Overnight in Rouen or Honfleur?
 

We'll be picking up a rental car early on a Saturday morning in May and heading out of Paris to Normandy. We need to be in Bayeux Sunday night and we plan to spend Saturday and Sunday visiting Rouen and Honfleur. I'm trying to decide whether to spend Saturday night in Rouen or Honfleur. Any thoughts?

I'd choose Honfleur b/c it is such a picturesque little fishing village; Rouen is much larger and is interesting and certainly has its fans.

Likewise. Rouen is big, bustling, and a bit difficult to navigate. In Honfleur, we like the Hôtel L'Ecrin, which has its own walled courtyard/parking lot, with a bakery just down the street.

Hi Pat; Honfleur is lovely. But what I would do is go to Giverny and visit Monets garden/house on the way to your overnight. If you are a garden person you could spend a half day there. Then go to Rouen and stay the night. With the remainder of the day you will have plenty to see. We had no trouble navigating the city. Then the next morning, go to Honfleur and spend as much time as you like. Bayeux is only an hour and a half or less away. www.giverny.org/gardens iris1745/dick

Rouen will be dead on Sunday. All the shops will be closed.

If you plan to be in Honfleur on one of their many May bank holiday weekends, it will be mobbed.

I would visit Rouen on Saturday, then drive to Honfleur early in the evening to have dinner on the port & stay overnight. Next morning visit Honfleur, but if the crowds get to be too much for you, drive around in the region a bit - there are some nice scenic drives described in the Michelin Green Guide. I don't think Honfleur is more than about a 2 hr visit - plus time sitting around the port.

Stu Dudley

Ditto. We spent the night in Rouen and even with a very nice view of Notre Dame, I am most partial to Honfleur . We toured the Medieval section of Rouen and Notre Dame in about 3hours. As Underhill mentioned, it can be difficult to navigate and we did lose quite a bit of time looking for our hotel.

Hi Pat; As Stu suggested, Honfleur is a short visit. My suggestion was, visit Giverny Saturday morning, Rouen Saturday afternoon and stay overnight. The next morning, Sunday, go to Honfleur. Stay as long as you like. Then on the way to Bayeux, if you had time, you could visit the WW2 museuem [Peace Museum]in Caan, considered one of the best in France. iris1745/dick

We have been to Honfleur three times, and most recently had reservations there for a Sunday night. Arriving in Honfleur on a Sunday is not recommended. Parking is non-existent, and restaurants are crowded.

If you want a smaller place that is still on the coast, I have mentioned Etretat on other threads here. It is only 20KM from Honfleur. Here is a link to hotels from the tourist office:

http://www.etretat.net/catalogue_hot...p?lg=fr&page=1

They have a cute 2 star place listed called the Detective Hotel where the rooms are fashioned after famous detectives-that could be fun. I definitely agree with the advice here to book ahead since it is a weekend, and to get as early a start as you can on Saturday to avoid the mass weekend traffic rush to the area.

Here is B&B in Honfleur: http://www.giaglis.com/GB_maison.htm We stayed here two years ago and really enjoyed it. If you are going to be there on May 2, a holiday weekend, I doubt that you could even find a place to stay in Honfleur this late. If it is the next weekend, then there might be availability on Saturday night. You might have better luck in Rouen since it is a larger city. I would make reservations asap. Good luck and have a great trip!

Just realized the next weekend in May is also a holiday weekend - May 8th is a holiday. So hopefully, it is later in May.

Thanks, everyone! I made a reservation in Rouen several months ago but after further research I was thinking that I really wanted to be in Honfleur and your comments confirmed that. Although a bunch of places I tried in Honfleur were already booked, I was able to get a reservation so I'm cancelling the room in Rouen.

Hi Pat; When leaving Honfleur on the way to Bayeux, you will pass a German Cemetery with 21,000 soldiers buried there. It's always interesting to stop there before visiting our cemetery. Good to show respect for these 'kids'. iris1745/dick