Home sweet home

Up bright and early as we had an early night which we needed because Steve and Sue had worn us out partying. Even Zebedee was very tired when we left and could hardly keep his eyes open, I’m not sure what he had been drinking.

First stop Honfleur that Steve and Sue had recommended to see. We found a parking place close to the harbor. It’s a lovely town with harbors, shops, lots of restaurants and little quaint streets. We had started walking around long before lunch selecting our favorite choice to eat in on our way around. Once it was lunch time we set off back to it but changed our mind once we were there. We settled for a little one nearby and ended up having Claire’s birthday lunch today instead of going out again this Friday. We had the testing menu which consisted of about 7 courses with Calvados sorbet in-between 2 of them. The place was called Le Hamelin and they also had rooms and studios to rent (www.lehamelin.com). We were first there and almost last out, what a wonderful way of spending 3 hours and I wish we could go there for my birthday lunch. Fabulous food that started with Foie gras, kebabs with king prawns and scallops then tornados steak. I said to Claire that it is no wonder that they have a 2 hour lunch break in France and if they came here they would be late back.

Another walk around and back to the car to pay the extortionate parking bill. Next stop Le Havre to catch our ferry home. When I first set the satnav to avoid toll charges it estimated our journey time at 2 hours and 35 minutes so I changed it to accept toll charges and it went down to 34 minutes. Quite a worthwhile saving we thought, especially as petrol prices seem to be higher than at home. We paid up to 1.61 Euros/l over here while at home it is about £1.20/l which must be lower. Over the suspension bridge and all that was left was to find our way around the diversions everywhere to the port and wait for the boat to leave in about 3 hours time.

A reasonable crossing and we were back in England by midnight but we had to wait for about 30 minutes to get off which is crazy as we were the first on. Mind you, we were last on coming over as the battery went dead but first off. A rotten journey home and not a good nights sleep. I think Claire had “ferry lag” as she couldn’t sleep, it must have been the one hour time difference.