For our itinerary we kept the distances between hotels relatively short, only an hour or two. That allows us to break up the drive by spending time doing a wandering scenic drive or making a stop in an interesting town between the two towns. And during today's scenic drive we were greeted by all types of art works in the round abouts.
And our interesting town is Le Havre.
Le Havre is the second largest seaport in France and most of it was destroyed during the bombings of World War II. So, it is a modern city. We found parking at a free lot at the beach so decided this would be our starting point to explore some of the city. First stop was the beach. Another huge, pebbly beach…
with a lot of beach huts.
And this very interesting large art installation called UP#3.
Then we headed over to Saint Josephs Church. The tower on this church is absolutely huge at 351 feet tall and is shaped almost like a lighthouse.
After the fact we did a bit of research on this incredible place. It is only about 50 years old and was part of the rebuilding of the city after the war. It is basically made of concrete and glass. There are 12,768 multicolored, hand-blown, stained-glass pieces in the windows that appear in the nave and line the tower all the way to the top. It is spectacular inside the church.
From there we wandered over to the market. Lots of things were going on there. And lots of things to buy. Too bad we don't have a kitchen or we could try more of this wonderful looking French foods.
Then it was to a plaza where the Oscar Niemeyer Library was located. Niemeyer was a Brazilian Architect who designed the buildings. The complex includes Le Volcano, a volcano shaped structure.
It was across the street from another plaza that backed onto the Basin of Commerce.
In the center was the Homage Memorial that commemorated the lost lives during World War I and II.
After lunch we headed down to the harbor to see the Catena Containers, by Ganivet. A number of metal shipping containers painted bright colors and stacked into two arches. Pretty impressive.
On the way we
saw the Notre Dame Cathedral and stopped in for a quick visit.
You can always tell when you are in France…everyone is walking around with a baguette or a baguette sandwich in hand. A bunch of school children on lunch break or maybe field trip break.
A few photos from our wanderings around town.
The Le Havre Harbor.
Then it was a
long walk back to the car before heading to our next destination, Honfleur.
Honfleur is
only about 8 miles from Le Havre, basically across the harbor and up the coast
a bit. We found our reserved parking spot
and called the hotel. A couple of the
staff came down to help with our luggage.
Because of work on the hotel’s plaza we weren’t able to drive there so
are parked about 300 meters from them.
The town is
another fairyland from the Middle Ages with narrow windy streets, cobblestone
and gorgeous old buildings.
Instead of a room in the hotel we have an entire house just around the corner. And a rather authentic old house.
The first floor is a large kitchen with a water closet tucked into the corner and a huge table dominating the space. We have a number of days of leisure here so this will likely be our main living area.
Second floor is the living room.
Third floor is the bedroom and bath.
With all the stairs we decided to leave our luggage on the first floor and just take what we need up to the bedroom. The young and very petite woman who had been helping us with our bags looks decidedly relieved when she found out that she didn’t need to pull the luggage all the way up two flights of stairs.
After dealing
with some unpacking we headed out and stopped at the St. Catherine’s Church on
the plaza of our hotel. It is very
different from many of the churches we have visited. This church dates to the second half of the
15th century, making it around 600 years old. It is made primarily of wood, which is rare
in France.
It feels
ancient and beautiful.
After exploring the church, we headed out to find dinner. As with most of the coastal places we have visited, food is sometimes a problem. Neither of us like seafood and that is what dominates the menus in this area. But there is always something.
Some photos of our wandering around Honfleur. It is a delight.
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