DAY 59: HONFLEUR

THE enchanting little fishing village of Honfleur in Normandy is awash with seafood restaurants specialising in mussels and waterside markets selling the catch of the day.

You also can be sure of netting pretty pictures of the Old Town and dockside cafes and boutiques, patisseries and craftshops from every possible angle.

But the first item on our agenda today is to go fishing ... for a view of the English Channel that we have been told lays just beyond the treeline.

So we make a beeline for the promenade that meanders alongside the estuary of the 776km Seine that we first met in Paris.

After more than a month of touring through Europe within earshot of few British, Irish, New Zealand or Australian accents, we need to send our love to the Commonwealth across the Channel and salute (or at least wave to) England.

By chance, we happen to meet a group of Poms on the walk.

They point to where French soil ends and the Englsh coastline begins, joke with us about the woeful Australan cricket fortunes of late, talk English Premier League Football and travels abroad as well as Australan geography.

The few minutes' stroll to the sand with them is a nice little pick-me-up to combat any homesickness and prepare us for the rest of the day to be spent exploring another little corner of France.

We walk through Honfleur's Garden of Personalities (Le Jardin des Personnalites) to be "introduced" to those who have been intricately associated with the local fishing industry over centuries and have been commemorated in boat-shaped hedges with their busts at the helm.

We climb cobblestoned alleyways and streets to see ramshackle half-timber Tudor-style houses amid the renaissance architecture and stone walls, and look out over the rooftops to the water before heading back down towards the  unusual 15th-century St Catherine's Cathedral - the largest surviving timber church in France - with its original roof but the belfry in a separate building.

We sit on a pew inside to really feel like we're down below deck on a grand old tall ship as the church is the work of master shipbuilders.

Next, we window shop for the locally made cider brew called calvados, tapestries (the world-famous Bayeux Tapestry telling the story of the 1066 Norman Conquest of England is not far from here) and pastries that all look so good.

With only minutes left to enjoy Honfleur, we buy a picnic salad and wrap to eat by the boats moored in the middle of town and watch the cafe set linger over a long leisurely lunch.

Then we head back past the city gates and carousel to jump back on the bus.

Honfleur has been a favourite with impressionist painters such as Boudin and Monet as well as other artists over the years, and is now one of our favourites, too.

Lesson of the day: No amount of reading and research can beat standing in a place, seeing all it has to offer, hearing its sounds, smelling its aromas, and tasting its local delicacies.