Honfleur, Deauville and Cabourg

Today we slept in, that is me… for a long time. Spoiled as I am, I had breakfast and coffee in bed before getting ready for the day’s trip.

Today, we drove straight north to the Pont De Normandie. An immense structure of a bridge.

We drove around a bit and made some wrong turns, so we didn’t manage to stop and take any good photos. But here’s at least one that turned out usable.

Honfleur

Honfleur on the other hand, is the perfect place for a tourist photographer, or tourists in general. We drove into the town centre as far as we could go, without seeing a single available parking space. But just as we were about to turn, there was a loaf seller(*) who was reversing out of his parking spot. So we snuck into the city’s most central parking lot. Clearly, our day today!

(*)The bread seller is a typical Frenchman, with two or three baguettes under his arm. If there is any wrapping at all, it’s just one half. They walk around with their loaves tucked under their arms, bump into people, cough and sneeze, often smoking at the same time, before they go home and eat them up. Strange thing!

Honfleur is a fantastic harbour town. Clearly, many people have discovered this, as it’s full of tourists here. But it mostly seems to be French visitors, along with the odd English tourist now and then, holidaying here. The area around the harbour itself is packed with restaurants. You can smell the scent of mussels, freshly baked bread, and garlic as you weave your way through the tourist crowds.

I understand why tourists flock here, but I also understand why it’s recommended to avoid August. Honfleur can somewhat resemble St. Tropez, with artists sitting along the harbour and painting pictures. The boats here are just as beautiful as in St. Tropez, but the houses have a slightly different style.

We had lunch at one of the restaurants on one side of the harbour. We sat and looked at the narrow houses on the other side. Some of them can hardly be more than a couple of metres wide, and most are an incredible seven storeys high. They look like Matchboxes stacked on end in a long row.

Cider, Calvados and Pommeau

If you venture a little away from the harbour and into the narrow streets, you will find lots of small shops offering local delicacies. Cider, Calvados, Pommeau—a blend of cider and Calvados—and also some other specialties such as canned tuna(!) and dried fruits and vegetables. There are also many art galleries.

We had lunch at Brasserie D’Ostrea. Tagliatelle with salmon in a cream sauce for Finn, and tagliatelle with “seafood” for me, with mussels and Norway lobster that tasted utterly divine![/TRANSLATED SECTION]

Deauville

Deauville was the next place we had pencilled into the trip itinerary. As soon as we drove into the town, we noticed a completely different atmosphere than in the other places we’ve visited in Normandy so far. It’s quite the same feeling you get when you drive into Monaco or Cannes on the French Riviera.

Suddenly, there are magnificent hotels and stylish brand-name shops in the streets. In stark contrast to the small, charming villages where the houses are so crooked that you wonder how they even stay upright. And people are driving by in an old 2CV or a Fiat Punto.

Although the angles are straighter in Deauville, they have still preserved the building style with timber-framed houses and an abundance of flowers and trees. But the car scene here is of a different class. Here, there are more hefty Jaguars, Porsches, and the occasional Bentley cruising down the streets.

Hotel Normandy Barrière in the picture here is one of the finest hotels. It almost resembles the entrance to Disneyland in Paris. I checked prices online, just for fun. And if you have around 15-16 thousand to spare, you can spend a weekend here in a reasonably standard suite. It is also possible to get rooms at prices down to about €300 per night.

Shopping or Café

The image is a bit more influenced by older people, … at least a few years older than us. Slightly like strolling around Bogstadveien in Oslo on a morning. Stiffly dressed older ladies, often with a small dog in matching outfit. Between the stylish shops lie small cafes where you can leave your partner if you’re going shopping. Or do like me, skip the shopping and instead have a Cafe au lait and an apple cake and keep your companion company.

No matter what you order at the café, you will be served something with apples. After all, we are in Normandy! All locals who take pride in themselves have one apple tree in their garden. They make their own cider and also their own Calvados (apple brandy). It is said that the locals here pride themselves on having their own little “flavour touch” on both cider and spirits. This can range from a small sprinkle of gunpowder in the mixture, to adding a couple of old bones into the barrel during fermentation. Personally, I prefer products with a label from a reputable producer, in limited quantities 🙂

Vierville-sur-Mer

After the café visit in Deauville, we got into our hire car, which is a bit halfway between a Fiat Punto and a Bentley, and drove towards Cabourg. We stopped by another seaside town, Vierville-sur-Mer.

There, the style was a little less snooty. These are sandy beaches as far as the eye can see for many kilometres here. No wonder many Parisians and other French people choose to spend their summer holidays here.

The Normandy region in general has received far too little attention as a tourist destination in Norway. Everyone has heard of the French Riviera, Provence, and the Loire, but for most people, Normandy is only associated with D-Day in 1944.

Some seem to enjoy life in their later years here as well. Looks like a comfortable retirement life  

People who have the ability to enjoy themselves on the beach

Hippodrome Du Vieux Cabourg

The goal today is Hippodrome Du Vieux Cabourg, the trotting track in Cabourg. I’m no expert in the field, but I am married to one. He has tried repeatedly to explain to me about betting and how things work. But I still only understand that the horse that crosses the finish line first wins. Anyway, it has been a nice evening. It’s a lovely trotting track, that much I’ve gathered. Even the trotting tracks in France are well-maintained and decorated with flowers.

Flower Decoration at the Trotting Racecourse

We got a good table in the restaurant with a lovely view over the course. The food was exquisite! We was served a four-course menu with beef carpaccio for starter, a tender, perfectly cooked steak with fancy accompaniments for the main course. Then came the cheese, which is always a must in a proper French meal, and finally a dessert creation with raspberries, passionfruit, and some kind of parfait-like substance at the bottom.

French style

The French generally have a bit more style when it comes to almost everything. The prototype of a Norwegian racing enthusiast (at least in my mind…) wears jeans, clogs, and a T-shirt that is just a little too short to hide the plumber’s crack at the back, often with a flat-packed pack of roll-ups in the back pocket.

Here in France, we go to the trots in smart attire. But of course, I hadn’t thought of that when we set off this morning, so Finn went in shorts and I in jeans, a *laaaang* T-shirt and trainers, but without a cigarette packet in my back pocket.  But we still got in anyway!

Finn reports a profit of €2 after betting, but that doesn’t include dinner!! Now it’s time to set course back to Lisieux again.