(Lots of boats, tall houses and restaurants in Honfleur)

And now we’re in Honfleur, a very pretty big-ish French town with a port. Well to be precise… we are 40 minutes walk from Honfleur, under the motorway that bypasses Honfleur and beside a small French town called La Riviere-Saint-Sauveur. If that’s a mouthful for you, you’ll understand why I fell asleep when we got here. I think I was tired. By 8pm I was drinking tea, reading a book with my favourite quilt around me and I was ready to go back to bed.

(Nice!)

Then Ian from Ireland arrived. He was telling us he’s been here for a few weeks or maybe it was months and then he started to tell us stories about his life. Like, amazing stories, stuff you might make up but you wouldn’t put in the same book because no one would believe it was real. He’s coming to visit us tonight again so I’ll ask him if I can share with you. As it happens he is writing a book and he has a blog. I’ll find out the details tonight for you.

(Love French windows and balconies)

In between the telling of the stories he told us Honfleur was a beautiful place and just a 15 minute cycle. He must have spotted our bikes on the back and not realised they are just for decoration. (No of course they work.) So this morning we took down the bikes and followed his directions to Honfleur and wouldn’t you know we’d hardly gone two minutes and there he was on the other side of the road cycling towards us. We asked where the bicycle lane was (he’d mentioned one last night) and he said, “no you’ll be grand on the dual carriageway the cars in France are used to bikes!” Well it was ego alone that kept me going forward but when he was out of sight I searched and searched for a bicycle path and there was bits and pieces of a quiet road along the route. So I was on and off the bike climbing over fences and losing Denis. He, Denis, by the way has become very good at the  French mannerism of a loud sigh while tilting the head back, lifting the shoulders and turning his palms to the sky. He uses it to complain when I lose him. Luckily he can’t do it while holding the handlebars, so we’re still talking.

(No we didn’t)

Needless to say it took longer than the promised 15 minute cycle but we did eventually arrive in Honfleur and it is very beautiful.  I forgot my camera but I took pictures with my phone until the battery died. The journey back was a lot quicker as I came to realise the French do seem to be used to bikes and gave us a wide berth, especially as I wobble a little.

I’m off for another little lie down to get ready for tonight’s stories, Mairead.