Honfleur sits on the south bank of the Seine estuary in Calvados, a town of about 7,500 whose old harbour is lined on one side with tall, narrow houses faced in slate, up to seven storeys and only a few metres wide. The VIEUX BASSIN is the most painted harbour in France and the reason almost everyone comes.
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What Is Here
THE VIEUX BASSIN IS SMALL AND THAT IS PART OF ITS EFFECT. You can walk round it in ten minutes. The Quai Sainte-Catherine side carries the famous slate-fronted houses, the Lieutenance at the entrance is the remnant of the governor's house and the old town gate, and the water is full of yachts rather than fishing boats now.
EGLISE SAINTE-CATHERINE IS THE BEST BUILDING IN THE TOWN AND MOST VISITORS WALK PAST IT. It is THE LARGEST CHURCH BUILT OF TIMBER IN FRANCE, put up by the town's shipwrights in the fifteenth century after the Hundred Years War, with twin naves whose roofs are built like upturned hulls and a separate bell tower standing across the square because the builders did not trust the weight.
The stone houses and the belfry are the second image, and they are the other Honfleur: the streets behind the harbour, which empty out as soon as the coach parties leave.
HONFLEUR INVENTED A CHUNK OF MODERN PAINTING and the Musee Eugene Boudin records it. Boudin was born here, taught Monet to paint outdoors on this coast, and the Ferme Saint-Simeon outside town was where the group gathered. Impressionism starts, in part, in this estuary light.
Samuel de Champlain sailed from here in 1608 to found Quebec, which the town marks, and the Normandy Bridge, one of the longest cable-stayed spans in Europe when it opened in 1995, crosses the estuary just upstream.
The town is extremely busy in season, being an easy coach trip from Paris and a cruise call, and the honest advice is to stay overnight: the evening and the early morning are a different place.
When to Go
May, June and September. The estuary light that the painters came for is best in spring and autumn.
July and August are very crowded, and the Vieux Bassin at midday is shoulder to shoulder.
Winter is quiet, grey and atmospheric, with the harbour lights on the water by four in the afternoon, and most things stay open.
Rain is possible in every month. This is the Channel coast and the weather arrives from the west without much warning.
Getting There
By car, about two hours from Paris and 30 minutes from Le Havre across the Normandy Bridge.
By bus, services from Le Havre, Caen and Deauville. THERE IS NO RAILWAY STATION IN HONFLEUR, which catches people out: the nearest are Le Havre, Trouville-Deauville and Lisieux, each with a bus connection.
By ferry, Portsmouth to Le Havre or Caen, then a short drive.
By air, Paris is the practical airport.
Is Honfleur Safe for Women?
Honfleur is a prosperous tourist town and is extremely safe. The FCDO publishes no advised-against areas anywhere in France, and its terrorism wording is the strongest it uses: terrorists are very likely to try to carry out attacks in France, with shopping centres, entertainment venues, sporting events, transport hubs and crowded gatherings named as possible targets. The everyday risks are more specific than that sounds. Pickpocketing is organised on the Paris Metro and on trains, typically in pairs with one person distracting you, and the FCDO records SERIOUS ASSAULTS on RER lines B and D, which matters because line B is the train most visitors take from the airports. Drink spiking is named with the drugs rather than hinted at: be alert to the possible use of date rape drugs including GHB and liquid ecstasy. Strikes and demonstrations happen at short notice and can stop trains and close roads, usually peacefully. And wildfires affect the south in hot dry summers.
If you are driving to a Channel port, the FCDO has a specific instruction. It records attempts by people to enter private vehicles in order to reach the UK illegally, that camper vans are targeted while stationary or in slow traffic, and that obstacles are sometimes placed on roads to ports including the Calais port road. Keep your doors locked, keep moving where it is safe to do so, do not leave the vehicle unattended, and if it is not safe to proceed, stop and call 112.
The cobbles are the most likely cause of an injury here. The old streets and the quays are rounded setts, worn smooth and often wet, and they are genuinely treacherous in unsuitable shoes. This is the commonest complaint and the commonest fall.
The harbour has no railings, which is normal in France and worth knowing at night after a long dinner: the drop to the water is a couple of metres and the quay edge is level with the paving.
The estuary has large tides and strong currents, and the beaches towards the Butin are not a swimming proposition in the way a Mediterranean beach is.
Pickpocketing in a crowded tourist town is the one petty crime worth a thought, in the market and along the Quai Sainte-Catherine in August.
The Honfleur Packing List
A damp maritime town of wet cobbles and sudden weather.
Our merino base layers are 100% Australian merino at 17.5 micron, and a long sleeve merino wool base layer for women is the right first layer on an estuary where the wind comes off the water and the temperature in the shade of the slate houses is several degrees below the sunny side of the basin. Wool holds its warmth when the sea air is damp, which on this coast is most of the time. From October to April add a heavyweight merino base layer.
A Columbia Fast Trek II fleece and a Marmot PreCip Eco rain jacket, which in Normandy is a year-round item rather than a seasonal one.
Waterproof hiking shoes or anything with a real sole, plus Darn Tough merino socks. THIS IS THE LINE THAT MATTERS IN HONFLEUR: smooth-soled shoes on wet rounded cobbles is how people turn an ankle here, and the whole old town is paved that way.
A set of packing cubes if you are touring Normandy, which most visitors are, and moving every second night.
