07/19/2026
Honfleur que ville magnifique
This same harbor sent a ship across the Atlantic in 1608, and the city it founded is still standing today.
You are looking at Honfleur's Vieux Bassin (Old Basin), on the Normandy coast where the Seine River meets the English Channel. The captain, Samuel de Champlain, sailed from these docks and went on to found Quebec City in Canada, one of the oldest European settlements in North America.
The row of houses that frames the harbor in both photos dates back to the 1500s through the 1700s. Some rise seven stories on lots barely wide enough for a single room per floor, and they have been protected as historic monuments since 1933.
The basin itself, roughly 425 feet (130 meters) long, was rebuilt in the early 1680s on the orders of Colbert, Louis XIV's finance minister, then expanded again in the 1720s to handle more ships. That is the same water sitting calm and full in the "Today" photo.
By the late 1800s, Honfleur had also become a magnet for painters. Claude Monet, Eugene Boudin and Gustave Courbet all set up their easels along this quay, and the light they were chasing helped give rise to Impressionism.
Honfleur sits about 120 miles (193 kilometers) from Paris, and about a two hour drive.
