Auberge de la Claire

Yellow straw and blue sky

by Muya

During our trip through Picardy and Normandy, we often came across those beautiful fields of straw bundles. I loved that yellow colour that stands out against the blue sky… Even though we saw the same landscape almost all the way, it was never boring to look at it. There was something peaceful and relaxing in it…

See my travelogue for more…we really couldn’t resist a how-to-climb-a-bundle series of pictures…

GO TO JAIL.......

by BerniShand

On the rue de la prison is the museum of popular art of Normandie, it is small but really interesting with lots of varied displays and room settings
In the courtyard there is the old jail, unfortunately leaving husbands in there while you hit the shops is not allowed

Clocher Ste-Catherine

by sue_stone

The Clocher Ste-Catherine is the bell tower for the Eglise Ste-Catherine. It is located across the square from the church, and is also built from wood.

The bell tower had to be built separately from the church for safety reasons - if the tall tower was hit by lightening it may mean that the whole church would burn down. There was also some structural concerns…..would the weight of the tower and the constant vibrations of the ringing bells cause problems with the churches wooden walls and roof.

At the bottom of the tower is where the bell-ringer used to live, and these days it houses a small museum, which costs a few euro to visit.

The tower is open daily 9:00–18:30 in summer, off-season 9:00–12:00 & 14:00–18:00.

An hour in Honfleur

by Carmanah

We woke up to a cold, grey, October morning and left our Deauville hotel very early. Before getting too comfy on board our tour bus, we arrived 20 minutes later in the sleepy port commune of Honfleur.

Honfleur sits at the mouth of the Seine river and is small but historic and easy to explore on foot. This tiny town has been inspiration for many of France's famous modernist painters, such as Courbet and Monet. This was one reason why dropped by, for within the next few days we'd visit Monet's garden in Giverny, and we'd also visit some art galleries in Paris, like the Musée d'Orsay and the Louvre, which both feature these artists' works.

What's also interesting is that Honfleur was associated ever so slightly with Canadian history. Since we were essentially one big social studies class, our teachers would emphasize any Canadian historical content that they could. So apparently Jean Denis, a native Honfleurais, was a member in Samuel de Champlain's exploratory expeditions to Canada back in the early 17th century. Years later, trade with New France (what would later become Québec in Canada) would play a critical role in Honfleur's economy.

The most unique structure in Honfleur is L'église Sainte-Catherine, in which we were able to tour. This is the largest church made out of wood in France. It has a particularly distinctive bell-tower (which I photographed) that's separate from the main part of the church, which makes it a bit odd-looking.

After our short tour of the Sainte-Catherine church, we had a little bit of free time to explore the town on our own. Me and a few of my friends were a little bit chilly and decided to seek out somewhere where we could find something warm to drink. We stumbled upon a pub which sold hot chocolate (chocolat chaud), which was perfect on that October morning. We then met back and boarded our bus and started to head to Rouen.

A morning at Honfleur

by Yijie

" Charming place "

This is the first place that really captures my attention in France. The view is so scenic and peaceful. It was around 4 degrees and there was a lot of mist. Pity though because we were just here to watch the sunrise which we did not manage to anyway.