With bags packed and paperwork in hand, off we went - on the bus (another fun adventure) for Gare St. Lazare, Paris. There's something about a European train station and train ride that must be experienced at least once in your life. The whole train culture (something that doesn't exist in Canada) is fabulous. What a wonderful way to travel, so efficient and convenient. The kids loved the whole process, the train station (that is a mini mall), finding our train through the network of signs, halls and tracks, and finally boarding the train and setting off.
The train ride was spectacular. Just long enough for the kids to enjoy and nice for us to all watch the views out the windows as we changed from urban Paris, to suburban Paris and finally to the beautiful colourful and open countryside. Arriving at our destination, Caen. A lovely historic town (locals say it was 80% destroyed during the war and has a beautiful city centre with many monuments and memorials). We didn't make it very far into town as we arrived just as lunch started (lunch lasts 2 hours). We did enjoy a delicious lunch as we waited for the car rental place to re-open so we could move onto our next stage of the journey - Honfleur!
Sofia Demonstrating the elevator in Lillian and Sylvia's building.
Beautiful St. Lazare
Our train is on that board somewhere
Finding our train car
Settling into our seats and enjoying the ride
Caen Station
Delicious lunch
Our fabulous rental car
And we are off! I am always navigator and Andre is always the driver. We make a pretty good team and rarely get lost - which is also likely thanks to the wonderful European round-abouts. A stroke of genius they are, especially for tourists. We took a picture of this sign for the St. Andre link. :)
Our first stop into a pretty village - this is the centre square. The kids were happy to get out into the fresh air and have a stretch. We were looking for ice cream but it wasn't to be.
A little walk up main street to Le Petit Pub
And a beautiful view just around the corner. I always enjoy imaging how long views like this have existed.
Jake waving to us from his perch
We liked these "funny looking" trees. A local explained to us that they are intentionally trimmed this way as they eventually bloom into beautifully full green trees - as we were there early spring this is how they looked pre bloom. I would guess it keeps the trees more "neat" to avoid the long branches hanging into the roads.
The beautiful "Le Chameau" factory. They still didn't have my boots but the village was lovely and it was a nice side trip. I have since found my boots online!
These trees with green balls in them were so interesting. We must have 30 pictures of them. We called them "pom-pom tree" and later found out that the green is actually mistletoe growing in the trees. It's apparently a parasite and unwanted by the farmers, it takes nutrients from the trees and can spread disease or even kill the host tree. As well, we were told that the french do not have the Christmas tradition of mistletoe so the whole process is rather sad.
Arrival at Honfleur. A beautiful historic town in the Calvados region near the bridge, pont de Normandie. Such a beautiful spot. We could see the bridge as we walked into town - it's truly amazing! As well, Calvados (which is also the name of the region) is an apple brandy that seems to come in so many varieties. The aged brandy is apparently quite strong but there is also a cider and something called "pommeau" - I tried pommeau at dinner and it was quite nice.
Family walk into town
Beautiful historic buildings. It has a long and established history with sea trade and a strategic military location. I would guess the oldest buildings in the city centre are from the 16th century but maybe even earlier? It is from Honfleur that Samuel de Champlain set off on his journey ultimately landing him in Canada.
There are lots of dogs in France.
Beautiful city centre with a very historic wooden church. The tall tower is the Clocktower of the Church of Saint-Catherine. The oldest part of the church dates back to the 1400's!
Typical Honfleur street
Evening stroll along Honfleur harbour
Amazing candy store - i'm not even sure we went in but the window was enough to make my teeth hurt!
Honfleur harbour during the day
Calvados shop
My loves!
You know you're in France when....you see a carousel!
On the far right side of this building you can see a grey plaque - it is dedicated to Samuel de Champlain - I also have a close up.
More historic buildings on our walk. There were so many little streets to explore I'm sure we didn't see it all before we had to leave. One thing these photos will not tell you is very COLD it was in Honfleur. we put on all our layers and were still shivering. It must have been 10 degrees or colder at night for our walks. The kids were troopers and we just kept moving. Luckily with all the beautiful sites we weren't going to give up!
Jake displaying his enjoyment of his first try of escargot! Andre and I were lucky enough to sneak two early, before Jake discovered how yummy they are. You can see he also managed to clear the dish of the delicious garlic butter with some yummy french bread. HA.
Au revoir beautiful Honfleur
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