May 6th, 2024

Today we docked a little bit up the Seine river right outside a small picturesque town called Honfleur. Tours were offered into Paris and also Normandy since Honfleur is considered part of the Norman coast line. We wanted more time in Paris than 3 hours since a 3 hour bus ride each way and we had been to Normandy in Sept of 22. We did the included walking tour and even though town is very close to the port they bussed us into town and then started the 2 hour walking tour. There were lots of picture opportunities in the town and the weather was perfect with a high of 59.

A couple of doors along our tour

Honfleur is right along the river so lots of boats

Honfleur is also close to the home of the painter Monet and it is said that Honfleur was an inspiration for some of his paintings.

It is a quaint town with cobble stone streets

The center of town is a small harbor with lots of boats and cafes on both sides.

Perfect weather for photos

We did the walking tour and then went off on our own. We wandered the streets and looked in some stores but mostly just enjoyed the scenery and the weather.

Great scenery

Kathy & Michael did the walking tour with us so we had lunch in town with them. It was a bit of a challenge since the French don’t like to speak English so our waiter got the order wrong 3 times. It actually got to be humorous and even the waiter was making fun of himself before we were done.

2 scenes from lunch that I had to photograph. This gentleman stood outside the restaurant for about 5 minutes and he was so well dressed he really stood out. Notice the shoes and the gloves. Finally a women came out and while she was well dressed it did not compare to him. I also loved this dog who was sitting with a family and his forlorn look under the table was perfect.

After lunch we wandered town some more and then went outside of town and found some beautiful gardens and tree lined walks. Again the cool weather made everything much more pleasant.

This path was so green

The gardens were beautiful and the flowers were such vivid colors

After our walk out of town we went back into the town and of course I took more pictures of the boats in the harbor.

I really liked the red boat.

They had a cute little drawbridge that they raised to let the sailboats go out of. The boat in the picture was a tour boat that fits under the bridge and a sailboat went out before it.

They had this old wooden boat and the town also had a ferris wheel and a carousel.

The old timber homes

After wandering around for several hours we heard back to the boat which was a nice easy walk from town.

Part of the walk was along the river

Still practicing our selfies

What we did not realize was how much the boat docking would be affected by the tides. This is deck 2 level with the street which means deck 1 which is the Living Room was actually starring at the wall.

We were on our way to the Living Room for 6:30 cocktails when we passed our room steward who was putting on his jacket. We asked where he was going that he needed a jacket and he said he had to go on the dock for “clap-clap” to greet the passengers coming back from the long excursions. Kathy and I went up on deck 8 to watch from there.

This is all the crew that they could free up and they all had their Viking red umbrellas and music was playing. As the guests returning came out of the terminal they were given hot chocolate with some sort of liquor in it. Unfortunately the timing was off and only 2 buses showed up. The other 7 were delayed. We went down to deck 2, which was even with the dock, and the General Manager came over and told us that the buses were delayed and they would try again in 30 minutes. We went and got cocktails and the buses showed up early so while they tried they could not get the time right. They have only done this once before on the cruise and we always enjoy the music and all the crew saying “welcome back” as you walk by.

We had dinner with a bunch of our friends from the 21/22 cruise in the World Cafe and then we decided to go to the Explorers lounge, front of the ship, to watch the sunset and have an after dinner drink. The sun was not setting until 9:30 and we sailed away around 9pm. We guess once the tide got high enough for us to sail.

The sunset did not make it all the way to the water due to the clouds but still a nice sunset.

We are now sailing across the channel to England and will dock on Dover in the am. We have 2 days left and today we got our disembarkation info. We will leave the boat at 7am on Thursday for a 12:45 flight.