Honfleur

Where music and art meet the sea

The view from the edge of Le Jardin des Personnalités back towards Honfleur and the Pont de Normandie

We spent the day in Honfleur. It’s a beautiful town situated on the estuary of the Seine in the Calvados department of France. It’s famous for many things, but perhaps most notable are the artists who have spent time there. They include Gustave Courbet, Eugène Boudin, Claude Monet and Johan Jongkind, forming the école de Honfleur which contributed to the appearance of the Impressionist movement. It was also the home of composer Erik Satie (listen to some of his music here).

We started our day at Maisons Satie, the birthplace of Erik Satie. It’s a rather idiosyncratic museum, curated like no other I’ve ever been to. We were the only people in the museum the whole time we were there, which kind of added to the experience! We both left the museum wanting to explore and play more of Satie’s piano music when we get home.

A player piano at the Maisons Satie playing, well of course, Satie!

Lunch was a very good filled baguette, half of a tartelette Normande (a DELICIOUS apple custard pastry that I won’t forget in a while) and a bottle of water. Since I left my full-time job, we don’t have much spare cash so instead of