How To Spend A Week End In Honfleur, Normandy | France

For the first weekend of July, my friends and I went to Honfleur, in the North of France in Normandy. You probably never heard of it because neither have I before it was brought up to me, to be honest. The initial plan was to go do Deauville -which I’d say is more famous at least if you’re French or familiar with our locations- BUT Deauville was more expensive. So as broke students we opted for the cheaper yet still a nice option.

And honestly Honfleur was much more pleasant than  I expected it to be, so let me walk you through my 48 hours in Honfleur!

How To Spend A Week End In Honfleur

Best Things To Do In Honfleur

EXPLORE THE PORT

Most of the souvenirs shop and restaurants are located in this area so if you want to buy cider or biscuit or even a nice yellow raincoat, you will definitely find your happiness there.
It’s also pretty nice to just eat some ice cream and stroll around and soak in the atmosphere or simply to enjoy the view.

Also how nice are those buildings?!

Get On the Ferris Wheel

The big wheel cost 5€ and do 5 round, so it’s basically 1€ per round. The view from up there is pretty amazing you can to look over the city and the port and also much further if you pay attention, but it actually goes quite fast, much faster than I expected it! However, I believe it’s possible to get a really nice shot from up there.
Sadly, I didn’t get any good shot because it goes around pretty quickly and I wasn’t ready ahah. I actually spent most of the ride hoping my hat wouldn’t fall and holding onto it for dear life. How fun.
There’s also a merry go round next to the port.

Take A Dip At Butin Beach

The beach is located about 10/15min walk from the port.  You can also see on the park this walk called “Personalities Garden” but I will talk to you about this in a bit!

Also, you can view the “Normandy Bridge” which is one of the longest bridge in Europe! Yep, it’s that very teeny tiny bridge you see from a distance in the picture below!

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Whilst the weather turned out to be ok, it was way too cold to actually get in, besides I’m the kind of person who’s afraid to get in the water and whilst it was a nice beach the water is definitely not crystal clear there -sadly-!

The beach is quite luxurious with vegetation, it almost gives this feeling as if you’re on an island. Which was really accentuated on our visit as they were only a few people there. 

When you look at this lush scenery you wouldn’t think there’s an actual city not even 10min away!
Although it was the beginning of July when we went there it wasn’t really crowded, I believe people go to Honfleur mostly to visit the city and not really for the beach but then again the weather probably wasn’t helping either!

Visit The “Jardin Des Personnalités”

Moving on to some more cultural and history related bits!
A lot of famous artists writers, painters or poets contributed a lot to Honfleur development and history. It’s a little like Giverny with Monet in a way as it is a very art-oriented little town. 

As I wrote above this garden – “Garden of Personalities” or in French “Jardin Des personnalités” can be found on the sidewalk that leads to Butin beach. So, you can do this before or after you decide to take a stroll on the beach and relax there. 

Honestly, it’s a must-see! The design of the plants, flowers and statues are altogether really stylish and elegant. Most of the personalities bust you can find in there are writers, poets that contributed to the city or wrote about it at some point in their careers.

Overall

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Honfleur was a place where many artists met through the years so you can find a lot of art gallery all over the city. So if you’re looking for paintings, sculptures, some ancient furniture you may find your happiness there. The city has this quaint vibe it’s impossible not to like.
It’s a lovely destination for a romantic gateway, weekend gateway with a friend or a family holidays. It ticks all the box Also very to access for the foreigner from England, Netherlands or Germany.

You can very well visit it in a day and move onto Deauville or anywhere in Normandy if you’re travelling by car.
The Mt St Michel isn’t far from it, however, it’s quite busy during summertime, so you might want to visit Mt St Michel in winter if you would like to avoid the crowd.

Spending a weekend in Honfleur leave you enough time to relax and explore the area and its central spot without rushing.
So, I’d definitely recommend Honfleur as a getaway if you’re looking at some places to visit in France!

WHERE TO EAT IN HONFLEUR

It’s for dinner that our “where should we eat” quest began. That means, finding a place that satisfies everyone taste and budget, which can be really hard, to be honest.
BUT!
While wandering down some alley, an open window on a restaurant caught our attention “La cidrerie”, and after a quick look at the menu, we decided that this should be the place and we weren’t disappointed at all with our choice.

The staff was amicable, the atmosphere pleasant and cosy.
The prices are reasonable as well, and the food really yummy. You can enjoy a wide variety of “Galette” which is pretty famous around Normandy and Brittany in France. And of course, drink some Cider to pair with!

Adress La Cidrerie :

26 Place Hamelin,
14600 Honfleur

Where we stayed :
B&B Hotel –The establishment has just been renovated, so it was still a little dusty from the construction, but the room we stayed in was really nice and cosy for four people. It’s not right in Honfleur but a bit further. Also not really the best to access by feet but it’s not impossible if you don’t mind walking on the sidewalk.
Also despite being called a bed & breakfast hotel, you have to pay 6€ to get the breakfast buffet. We paid for it, it was decent, although a bit pricey for what it is.

How to get there :
If you don’t drive you can take one of the several bus company to get there from Paris, they drop you right near the port. And obviously, if you do drive then, it’s almost a 2h drive from Paris, not too bad!

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Enjoy,
Lyne

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