| Visitors to Honfleur inevitably gravitate towards the old centre, around the Vieux Bassin. At the bassin, slate-fronted houses, each of them one or two storeys higher than seems possible, harmonize – despite their tottering and ill-matched forms – into a backdrop that is only excelled by the Lieutenance at the harbour entrance. The latter was the dwelling of the king's lieutenant, and has been the gateway to the inner town at least since 1608, when Samuel Champlain sailed from Honfleur to found Québec. The church of St-Étienne nearby is now the Musée de la Marine, which combines a collection of model ships with several rooms of antique Norman furnishings (April–June & Sept Tues–Sun 10am–noon & 2–6pm; July & Aug daily 10am–1pm & 2–6.30pm; Oct to mid-Nov & mid-Feb to March Tues–Fri 2–5.30pm, Sat & Sun 10am–noon & 2–5.30pm; closed mid-Nov to mid-Feb; €2.30). Just behind it, two seventeenth-century salt stores, used to contain the precious commodity during the days of the much-hated gabelle or salt tax, now serve as the Musée du Vieux Honfleur (same hours; €2.30, or combined with Musée de la Marine €3.80), filled with everyday artefacts from old Honfleur. The town's artistic past – and its present concentration of galleries and painters – owes most to Eugène Boudin, forerunner of Impressionism. He was born and worked in the town, trained the 18-year-old Monet and was joined for various periods by Pissarro, Renoir and Cézanne. Boudin was among the founders of what's now the Musée Eugène Boudin, west of the port on place Erik-Satie, and left 53 works to it after his death in 1898 (mid-Feb to mid-March & Oct–Dec Mon & Wed–Fri 2.30–5pm, Sat & Sun 10am–noon & 2.30–5pm; mid-March to Sept daily except Tues 10am–noon & 2–6pm; €5). His pastel seascapes and sunsets in particular are quite appealing here in context, and they're accompanied by changing temporary exhibitions and a few ethnographic displays. Admission also gives you access to the detached belfry of the church of Ste-Catherine (daily 9am–6pm). Both church and belfry are built almost entirely of wood – supposedly due to economic restraints after the Hundred Years War. The church itself makes a change from the usual Norman stone constructions, and has the added peculiarity of being divided into twin naves, with one balcony running around both. From rue de l'Homme-de-Bois behind you can see yacht masts through the houses overlooking the bassin and, in the distance, the huge industrial panorama of Le Havre's docks. Just down the hill from the Musée Boudin, at 67 bd Charles-V, is Les Maisons Satie (daily except Tues: May–Sept 10am–7pm; Oct–Dec and late Feb to April 11am–6pm; closed Jan to late Feb; €5), the red-timbered house of Erik Satie. From the outside it looks unchanged since the composer was born there in 1866. Step inside, however, and you'll find yourself in Normandy's most unusual and enjoyable museum. As befits a close associate of the Surrealists, Satie is commemorated by all sorts of weird interactive surprises. It would be a shame to give too many of them away here; suffice it to say that you're immediately confronted by a giant pear, bouncing into the air on huge wings to the strains of his best-known piano piece, Gymnopédies. You also get to see a filmed reconstruction of Parade, a ballet on which Satie collaborated with Picasso, Stravinsky and Cocteau, which created a furore in Paris in 1917.
Pages in section ‘The Town’: Arrival and information, Accommodation.
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