This is part of our 10-day trip to the Normandy region of France in August 2020. You can find the overall itinerary and links to other stops on this trip in our Normandy post.
When I saw pictures of Honfleur’s old harbour full of boats and lined with brightly colored, narrow, half-timbered houses, I knew this was a town I wanted to visit. Here’s what was on our list for a day in Honfleur.
1. Jardin Public
We parked in one of the parking lots just before town (coming in on D513). As we made the short walk to town, we passed the Jardin Public. It was covered with gorgeous flowers, plus a couple playgrounds for the kids to burn off some energy. It is a great spot to add to your itinerary for some downtime or a picnic lunch.
2. St. Catherine’s Church
St. Catherine’s Church is a wooden structure that is simple compared to many other European churches, but it’s also really unique. It was built in the 15th century after the Hundred Years’ War by locals who used their ship-building skills . This basically resulted in the ceiling looking like an overturned boat. A separate bell tower is located across the street. When we arrived at the church, there was a funeral taking place, so just a reminder that this church and many others are still actively used. We ended up circling back to see the inside of the church later in the day.
3. Old Town
We spent a good amount of time just wandering up and down the streets of this charming old town. In addition to the cobbled stone streets, bright colors, fun architecture and abundance of flowers, there were also some great shops to check out with everything from regional foods to art galleries.
4. Vieux Bassin
This was the old harbour that kept showing up in photos and it was dreamy in person. After walking around the narrow streets, it was a nice change to walk out into this open space.
It’s a stunning place for plenty of photos, and the Carousel of Honfleur is located on the far end. I’ve seen recommendations to visit the harbour at night as well when the buildings’ lights are reflecting off the water (which sounds magical!).
5. NaturoSpace
We wanted to give the kids something specifically for them, and the sun was getting quite hot so we also wanted to be indoors. I had read about this butterfly house, and our kids love butterflies, so this seemed like a no-brainer. (It was also near where the car was parked, so convenient as well!)
The online reviews generally said it was nice but expensive. Having now visited, I would echo the same opinion, so go in with that knowledge. It was 32 EUR for our family of four and it took only 30 minutes to watch the introductory film and slowly go through the entire butterfly house. The employee told us we could do the loop through two times, but it honestly didn’t seem like it would be that interesting a second time through.
That said, as expected, our kids had a lot of fun spotting the butterflies and birds. Overall, I was glad we’d made the decision to treat them to something we knew they’d enjoy.