Honfleur, France
Honfleur, France Monday, June 6, 2022
Today there were tours from the ship into Paris. About 2.5 hours by bus one-way, some from the ship took the panoramic (look but don’t stop much) tour so they could at least say they’d seen some of the sites.
We didn’t want the bus trip, so we
chose to stay on shore for the day. What
a great decision! Honfleur is an artist colony, AND, it was a festival day in
Honfleur, a Pentecost event that had a parade to bless boats. In the parade were bagpipes, instruments, and
families who carried models of boats into the main church, had a ceremony of
blessing, then paraded them back to the port and into the waiting restaurants. People
dressed in local sailor gear of navy striped shirts and berets, either carried
models of boats—some looked heavy!—or shouldered the larger model, carried by
four people and almost always with a very young child inside, safely strapped
in a car seat. The photos will depict
the community feeling, the fun, and the sleeping babies who were part of the
parade.
When we arrived by shuttle bus, the parade and community were already inside the church for the lengthy service (perhaps each is blessed individually?) so we looked around at this cute, quaint town with long, meandering streets while cafes and shops were just waking up. We were surprised to find the Eric Satie Museum here. He’s an avant garde-style composer from the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. Also found the artist Boudin Museum but didn’t go in. Wandered and visited with fellow ship guests (community was mostly gathered in the church still) and waited until 11 for the Satie Museum to open. In a narrow 4-story ancient house, an artist had turned the museum into a sound and sight delight that echoed the avant-garde theme. We carried old-fashioned tape recorders around our necks with headphones that were activated by certain zones as we read or watched or listened. In one of the small rooms was a merry-go-round that could be gently pedaled with seats made of leather basketballs. Huh.
Shops had now opened, so we wandered
in and out of the art galleries, marveling at the human creative spirit. When we heard bagpipes, we rushed to find a
place to watch the parade and snap photos.
After, we were surprised to find
even more streets that we hadn’t yet explored, so we kept on enjoying even more
art galleries. By now, the whole of the
parade participants and crowd were in all the cafes and restaurants, enjoying a
sunny day, carefree. What a lovely day
for all of us!!!
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