you may think you provided too many details, this was an excellent summary. (My aunt & uncle took a similar trip a few years back & I didn't get half as much info from them, although their experiences were quite enjoyable.) Glad you're back, hope no heaving has occured since your return & will you be posting pics on a site? <BR>Thanks for the info, <BR>Kathy

Just had to reiterate... thanks for the fantasticly detailed and well written report... you inspire me! And you made a boring day come alive. Where to next?

Kavey, great report. Sounds like you had a great trip. You guys should meet up with us at Octoberfest on Sept 27th. <BR>Regards <BR>Art <BR>

Hi Kav <BR> <BR>We were in Honfleur for only one night last June and your post made me feel as if I had returned. We also stayed at Le Cheval Blanc and had the same feeling as you--we'd return for the location, but only if we had a view of the harbor again. You ate much better than we did, and I will save your post so we can use your dining recommendations when we return some day (and we will). <BR> <BR>One of the patisseries in Honfleur had a sign in the window that said "Welcome to our Liberators." It brought tears to my eyes more than 50 years after the war. <BR> <BR>Isn't that bridge awesome? <BR> <BR>When are you coming to SF? Maybe we can get some Fodorites together while you're here, with or without pins :-)

Firstly, I sent an email to the hotel in Honfleur, describing the exact location of the restaurant and the colour scheme and so on and asking if they could send me the name. <BR> <BR>They kindly replied today, it is Le Bistro du Port, next to L'Absinthe. This is where we had the fabulous Royal Seafood Couscous and the Goujonettes de Soles. <BR> <BR>Kathy, glad the details are useful, its the kind of thing I always want to know and my friends never note down which is why I took notes... <BR> <BR>Thyra, thankyou... <BR> <BR>Art, I have the date noted, but as I am away for 2 weeks in June and another in July I am trying to save all remaining leave days for February March time so I can have a week then, however we have a friend in Munich who I promised to visit this year, so if thats where you are staying maybe we could do it but not on a weekday... It's also my day on the 30th Sept so would be quite nice... <BR> <BR>Betsy, glad I sparked off some good memories... <BR> <BR>I am in SF on 21st July for 2 nights, then in Sonoma for 3 nights then back in SF for 2 nights. <BR> <BR>I am already trying to work a meeting with Sharon (another Fodorite who loves in SF, and who I met for dinner when she came to London recently with her husband) so perhaps we could make this a bigger meeting, maybe in one of SF's chinese restaurants, they are always better with big groups!!! <BR> <BR>Please let me know if you have any more questions or comments... <BR> <BR>Lots of love <BR> <BR>Kavey

Hi Kavey <BR> <BR>We've never had a Fodorite gathering in the SF area to my knowledge. I could get a new thread going on the board if you are up for possibly meeting a bunch of us out here. There's a great dim sum restaurant in SF named Yank Sing, which I would recommend. It's only open through the lunch hour though, not at night. What do you think?

Betsy, would love it... will have to work on a date with you in advance though as our schedule is so tight but even if I can only meet a few of you I would be really pleased... <BR> <BR>No Normandy questions from anyone??!!!