Honfleur: My Impressionist Dream

We tendered right into the heart of the Vieux Bassin – slate-roofed houses stacked like macarons around the water, sailboats bobbing, the smell of crêpes and Calvados everywhere. Sainte-Catherine church – built by shipwrights after the Hundred Years' War, entirely of wood with a bell tower across the street like a separate lighthouse.

We had lunch at SaQuaNa – two Michelin stars of seafood that tasted like the ocean went to culinary school. In the afternoon we walked the Côte de Grâce for views over the Seine estuary that made Monet grab his paintbrush. The pros: feels like a painting you can walk inside. The cons: tiny, so one ship fills it – but the charm wins every time.