Franco Fridays: Honfleur

The second day of our anniversary jaunt happened to be the Sunday of Mother's Day.  Besides the fact that I didn't get to see my babies on the day honoring mothers, it was a really beautiful and relaxing day, starting with a drive over the longest suspension bridge in the world.

I posted a few more pictures of it in my post written from France.

Our first goal for the day was the little town of Honfleur, not to be confused with last week's Harfleur.  It was an absolutely gorgeous day, and Honfleur was enchanting.

Honfleur was another one of those places I found while searching the internet via blogs and Pinterest for places we might want to see.  Who knew Pinterest could be such a useful vacation-planning tool?

I love that man, and I really liked all the geraniums in the windows.

We wandered around for a little while, ate lunch, wandered around some more.  There were a lot of little shops to pop inside.  I bought a scarf, and KJ bought a watercolor print.  He's started a new tradition of collecting little bits of art from the places we go.

There was a plaque dedicated to Samuel de Champlain, who I had vague memories of as an explorer and colonist from history.  He set off for St. Lawerence from Honfleur.

I love the English language, but I'll admit that French words do have a way of sounding more sophisticated.  Adventura.  It makes you want to go on one, right?

I'm not sure if this is an example of French opportunism or just taking advantage of tourists, but I have a funny story from Honfleur.  Not far from where we parked there was a public toilet.  Sitting right outside of it was a man and woman at a table.  I didn't really pay any attention to them until after I finished and washed my hands.  At that point, standing in front of an electric hand dryer that was obviously broken..."Mademoiselle!"  The man from outside the door waved a paper towel in my direction, and then I understood.  For a small donation, he would hand you a paper towel, and standing there with sopping wet hands, you really didn't have much of a choice.  In fact, you really felt like he was rescuing you from a predicament, and you felt oddly grateful.  It was a genius scheme, for which I was happy to reward him with un euro.

You were quite pleasant, Honfleur.