le havre
 

i am going to be in le havre on may 6 and am looking for a tour to giverny and honiere
if anyone knows of a guide i would appreciate it

What's honiere?

You do realise it's over 130 km (80 miles) to Giverney and will take over an hour and a half to get there from le Havre?

No idea where or what honiere is though.

I suspect Honfleur, which is not far from Le Havre. I don't know of any guiding service from Le Havre. There might be a local bus service.

I'm guessing that you'll be on a cruise docking in Le Havre for Paris. If that's the case, you'll have no more than 8 hours or so and I'd no more spend them on a bus to Giverny than on a bus to Paris but would instead, get a cab from Le Havre to nearby Honfleur and spend the day in that incredibly beautiful little town.

Or book a tour on the cruise for the landing beaches. Honfleur would be the next choice. Almost anywhere but Giverney! Not that it isn't wonderful, but in this context just not that wonderful.

yes you are right i meant honfleur
but i am still looking for a tour guide

not that interested in landing beach - honfleur sounds good how is rouen

Rouen is farther from Le Havre and IMO not as interesting or beautiful as Honfleur, though it's not a bad place to explore.

You really don't need a guide in Honfleur, just a good guidebook. Everything is extremely walkable. If you did nothing but plop yourselves down at an outdoor restaurant on the wonderful basin, sit there and soak in the beauty of the place, you'd enjoy yourselves. Even without a guidebook, if you just get a taxi to drop you at the basin, walk around it, then up into the old town and tour the interesting church which was built by ship builders and is really just two inverted ship's hulls, then walk to the fishing port and along the water, you'd enjoy yourselves. But pick up a guide with a map of the town--or stop at the tourist office and get one--and walk about. It's magical.

There are also wonderful places to dine. Do a search on this forum for Honfleur restaurants and you'll find lots of recommendations. I'll post again tomorrow with some of my favorites after checking some trip logs.

You don't need a guide in Honfleur, as others have said. It is pretty self explanatory and charming.

I promised dining recommendations for Honfleur. The big time gourmet/foodie place is SaQuaNa, but it's only open for lunch on Sat. and Sun (I'm still working on the assumption that you'll be there on a day trip from a cruise ship--correct me if I'm wrong) Le Breard, my favorite, is open for lunch on Fri. through Monday. Both of these are off the basin so they don't have the beautiful water views but they do have good food. I'd say to give Entre Terre et Mer and La Grenouille a pass. We had poor service at the former and the latter has declined over the years IMO. Otherwise, just walk around the basin, read the menus, look over the places and pick what looks best to you. I suggest you consider one of the places on the less hectic side, not only for less crowded seating but also so you can enjoy the view of the fantastic slate covered buildings and their reflections in the basin. Nowhere else like it.

Agree that you don't need a guide for Honfleur. It's all very self-explanatory, from the plaque showing where Samuel de Champlain sailed to found Québec in 1608 to the Musée Eugène Boudin to the oldest wooden church in Europe, Ste-Cathérine. There's a Saturday market and a Sunday flea market, and the town is easily explored on foot. Just have a decent guidebook. I can't imagine what a guide would bring to the table.