Photo : Zairon / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Honfleur
Honfleur is a port in Calvados on the south bank of the Seine estuary, facing Le Havre. About 6,600 inhabitants live there. A fortified medieval port, the town was an important departure point for expeditions and transatlantic trade in the modern era, which also includes slave-trading expeditions: it was one of the seven main French ports involved, with 142 expeditions.
The Vieux Bassin, lined with tall slate-covered façades, took its form as a tidal basin in 1684. Nearby are the church of Sainte-Catherine, built in wood, the Lieutenance, a remnant of the sixteenth-century fortifications, and the salt storehouses. On the heights, the Côte de Grâce offers a view over the town and the estuary.
Honfleur inspired many painters, including Gustave Courbet, Eugène Boudin, Claude Monet and Johan Barthold Jongkind. They formed what is called the Honfleur school, which contributed to the rise of Impressionism. The town has won four flowers in the competition of flowering towns and villages, and a walk around the basin and in the neighbouring streets is enough to see it all.
