After an inspiring day of touring the D-Day beaches we escorted our intrepid friends Bruce and Tess to the seaside town of Honfleur. This beautiful old fishing village was just about picture perfect. The only problem was that like all beautiful places in France Honfleur was full of tourists. Every shop and restaurant catered to tourists. The sidewalks were full of tourists. The whole town was nothing but tourists. Despite the crowds we still enjoyed the day. It was well worth our time, and I would recommend Honfleur to anyone visiting France. In case you were wondering, because we are on a barge we get to see and visit some fantastic places that your average tourist has no idea even exists. Beautiful and interesting scenery without tourists is one of the reasons we love barging so much.
Lisa and I next to the inner harbor in Honfleur.
Honfleur is beautiful, but note all the tourists.
Honfleur’s church is unique with it’s wooden construction and ceiling that looks like a pair of hulls from a couple of old sailing vessels turned upside down. They couldn’t build the church steeple on top of the wooden roof because it wasn’t strong enough to hold the extra weight. They ended up constructing the steeple across the street.
Note the shape of the wooden ceilings.
The steeple across the street from the church.
The beautiful old pipe organ.
The Grace D’une Cathedrale in Bayeaux was impressive. Lisa was happy because she got to visit the crypt where they kept all the dead guys. I find crypts kind of creepy, but Lisa loves them.
Part of the crypt in the Grace D’une Cathedrale.
More of the Grace D’une Cathedrale crypt.
The River Aure flows through the middle of Bayeux with its interesting waterwheels, tunnels, and falls. The hotel where we stayed was a refurbished chateau that had a stream next to it full of ducks and swans. They put us in the low rent district, which use to be the horse stables. When I die I want to come back as a horse that lives in the stables where we stayed.
The Aure River and a turning waterwheel.
Dinning next to the Aure River.
The Aure River running under a building in Bayeux.
Our stay n Normandy had been inspirational, motivating and exciting, but it was time to head back to Rabelo. With the determination of a feral cat chasing the evening’s first mouse we climbed into our rental car and headed off on a five hour drive back to our big baby. Unfortunately Rabelo wasn’t behaving herself, as the pilothouse broke shortly after we headed down the canal towards the medieval walled city of Langres. The roof would not go down, which meant we couldn’t move. The bridges were too low for us to pass under them unless we could lower the pilothouse. With Bruce’s help I managed to replace a broken cable, and we were off. Self-reliance has always been an important aspect of cruising. Just because we are on inland waterways does not mean there is some close buy that can solve our problems.
Enjoying a bottle of champagne, and another great meal on Rabelo.
Bruce helping me fix Rabelo’s broken wheelhouse.
Lisa, Bruce, and Tess found this talented artist that worked in glass. He was quite the character.
Lisa loved this artists glass work.
-Tom Miller
Author of “The Wave” and “When Stones Speak”– Chuck Palmer Adventure novels
AUG
About the Author:
Tom Miller graduated from the University of Southern California with a Bachelor of Science in Geology. He is a consummate adventurer with over 1,000 dives as a recreational scuba diver, and an avid sailor who has traveled 65,000 miles throughout the Pacific including the Hawaiian Islands. Miller has also cruised the canals of Europe on his canal barge and given numerous lectures on cruising the canals of Europe, as well as sailing in the South Pacific. Piloting is also an interest of Miller's, and He has completed over 1,000 hours flying everything from small Cessnas to Lear jets.