In the 12th and 13th centuries Honfleur was an important port for trade between France and England. In the following centuries it continued to be an important trading and fishing port, and was one of the ports from which French navigators set out to explore the New World; notably Champlain, whose 1608 expedition to North America resulted in the settlement that became Quebec City. Honfleur faded in importance as a port in the 19th Century, as it proved unable to compete with port facilities then developing in the neighboring town of Le Havre. The silver lining to the tale is that, whereas Le Havre was heavily bombed in WWII, Honfleur played no particular role in the Normandy campaign and largely escaped damage. Starting in the mid-1800's Honfleur became a center for the development of the Impressionist style of painting, and attracted artists such as native son Eugene Boudin and Claude Monet. Today it is firmly a tourist town, with many art galleries, restaurants, museums, and the usual tourist shops; but that didn't detract from the town's attractiveness.
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| The Vieux-Bassin (Old Dock) of Honfleur, lined with 16th - 18th century townhouses |
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Like the Alsace Region, Normandy has lots
of half-timbered houses. Half-timbering
was a hallmark of Norman architecture.
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Saint Catherine's church dates to the mid-15th C. Stone being
in short supply, local shipwrights built the structure out of
wood. It is the largest surviving wooden church in France.
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Interior of Saint Catherine's. The side-by-side naves have
the appearance of overturned boat hulls.
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The bell tower of Saint Catherine's is a
structure completely separate from the church,
as the wooden church could not support
the weight of the bells
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| Modern art in Honfleur--"disappearing men" |
Vineyards and wine-making are important in most regions of France, but the climate of Normandy does not lend itself to that particular endeavor. Normandy does, however, have apples--lots and lots of apples--and the region has developed a large cider industry. A 40 kilometer long "Cider Trail" is part of the tourism landscape. The brewing of cider also leads to the production of Calvados--an apple brandy with an AOC designation, which means that it can only be produced in Normandy; and Pommeau, an aperitif comprised of unfermented apple cider and Calvados. (AOC stands for appellation d'origine controlee, a certification given to certain agricultural products that have historical and regional significance.) We may not have attended any wine tastings during our time in France this year, but in a small effort toward gaining some knowledge of French gastronomy we spent two hours or so on the afternoon of September 9 learning about the history and production of Calvados in Normandy, and getting a taste of a few varieties of Calvados and Pommeau.
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Our "Calvados Experience" was a rather
Disneyesque homage to the humble apple,
but it was entertaining, and the "gift shop"--
with it's hanging apple art--was elegant.
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If England has the White Cliffs of Dover, France has the stunning cliffs at Etretat, a tourist and farming town located about 20 miles to the northeast of Honfleur. Nature carved three natural arches out of the limestone cliffs that tower over the English Channel. The cliffs, and the natural light in the area, were a huge draw for Impressionist painters like Claude Monet. These days the town welcomes summer vacationers to its beach of smooth silica pebbles and to walks along the cliff tops to enjoy the scenery from numerous vantage points. The day we visited--September 10--was a gloriously sunny day with light breezes. Yes, there were tourists there, but it certainly wasn't "summer crowded", and we had a great time hiking the paths at both ends of the town. We took way too many photos, but the views just seemed so glorious it was hard not to try to capture them.
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| Looking at Falaise (cliff) Aval from the east. The groomed area on the "left" side of the cliff top is a golf course, first designed in 1908. The town of Etretat is behind the pebble beach. |
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A different perspective on Falaise Aval, taken from the
vantage point of cliffs to the west.
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The top of Falaise Amont is the site of the Notre Dame
de la Garde chapel, i.e., the "Sailors' Chapel". The current
structure is a 1950's recreation of a 19th century building
that was destroyed by the Germans in 1942.
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| Looking down at the small arch on Falaise Amont |
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| Falaise Amont was a lovely spot to stop for a snack |
A slice of aviation history is present on Falaise Amont. A monument on the cliff memorializes two French aviators, Charles Nungesser and Francois Coli, who attempted to claim the $25,000 Orteig Prize by making the first non-stop flight between Paris and New York. On May 8, 1927, they departed from Paris in their plane "L'Oiseau Blanc" (the White Bird). They were seen early that morning flying low over Etretat and were later spotted over Ireland. Crowds were present in New York on May 9 to greet Nungesser and Coli, but they never arrived. There were reports of a plane being heard over Newfoundland and then a crash, but this has never been substantiated. In our age of conspiracy theories, it is probably fitting that the mystery of their disappearance has given rise to a spate of such theories. As late as 2013, Bernard Decre, the founder of an annual yachting race around France, funded an investigation into the disappearance of the aircraft. He believed that the White Bird did make it to North America, and that its disappearance was covered up by U.S. and French authorities so as not to detract from the achievement of Charles Lindbergh (who successfully made the non-stop crossing from New York to Paris less than 2 weeks after the Frenchmen's attempt).
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The monument to Nungesser and Coli on
Etretat. The monument was built in 1962,
replacing the original 1928 monument that-
like the Sailors' Chapel-was destroyed by the
Germans in 1942.
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| La Manneporte arch |
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| Getting photobombed by the Manneporte arch |
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| View to the east of Falaise Amont |
Etretat was not in the Allied landing zones for the Normandy invasion, but it nevertheless suffered war damage. German Field Marshall Erwin Rommel--of "Desert Fox" fame--was in charge of the Normandy defenses. In Etretat he ordered many of the waterfront buildings destroyed so that a newly installed gun emplacement could have an unimpeded view toward the beach. The base of the walking path from the town up to Falaise Aval still contains some of the concrete fortifications that were part of the "Atlantic Wall."
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| Etretat German beach defenses in WWII. |
In the First World War Etretat was the location of an Allied hospital. Approximately 550 soldiers from the British Commonwealth countries who died at the hospital are buried in the Commonwealth War Graves cemetery that is located on the grounds of the Eglise Notre Dame de l'Assomption (construction begun 11th century).
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Notre Dame church and a portion of the
WWI war graves
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I never learn. Yes, I read some tombstones,
and yes, it made me sad
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It's been like summer in Auxonne since we got back. That's good for our outdoor boat projects, not so good for the water levels. But we won't look the proverbial gift horse in the mouth--we've about 10 days left here to get our tasks finished before we lock up the boat and head to Paris.
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It may have been in the upper 80's today,
but hints of autumn are starting to appear.
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