Honfleur activities:
Honfleur welcomes around 3.5 million tourists a year and is open and active all year round. We hope you will soon join them. There are two major museums of art. One dedicated to Eugene Boudin a famous resident and one of the founders of Impressionism. The other to Erik Satie - a really fascinating experience with examples of his music, surreal art, mechanical inventions and collaborations with other surrealists
The Museum of Ethnography is located by the old prison and in its nine rooms you will find traditional furniture, clothes, books and household objects, all arranged as they might have been in typical Normandy homes of the 18th and 19th centuries.
There is a little Musee de la Marine in the very old church on the Vieux Bassin. It has some rare models of ships and some beautiful and amusing sketches of ancient mariners by Léon Leclerc (another local lad)
Nearby exploring:
Deauville is only 25 minutes away. The promenade and fashionable shops offer lots of people-watching opportunities, not to mention spending money. Even non-gamblers will enjoy a day at the races - every second day during August. Next-door Trouville has a great fresh fish market, lots of little restaurants and there is an area very like The Lanes of Brighton.
An hour's driving west will take you just past Caen to the Normandy Landings beaches. The American Cemetery at Omaha Beach is a chilling reminder of the heavy price paid to liberate Europe. You can see the remains of the mulberry harbour at Arromanches, and Pegasus Bridge is less than an hour's drive from Honfleur. Le Memorial at Caen gives a human perspective of the effect of war on civilians as well as military.
At Rouen, an hour's drive to the east, Eglise Saint Ouen has the heart of Richard I ('the Lionheart') and the tomb of his younger brother Henry ('the Young King'). The same church was painted many times by Monet.
Nature:
Normandy is not all about war and history. There's beautiful, lush farming countryside, sandy beaches and gentle rivers, sleepy towns with half-timbered houses, brocantes, cider-makers, and small cafès for a fixed-price lunch...
We grow apples, rear cattle and horses. We make cider and creamy cheeses. Calvados is a warming gentle brandy distilled from cider - great for settling a full tum.
Naturospace in Honfleur is the largest tropical butterfly house in France.You are transported into a tropical paradise of 800sq.metres. It is right across the road from the apartment.
Cerza is a great zoological park of 50 hectares, conserving and breeding many of the world's endangered species.The park is only a 40 minute drive near Lisieux.
