In the morning we had a short stopover in Honfleur, in the
Normandy. Honfleur is a little town located at the river mouth of the Seine and
belongs to the French department of Calvados. The department got its name from
the “Plateau du Calvados”, but none of us is thinking about a plateau when we
hear the name Calvados. Most of us are thinking about the Calvados brandy,
which is produced out of apples grown in this area and is so well known all
over the world.
There are flowering more than 9 million apple trees in the
Normandy in springtime and there are thousands of festivals belonging to the
apples in spring and autumn. The inhabitants of the Normandy say that they are
famous for their “three C”, the Calvados, the Cider (an apple wine) and of
course the Camembert, this fantastic tasty and creamy cheese. 
Some passengers choose an excursion to see the hinterland
and the beaches of the “côte fleurie” in the Normandy. One of the great charms
of this area lies in the diversity of its manors, which are generally
countrified, pleasant to look at, and always perfectly adapted to the rural
setting.
During a longer stop in Deauville, an important seaside
resort, the passengers had the possibility for a short beach walk.
Honfleur itself is a picturesque fishing port characterized by its tall and narrow houses, many of them with slate-covered frontages, even a bit inclined and its narrow alleys. The little harbor is so charming that you can find many painters sitting next to the water front. They feel in the same way inspired from this silhouette like the famous painters Boudin and Monet before them.