Not linked and worth packing: A LIGHT SCARF for the church and the estuary wind; AN UMBRELLA, which in a town this compact is more practical than a hood; SOMETHING TO COVER YOUR SHOULDERS for Sainte-Catherine; and A SMALL BAG YOU CAN CLOSE for the August crowds. France is card-friendly, including the market.
Recommended Tours and Experiences
Essential Resources for Women in Honfleur
Emergency numbers: 112 for police, ambulance and fire, free from any phone including a locked mobile, with operators who will find an English speaker. It is the single number across the whole European Union.
Wet cobbles are the likeliest injury here: the old streets and the quays are rounded setts worn smooth by centuries and they are treacherous in smooth-soled shoes. THE HARBOUR HAS NO RAILINGS, the quay edge is level with the paving and the drop is a couple of metres, which is worth remembering at night. THERE IS NO RAILWAY STATION IN HONFLEUR: the nearest are Le Havre, Trouville-Deauville and Lisieux, each with a bus connection, and people arrive expecting otherwise. EGLISE SAINTE-CATHERINE IS THE LARGEST TIMBER CHURCH IN FRANCE and its bell tower stands separately because the shipwrights who built it did not trust the weight. If you are driving to a Channel port, the FCDO's vehicle-entry instruction above applies. THE ESTUARY HAS LARGE TIDES AND STRONG CURRENTS.
US State Department travel advisory: the France advisory. Read the current level there directly rather than relying on a figure printed in any guide.
UK FCDO travel advice: gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/france, and read the safety and security page rather than only the landing page, because that is where the substance sits.
Main hospital: Honfleur has a hospital for routine and emergency care, with the Groupe Hospitalier du Havre 30 minutes away across the bridge and Caen's university hospital at an hour for anything major. Dial 112 for an ambulance or 15 for the SAMU. A pharmacie posts the duty rota. France is in the EU, so a UK Global Health Insurance Card or an EU European Health Insurance Card gives you state-provided medically necessary care on the same terms as a resident, which means you pay the same patient share a French resident pays rather than nothing. That is not the same as free and it does not cover repatriation, so travel insurance sits on top of it. French hospitals are excellent and a pharmacie, marked by a green cross, handles minor problems without an appointment and will tell you where the duty pharmacy is out of hours. Tap water is drinkable everywhere. Dial 15 for a medical emergency or 112 for anything.
Official health authority: Sante publique France, the national public health agency. covers the Normandy regional health agency
US Embassy: the United States Embassy in Paris.
Official tourism authority: Atout France, the national tourism body. publishes the Sainte-Catherine and Musee Boudin opening hours, the market days and the bus connections from the nearest stations
Takeaways
Go into Sainte-Catherine. The largest timber church in France and most people miss it.
Stay overnight. The evening and early morning are a different town.
Shoes with grip. The cobbles are rounded, polished and wet.
There is no station. Train to Le Havre or Deauville, then the bus.
Solo women safety assessment: Honfleur is about as undemanding as European travel gets for a woman on her own. It is small, wealthy, pedestrian in the centre, and busy with couples, families and painters from morning until late; the Vieux Bassin is lit and overlooked from every window, the restaurants run along it, and a woman eating alone on the quay is entirely ordinary. 112 REACHES POLICE, AMBULANCE AND FIRE free from any phone including a locked one, 15 reaches the SAMU, and the town has its own hospital. FRANCE'S ADVISORY CONCERNS ARE NATIONAL AND URBAN, pickpocketing in Paris and on the TGV, industrial action and demonstrations, and the terrorism threat level, and the only one with local purchase is petty theft in a crowded tourist town, which in August along the Quai Sainte-Catherine is worth a closed bag and no more thought than that. ONE ADVISORY CLAUSE DOES APPLY IF YOU DRIVE, and it is specific: the FCDO records attempts by people to enter private vehicles bound for the UK, names camper vans and the roads to the Channel ports, and tells drivers to keep doors locked, keep moving where safe, not leave the vehicle unattended, and call 112 if it is not safe to proceed. Honfleur is thirty minutes from Le Havre and an hour from Caen, so that is a real instruction rather than an abstraction. THE PHYSICAL RISKS ARE MUNDANE AND THEY ARE WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPEN TO PEOPLE. The cobbles are rounded granite setts polished by centuries and wet most of the year, and a fall on them in smooth-soled shoes is the commonest injury in this town by a wide margin. The harbour has no railings at all, which is normal here, the quay edge is flush with the paving and the water is a couple of metres down, which is worth bearing in mind walking back along it late. And the Seine estuary has a large tidal range and strong currents, so the beaches out towards the Butin are for walking rather than swimming.
Reading On
Honfleur is the Seine estuary and Normandy's coast runs west from it. The Normandy packing list covers the region as a whole, the Deauville packing list the resort next door and the Etretat packing list the chalk cliffs across the estuary, with the Caen packing list and Bayeux packing list for the landing beaches and the Granville packing list and Cherbourg packing list for the Cotentin. South, the Brittany packing list and Cancale packing list cover the peninsula, and the Amboise packing list and Loire Valley packing list the chateaux inland. For the country the France travel guide for women and the France packing list carry the transport and the regions in full. For why wool suits damp sea air, read the guide to merino wool base layers for women. Every destination we cover is indexed at the travel packing guide for women, and the base layers are at the Roman Trail collection.
If the outer journey is calling you, the inner one usually is too. Explore SoulMap at romantrail.com/blogs/soulmap.
