Saturday, July 16, 2016

Honfleur

Today we finished up our coastal tour of "Upper Normandy".  The "Lower Normandy" coast is best known for a certain massive invasion of Europe 72 years ago. We visited that area three years ago on D-day, so we aren't going there this year.  We are thinking about revisiting Mont St-Michel, though.  Wish us look.  But I digress

There is a really nice GPS system in our little rented Citroen.  When I choose a destination and ask for a route, I get four choices: fastest, shortest, best compromise between those two and "ecologique," which is basically minimal diesel fuel consumption.  But what it means to us is "maximize small villages".  Otherwise, we'd miss such remarkable sights as this:





The little village of Allouville has been protecting this oak for about 1200 years.  The trunk has been lopped off (probably after lightning), a little roof added to keep the water out of the innards, propped up with a steel post, and who knows what else?  But it's still alive enough to produce enough leaves to provide shade for the neighbors of the little church on whose property it still holds court.

Or this farmers market, filled with the brightest reds and greens you never saw in an Albuquerque supermarket.




When we reached our destination, we were in for a surprise.  We had been there two years ago on our road trip, but it was early June, cold, rainy, and in the middle of the week.  Today was warm, sunny, in the middle of a four-day weekend in the first of France's two vacation months.  The crowds we saw at Etretat yesterday seem to have preceded us in Honfleur.




So you just learn to look past the crowds and see the interesting content.  Such as this group that decided to pass on the idea of finding a table for four at one of the marina-side restaurant terraces, staying on their boat instead:

 

These "chocolate marionettes" seemed somehow to avoid melting in the sun.  Now that I think about it, a bit of video would have fit here well.  This live couple was miming a marionettist and his puppet.  I'm thinking they were fairly warm in those outfits that left not a single square inch of skin exposed to the little breeze that there was.






This is Anita's second-favorite city in France after Paris, and today we were here on a mission: to visit the Eugene Boudin Museum.  (Once again, no photos, thank-you-very-much.  And I saw a guy get hammered today for ignoring that rule, so there you go.)  And before you Cajuns out there get your mouth to watering, this is not the creator of that delicious sausage.  Boudin was born in Honfleur, and the museum is a temple in his honor.

He is called the "precursor of impressionism".  I think that if he, like Monet, had actually used the word "impression" in one of his paintings, he would get more credit than he does.  He was a major influence on many of the impressionist painters, inviting them to Normandy where the light was superb for landscapes in an impressionist style.  Since I couldn't take my own photos, here are a couple harvested from the web.

Boudin produced many seascapes, including this on of the beach at Trouville, just west of Honfleur a few kilometers:

Courtesy: Brooklyn Museum


And as an example of Monet's love affair with Etretat (see yesterday's blog post), here is one of his many versions of The Aval:



Courtesy:  Wikimedia Commons

We have finished up our first week in Louviers.  This morning I bought a book of the history of the city.  There are references going back to Richard I (Lionheart's father).  That's about as old as that oak tree above.  If you ever have a chance to visit any place with that kind of history, do it; it's the best education available anywhere.

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