December 3, 2005

Thanksgiving - Part 2: Honfleur & Giverny

The Boats of Honfleur

   I have been hearing from dear friends and family for some years about the charming fishing village of Honfleur, and so I wanted to include it in the itinerary for this trip.

If you drive along the coast from the west - along the beaches where the British and the Canadians landed - you end up going through the resort towns of Trouville and Deauville. You can see the Parisien influence in the architecture and in the traffic! But not bad, and not too hard to navigate.  I think that we are finally getting the hand of french road navigation, and how you are likely to get routed through a town or village. We still occasionally get thrown by the fact that the signs point to the road you want to take -- not necessarily the direction that you want to go. (E.g. a road sign may look like it's pointing left, when it's actually pointing to a road straight in front of you....hmmm, does that make sense?? I guess I need a picture.)

Honfleur was a very pleasant place to spend a relaxing day -- nice little shops and (perhaps too many) restaurants. We drank Pommeau (an apple cider and calvados aperatif, slightly sweet), and, of course, Calvados, and ate wonderful moules (mussels).

At lunch time we watched the fishing boats return to the harbor the harbor they had left before dawn. They were unloading Coquille St. Jacques (scallops) and fresh, live, tiny shrimp.

« Click the pic to see some really fresh shrimp (and hear some Norman French)

At one place - I think it was La Pommerie in Bayeux- Dave got a whole little dish of an even smaller version of these little critters (NOT live) . There was basically no choice but to eat them, legs and all (head was optional, according to the waitress). Nice and crunchy. Not at all bad with home made mayonnaise - but then what isn't??

At Honfleur, we took one more trip to the Renault dealer, this time to get our tires balanced. We had been feeling a little shimmy at about 130 km or so (which happens to be the speed limit on the autoroute) and decided we might as well take care of it. Once again, the folks at the Renault dealership were quite curteous and prompt and it only took about 15 minutes and cost 15 euro.

French Lesson for the day:

Balance = Equilibre

Tire = Pneu (Pronouce the "p"!)

How much to I owe you? = Comment je vous dois?

The charcuteries here near the coast (I think that they are called something else ) are full of lovely little seafood dishes. The picture above shows a terrine du lotte (monkfish) and a terrine du coquille (scallops) - but look at the artful toppings preserved in aspic! (You might note that the prices aren't exactly small - close to $40.00 for the monkfish). Nevertheless, it made me wish I could throw a party. You don't see things like this down in Carcassonne or (to my knowledge) the rest of the south.

Unfortunately, it was a little too cold to picnic by the harbor, so we took refuge in "L'Ancorage" - yet another friendly brasserie - for our lunch.

Honfleur has an interesting wooden church in the main square. Evidently the stone church was destroyed in the Hundred Year's War in the 15th century and the local shipbuilders replaced it in their own manner. It has a seperate wooden belltower....

Play the video to hear the noon bells

In the picture to the left you can see part of the lovely Maison de Léa.

The pianist Eric Satie, and the artist Eugène Boudin were born here. There is a Boudin Art Museum that includes works by Monet (who came here to paint with Boudin) and the Satie Museum is supposed to be very avant garde. There is also a small maritime museum. However, being off season, all the museums were closed (except for the Boudin which was only open from 2-5 in the afternoon).  As Dave says, "It's always good to leave your hat somewhere you like", meaning its not so bad to have a reason to go back somewhere that you like anyway.

Two Turkeys at Giverny

   We drove from Honfleur to Giverny through the lovely rolling farmland of Normandy.  Dave and I had stayed near here (in Rolleboise) in 2000 and had visited the Monet's house and gardens then.  Vernon felt quite familiar to us, and we had no trouble finding our way over the bridge to Giverny.

We arrived at our hotel (more of an Inn) around 2:00. We went and rang the bell, but apparently no one -except the cats- was home. So we sat in the car, drinking our good Normandy cider and eating what was left of our bread and cheese hoping someone might eventually show up. After, oh, about an hour, we decided to mosey down the road, just to see what our other options might be.

Right as we drove by the gates to Monet's garden (locked up tight for the season) we saw two women walk by carrying various bouquets of fall foliage. As we drove past, one of them started waving -- and Dave said, "That's got to be Starr!". And, sure enough, t'was Starr and her dear friend Alexandra who had just arrived from Berkeley, CA., that morning.  Starr is the person (now friend!) who rented us her lovely little apartment in the Marais in Paris last spring.  We had talked and emailed, but had never actualy met.

