90. The Seine River Estuary - Honfleur & Le Havre

As you would expect, the river Seine empties into the Atlantic Ocean and given we are in the area, we thought it would be a good idea to have a look.

It turns out that the big industrial city of Le Havre is on the north bank of the mighty Seine estuary while the quaint fishing village (in these days substitute 'quaint tourist trap') of Honfluer is on the south side. 

The distance between the two is 27 km if you go via the Pont de Normandie (above), at a cost of €5.50 or $8.00AUD per trip or 75km via the old bridge, the Pont de Tancarville, costing €2.50 ($4.00AUD).

Le Havre is a major port and in the two hours that we were at the impressionist gallery, huge ships sailed past within metres of us.  This one was leaving - empty.

This one was arriving.

But only partially loaded.

The Musée Malraux in La Havre claims to have the best impressionist collection in France, outside of Paris.  This is one of their Reniors.

And this is another.  

However, despite their claims, I can't help but feel that it would have been nice to see their valuable paintings a bit better catalogued, labeled, displayed and guarded.  

After visiting the major Paris collections so often with their strict 'no photos' policies, very strict guards, preservative light levels, informative cataloguing and clean paintwork, this gallery offered none of that.  

I kept thinking I could have popped this small Degas in my handbag and no-one would have noticed.

The museum was established in 1845 with some initial purchases and state consignments but now it consists mainly of four very significant bequests.  This glorious painting, which I may use as my iPad screensaver forever, was an original purchase of the museum.  

Although I am a sucker for the Impressionists, I'm a 17th century portraiture tragic!  It never ceases to amaze me how an artist can use a bristly brush to apply sticky oil paint to a flat surface and produce an image as exquisitely perfect as this.

Beethoven by Bourdelle.  I can share his pain!

And although this fellow looks a tiny bit familiar, someone had peeled the plastic catalogue label off the plinth - so you and I will never know whose likeness Bourdelle has represented here.  A beautiful face, all the same.

Eugene Boudin was a mentor of Claude Monet and a native of Honfleur and the museum has a sizable bequest of his work.

Monet, like all of the impressionists, painted the land and sea scapes of Le Havre and Honfluer extensively.

Louis Douborg painted 'Strollers on the dock at Honfluer'.

This is the old dock at Honfluer and I'm sure the evening 'promenade' still takes place here, when it's not drizzling rain or chillingly breezy.

The oldest building in the old port area and was the original salt warehouse when salt was so valuable that its supply had to be contolled by the king.  That tree is growing in a courtyard about 5 metres above ground level.

We are staying in a funny old crooked building a few steps from the old port.  Looking left from our window towards the old port.

Looking right up the narrow crooked street.

Directly across the road.  I think every tourist who visits Honfluer walks past our window.

As you can see from the sky, the weather has been very overcast and drizzly.

It would be a different town in the summer - but now in autumn it is cold and the wind is a killer.  

We have been here three days - and the top daily temperatures have been 15, 9 and 10 degrees.  I couldn't live here!  But it does't seem to bother Paul, pictured here tucking into seafood soup in t-shirt and thongs.

By comparison, I was freezing despite a singlet, long sleeved tshirt, jacket, two scarves and all the heaters on.  I took my coat off so that I would feel that I was adding a layer when we went outside again.

And by absolute coincidence, we looked out our window on arrival to see this very fine restaurant directly opposite our crooked little building.  

A some research we discovered that we had stumbled across a Michelin two star called SaQuaNa (meaning 'fish' in Japanese).  The chef, Alexandre Bourdas worked for Michel Bras, running Bras's three star Toya restaurant in Japan for three years.  A bit of a find, eh?  

Must go, our booking is for 8pm.