In a French fishing village

Continuing on, we made our way to a small fishing village called Honfleur. The first interesting thing was calling the lady who was going to meet us at our flat and let us in. She spoke little English, and fortunately Emily speaks French more than adequately. Between the two of them we cobbled together enough information for directions that got us to the right place to drop the luggage off.

We stayed in an apartment that was a former fisherman's home. The stairs went up circularly like in a lighthouse and were very steep and narrow. Tricky with luggage, and Philip carried most of it himself.

Here's a picture of the kind of narrow cobblestone street we were on. The town itself was quite fascinating, with high dollar sailboats in the protected harbor. You know I took lots of sailboat pictures.

Dinner was amazing, and only a block off the center of town. We noticed that it was still light at ten o'clock at night, so there was more day to enjoy.

France was proving to be a good choice for vacation.

On vacation in France

This will be the first of several blog entries regarding our family vacation to France. On the first day after the long night flight across the Atlantic, we picked up our rental car at the airport in Paris. I have never been able to manage to sleep much on those overnight flights, and this one was no exception.

Once we got the car and were able to read enough of the signs to navigate away from the Charles de Gaulle airport (no small feat), we proceeded towards Normandy. Just outside the airport we came to our first roundabout. I had heard horror stories about them, but this one was no big deal. Just yield to oncoming traffic and make sure you know when and where to get off. Piece of cake. Soon I had 10 or so under my belt and was feeling quite competent. (more on roundabouts in a later blog)

Our first stop was at Giverny, where Monet hung out and did some very cool painting. I am a big impressionist fan, and Monet is one of my favorites. I included a photo to try to show what the landscape was like. No wonder he loved this little place so much.

More to come later, but for now enjoy the scenery from Giverny.

Au revoir!