We left Les Andelys last night and made our way up river to where the Seine empties into the English Channel. This morning we docked at the port of Le Havre, just across the river from Honfleur. Honfleur is a picturesque little fishing port whose ancient buildings been here for centuries.
Le Havre is a modern container port, manufacturing center, and university town. Everything here is new – every building, post-1944. Le Havre was totally decimated in World War II.
Le Havre
The Allies landed on Normandy beaches on D-Day, June 6th, 1944. By August, Paris had been liberated, but the Nazis still owned Le Havre. It was a strategically important naval base for them, and they were dug in deep.
By September, British and Canadian forces surrounded Le Havre. They gave the Nazi’s the chance to surrender, but that wasn’t going to happen. The Nazi commander at Le Havre requested time for French civilians still in the city to be evacuated. Allied commanders decided not to allow it.
On September 10th, 348 British bombers rained down thousands of explosive bombs and fire bombs on the city. That was day one. Six more waves of bombings followed on day two. Le Havre was completely flattened. Thousands of Nazi’s surrendered. Thousands of French civilians were killed. The Allies changed their urban bombing policy after Le Havre.
I haven’t personally experienced it, so it’s hard for me to imagine what it must be like to have had your homeland ravaged by war. Reading about France and England fighting back in the day is one thing, but the relatively recent destruction of Le Havre is way more thought provoking.
Honfleur Back in the Day
Fortunately for us, Honfleur came out of WWII unscathed. There’s so much history here. Five hundred years ago, French explorers bound for North America started from this little port town. One of the earliest to make the trip was Samuel de Champlain. He set out from Honfleur on one of many trips to “New France” in 1608. He founded the city of Quebec on that trip.
French settlers who followed Champlain’s lead left from here, too. French speakers living in Quebec province today, if they can trace their family histories back far enough, often find that their roots lie in Normandy. (So that’s where that Scandinavian DNA came from!)
They’ve done a nice job of preserving the ancient look and feel of tiny Honfleur. It seems as if Monsieur Champlain himself could step out of one of these ancient half-timbered buildings any minute.
Before settlers set sail from Honfleur for the New World, they probably said their prayers in St. Catherine’s Church. Shipwrights built the church entirely from wood in the 15th century. The amazing thing is that it’s a wooden structure built in the 15th century, and it’s STILL HERE. They built the entire church using nothing but axes to cut and shape the wood. The interior ceiling looks like two inverted ships’ hulls.
They built St. Catherine’s wooden bell tower to stand alone from the church because of the fire hazard it presented. If it was connected to the church and hit by lightning, that’d be it for St. Catherine’s. Sounds to me like a lesson learned from experience about wooden towers and lightning. It’d be 250 years before Ben Franklin would invent his lightning rod.
Market Day!
The best time to be in any small town in France is market day, and today it’s market day in Honfleur. Every street in town is lined with vendors selling anything you can imagine, whether it’s home-made, home-grown, dead, or alive.
People are squeezing fruit, sampling cheeses and trying sausage samples. Sweet-smelling smoke from something being grilled wafts through the streets. A paella vendor was making huge pans of seafood paella that looked amazing. I wanted some, but we wanted to sit down and have a leisurely lunch. So much good food, so little time.
Restaurants line Honfleur’s picturesque little harbor. Each has its menu posted out front. The day’s specials are written on chalkboards. One of them said, “Sardines Grillees, Frites, Salade Verte.” (Grilled sardines, fries, and a green salad). Are you kidding me? Grilled sardines and fries? “Monsieur! Table pour deux s’il vous plait!”
Les Sardines
We don’t have sardines back home like they have over here. We have the little guys that come in tins, packed in oil. If you can find one of the good brands, they can still be pretty tasty. Sort of.
Sardines over here are another thing altogether. They’re like miniature trout, fresh from the lake, grilled to perfection over a hot fire. But sardines have a rich flavor no trout could ever hope to touch. Dream on, you silly trout!
Our Honfleurian lunch lived up to our high expectations. We sat outside at a table overlooking the harbor. My Better Half had a delicious seafood salad. (See photo, top of page). We drank wine, ate a leisurely lunch, and gazed out at the scene in front of us. Ah, la vie est bonne!
To be continued…
Note: For more Info. about Le Havre in WW II, this is a good place to go: Le Havre, World Heritage Site
