Europe 2011

Honfleur: 9-10 June

		Between Ploumanac'h and Honfleur, we stopped for lunch in Cancale, famed for its oysters. We ate in a restaurant, but you can buy from these stalls, and the café over the road will sell a glass of wine to go with them. *
		Behind the stalls is this large midden of oyster shells. *
		The courtyard of our B&B in Honfleur. *
		Honfleur has many attractive half-timbered houses. *
		Old Honfleur is centered on the Old Harbour, which is surrounded by tall buildings, reflected in the water. *
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		The bridge over the link between the old and new harbours is opening to let a small yacht pass through. *
		The outer harbour. *
		We liked the old Church of St Catherine, built out of wood by shipbuilders and with a roof like an upside-down ship's keel. *
		St Catherine's has been "temporary" for several hundred years. In 1944, it was hit by a shell that entered the church but fortunately did not explode. *
		There has to be a separate bell tower, because the wooden church could not withstand the weight and vibration of bells. *
		Leaving Honfleur, we went over the Pont de Normandie, opened in 1995 as the lowest crossing over the Seine. This shows the remarkable curvature of the bridge. *
		Two shots going over the bridge. *
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		Later we stopped in the village of Le Bec-Hellouin, where we saw this unremarkable but typically French scene. †

Then we went on by the autoroute to Paris.