Well, they jumped in the back, and we turned around and drove less than 1/2 a kilometer beyond our little hotel to the gorgeous house you see on the left.  Starr helped the current owner of this house (who came here to visit her grandmother as a child) with a 3 year long renovation, and was staying here for a month or two.

Dave and I were made to feel instantly at home, and were put to work (such slavery!) cracking nuts and cutting vegetables for the Thanksgiving feast. Starr had gathered a tribe of friends and family from the U.S. and France to share the holiday.  We instantly felt at home with Starr, Alexandra, Elisabeth (une vraie parisienne!), and John.

John is the brother of Starr's pilot husband, Steve, and he brought 2 whole turkeys with him on the plane from Atlanta.  Although you see turkey breast in the stores here regularly, evidently a whole turkey can be hard to come by.  

That is Elisabeth on the right, making sure that John is opening the right bottle! (This was Elisabeth's first Thanksgiving - she liked the pumpkin pie, but wasn't sold on the cranberry sauce)

Around five or so, we called and found signs of life at our hotel so we went to settle in, walking back to Starr's for a really lovely dinner of grilled trout and fennel with a 'l'Oiselle' (sorrel) sauce. You know, those Americans, they really do know how to cook!

Starr and David above; Elisabeth, David, Alexandra, Starr and Louisa to the right.

The colors in the Library exactly match the colors of the turning leaves bordering the window.

After dinner we returned up the stairs and down the winding corridor in our hotel (pas de p'tit dejeuner, pas de café, said Madame Isabel - no breakfast no coffee - kitchen and restaurant closed). But the room was big and warm, and the hotel had the great advantage of 1) being open, and 2) beinging very close to Starr's.

The next morning we zipped into Vernon for a quick look, and then back to Starr's at noon. Starr said that the dinner needed to be on the table by 1:00, because her husband Steve, a pilot for FedEx and his co-pilot, who were "on call" could only be there from about 10:00 until 3:00! when they had to drive the hour back to de Gaulle.

I somehow managed to come away without any pictures of Steve...so if one of the other official photographers wants to share...

Sitting to Dave's left in the photo to the right are Stuart, a native Virginian who has lived in France for over 20 years, and a dear friend of Starr's, and Alain Arias-Misson, who came with his partner Karen.  Alain and Karen are both artists (words, things, textiles), and Stuart, I would say, is an artist at life.  Also present, but not pictured, was Stuart's golden lab, Piggy, who spent a good deal of Thanksgiving dinner with her head on my knee.  Piggy was once banned from the house for bad (but natural) behaviour having to do with another pet, that I am not allowed to divulge, but having done her penance is now welcomed back. (I find one of the problems with writing this blog is how to balance maintaining a certain amount of privacy without letting it become entirely boring).

We stayed late into the evening, drinking champagne and chatting and learning about these very interesting people and dogs whom we hope to meet again.

The next morning we woke to a light dusting of snow on the ground (and everything else, of course). Very early for the year we are told. We scraped it off our windshield, and started on our way west to Nantes, and our next Thanksgiving.

Travel Data:

Hotel in Honfleur:

Cheval Blanc

2 quai des Passagers -14600 Honfleur - France
tél: (33) 2 31 81 65 00 - fax: (33) 2 31 89 52 80 E-mail: lecheval.blanc@wanadoo.fr

Very friendly staff, difficult parking, lift. Our room, on the third floor, was nice enough - new mattresses*!, and the other people we met in the salle a manger (for petit dejeuner, included in the price) were nice too... Our room was about 105 euro per night, but we had to spend and extra 10 per day to park our car several streets away in an little enclosed garage. To load and unload the car, we had to pull the car up onto the sidewalk (common practice here) to avoid entirely blocking the street. But the french are very patient with double parkig and that sort of thing, because everyone has to do it from time to time.

All in all we were happy, but next time I might take a look at the Maison Lea on the main square, just because it looks so charming! (it's only about 2 minutes away from the Cheval Blanc, but it doesn't have the harbor view).

Restaurants in Honfleur:

L'Ancrage, 12 Rue Montpensier

We felt very at home here at this nice little brasserie with a harbor view. Went there twice, (three times if you count an afternoon aperatif), and were always greeted warmly. Had wonderful moules (mussels) and coquille St. Jacques (scallops). Very popular with the locals for lunch.

Hotel in Giverny:

La Musardière
Rue Claude Monet
27620 GIVERNY
France

Very close (walking distance) to Monet's garden, but Giverny itself (though a lovely collection of houses) isn't really even a village - no boulangerie!! The restuaurant closes at the end of October. Our room (second floor of the narrow part of the buidling) was plenty roomy - even though the "king" bed was made by pushing two twins together - "Mind the gap!"

 

 

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