Saturday is market day in Honfleur and this Saturday was also the shrimp festival. The market is basically stalls set up through out the old town. Some areas of clothing and “stuff”, areas of fresh market garden produce, meats, fish, lots of cheeses and of course shrimp.
It starts as a beautiful sunny day and after lunch we decided to take a sight seeing boat trip out of the harbour. Because of the big tides there is a lock at the mouth of the harbour to ensure there is always sufficient water in the harbour for the fishing boats.
Our trip took us under the bridge spanning the Seine River. It was built in 1994, and at the time was the longest span in the world. It is built of a combination of concrete and steel blocks (for detailed information talk to Gary).
After going back and forth under the bridge a couple of times a storm came up – the usual wind, rain, high waves. But that doesn’t interfere with the tour! We carry on out to the mouth of the estuary with water pouring over the bow, rain pelting down and fog so that we don’t see Le Havre, Port 2000 or the beaches that we have come out to see!
After that experience we were back to the hotel in time to hear tonight’s lecture on the French Resistance. A bit muddled but basically the Allies needed to control, what the resistance was doing and did not supply them with weapons or information. So I am not clear how they really worked.
After dinner we were treated to a fabulous fireworks display which we could watch from our room overlooking the harbour