I had heard a lot about it from my students over the years and it has been on my list of must-see places before I leave this amazing country. So finally, yesterday, I went. No regrets there. It was a Sunday in February, so the foot traffic was not overwhelming but it was not so quiet that you wonder what the heck is going on either.Honfleur looks so utterly enchanting, it is hard to remember that it was built essentially for commerce. Its harbour sits in a great location, tucked away on the southern side of the Seine’s estuary. During the Hundred Years War, the French king had this strategic spot fortified, but that didn’t stop the English taking over for several decades.
Through the Ancien Régime, Honfleur’s shipowners made fortunes from trade, notably with North America. Samuel de Champlain, one of the most famous explorers associated with the port, headed off to found the Canadian city of Quebec. Lucrative lines for the Honfleur shipping magnates included not just cod-fishing off Newfoundland, but also the triangular slave trade.
Originally, I had planned to visit a bunch of museums like the Eugene Boudin Museum, Satie House and the Maritime Museum. I did not get to visit even one, unfortunately. Everything closed down around 1:00 for a couple of hours and by then, I had seen all the art I could digest in the art galleries like the Dumose (?) and the Chaye Gallery, and a private art studio by a Romanian artist named Ioana.
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| Francois, husband of the artist |
Ioana lives in this manor (it looks more like a mansion to me) with her husband Francois and a part of the manor is dedicated to her art gallery where she showcases all of her art. (Her address is 35 Rue de L'Homme de Bois 14600 Honfleur.) I did not have the pleasure of meeting her though I saw her as she quickly darted off someplace but her husband Francois is a very warm, welcoming presence and he made me feel very at home by inviting me in and explaining his wife's work history and her provenance and so forth. It was truly amazing.
The mansion spanned 3 or 4 floors and the art went all the way to the top. I was really impressed because I thought, "wow: this is possible?? To find a man like this who is a part of your work and sits at the front desk of your gallery and toot your horn to guests like this??" OMG. It was amazing. But also from the standpoint of, like, omg, this woman has a manor filled with her art that she created over the course of her lifetime!!! And she turned her manor into a gallery!!!And it sits in this charming and enchanting port city called Honfleur!!! And, I mean, how perfect can that life be??? You know???
My goodness. For a fleeting second, I thought, "maybe one day, Marion…maybe one day you will find a man like this." Giggle. Earth to Marion!!!...…………………………………….stop your fantasizing!!!...…..
Well, alright. Back to reality….so, what did I do in Honfleur? Mostly, I just walked around and looked at stuff. There was a flee market and I bought a little porcelain bowl for 5 euros. I took a lot of pictures, especially of the port which is very picturesque, as it appears in all the pictures.
But as time went on, tension ensued. It was with the waitress. She kept trying to take my plate away even though I was not finished eating my food. I had bread left and half my Evian and it was like she was rushing me to leave. And for me, this is a problem. I understand that the sight of me may not exactly be bringing in the customers in droves. Ok. But I am going to pay you nearly 20 euros for this experience which for me is a splurge (that is my food budget for a week, ok, darling?) and I am cold and hungry and tired and I am going to take my time and eat my food, LIKE ALL YOUR OTHER GUESTS who notably you are not constantly asking if they are "finished." D'accord?! Do you understand my Français, darling??
Yes, I was very perturbed by this woman.
At one point, I looked at her innocently (my blood was boiling but I acted as if I had no idea what is going on) and I deadpanned "is there a limit to how long I can stay?" and I smiled when I said that. She said "no." So I explained "I still have some bread and my water and I am trying to upload some pictures on my Instagram." Yes, it is humiliating to have to even explain that to this person but it's like this in the world when you are not "in." And so you get used to it and you either suck it up and swallow your perturbations that they provoke, or you fight back.
So I won that round with her. Because obviously, the place is not exactly packed and there no need to be so helpful and to constantly try to take my food away and rush me out of the restaurant you fucking….!
But then, after, when I was finished and kept indicating to her that I was finished, she tried the move where she ignored me. For many pregnant minutes. Nearly 15 minutes and the place is empty. There was no reason for her to do that except to be nasty.
For me, unacceptable behavior on her part. I would not be ignored.
I calmly got up and I had two ideas. One, just walk out the restaurant without paying. Cause, I mean, how long does this individual think I am going to sit there and wait while she tried her passive aggression? But I knew this was not a solution. How they would all have loved that.
But no. I did not go to Honfleur for that.
So I did the next best thing. I took my sac and walked into the restaurant (I was seated outside on the heated patio) and I said to her "I would like to pay." And I took out a twenty and held it out. She huffed "You have to wait." And she made a thing of taking some water to one of her guests.
No problem. I can wait till you give the water but after, let's see what else you think you are going to do.
She came back and she could do nothing. Nothing else was waiting on her. She was trapped. If she continued to ignore me, her passive aggression would be exposed. Once again, I stretched out my hand with the 20. She rang up my tab and she literally did not give it me. She left it on the machine. So I had to go closer to the machine to read how much I owed this individual.
But no problem. I can do that. I ate, I pay. This is normal. I can't expect courtesy of being handed my check by the waitress on top of all that, can I?
She took the 20 and she gave me my change and I smiled at her, and walked out, shutting the door firmly behind me.
No, I did not let this exchange fuck up the rest of my time in Honfleur. It is too beautiful a place for that. So I held on to my happiness and sense of cheer and goodwill. But I have to say I just can't get used to this thing that happens routinely in restaurants and places like that. It's deplorable.
There is something wrong and people need to speak up about this. It is too widespread and it is unstopping. This has to be discussed. It is one of the reasons that I hardly ever spend my hard earned money in these establishments because they abuse you. If they don't do it themselves, their guests do it. And to me, to pay them to treat me with such indignities is a failure to self, on my part, not theirs. It is to fail myself to pay them my hard earned euros only to have them (or their guests!) abuse me. So I avoid - which, I guess is the whole objective. Instead, I spend my money on other pleasures that I can see for years to come. But in Honfleur, it was just that I was there for a full day and, you know, sometimes, you want to give the benefit of the doubt to people….
Unfortunately, they can never seem to rise to the occasion….but then, there are people like Francois. By the time I returned to Paris, he had already sent an email with a link to his wife's art website and he had cut and paste a couple of sentences from my blog (I had mentioned my blog to him) to show me he had read it. So cute!!! All hope is not lost in this world, I guess. :)
Well, so that is that for my trip to Honfleur. Other than the tension with the waitress, my trip to Honfleur was very, very nice. And very, very memorable. Below you can find some of my photos.
Big smile :)
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| This one was interesting. What do you think? |
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