Week 3 – Monday 15th July –Small dogs and Angry Frogs

Is that your small dog I’m standing on, or are you just displeased to see me?  Small dogs are everywhere in France, and they go everywhere with their owners – most particularly they go to restaurants, where they lounge around looking bored, but usually sitting under their owners seats.  I say usually, because the one I encountered today, was not under its owner’s seat, and although I can not vouch that it didn’t move, I know that I certainly was, and the yelps of pain / ecstasy that suddenly emerged from under the table put me entirely in defensive mode, and I was left apologising profusely for stepping on the proud owner’s dog.  In future, I will know to have my game face on and to loudly proclaim “who left this small dog in this ridiculous position” in English or Australian, of course.

We have noticed an over abundance of a particularly ugly, pug dog type creature, with huge ears that we have nicknamed “chien du pays”, dog of the region, after the wine of the similar name.  We’ve seen several of these parked car chases positioned in restaurants and have been unfortunate enough to have them seated beside us in a couple of restaurants.  This of course obliges us to do the usual, “oh, isn’t he beautiful” type malarkey, but whatever it takes to keep the locals happy, I say.

Honfleur is a beautiful little town, and after the 14^th of July’s fireworks display, it is now looking a wee bit the worse for wear, but the town’s council staff are in full swing at 8am cleaning up the detritus from last nights festivities.  Anne and I went out early to look around the town, and take some photos while the light was good. 

Honfleur is a town of artists, yachties, and as I mentioned, small dogs.  I feel like k, k, k, ken from a fish called Wanda, as I’m  forever on the lookout for these hairy sneakers / hand bag fillers that people parade around with so proudly.  The Honfleur harbour is in fact a small off shoot off the Seine, so has no natural water flowing through it, although fish do chose to live in it.  It’s other main inhabitants are yachtsmen, who are put on this earth to provide entertainment for the restaurant goers, who are lucky enough to get to enjoy them manoeuvring their boats.  The harbour is trapped inside an elevating bridge, which is lifted every hour, on the half hour.  The boats stack themselves up 4 or 5 deep, then when somebody wants to leave through the channel under the bridge, everybody outside them has to move, so they can get out, then the people who aren’t leaving re-position themselves and the whole thing waits for the next hours bridge lifting.  With boats, skippers, wives, ropes, friends, children, dogs and cats, all involved in the manouvering process, there is limitless possibilities for things to go wrong, and for large and expensive yachts to be sent crashing into one another, so for the price of a small breakfast, you can be set up for the day amusing yourselves at other people’s misfortune.  That might sound a bit cynical, but some of the yachties comments indicated that it wasn’t just us land lubbers who were having a bit of a laugh.

Neighbors in the camp ground are just trying to shut up for the night.  38 hearty door slams later, I think everything is ship-shape.  There are teenagers, and potentially stressed parents involved, so I’m not sure who was involved in the ruckus, but it certainly makes for interesting living.

I’ve mentioned artists, and Honfleur has many very beautiful art galleries, which have some very exotic, and in some cases, some very beautiful and original art.  None of it is priced of course, so I’m working on the basis of “if you have to ask, you can’t afford it”. The people who work in the art galleries are very friendly however, and fully accepting of the fact that with what they are selling they might have to talk to 1,000 flunking before they find a real customer who wants to buy.  The great thing about the UK and Europe, is that you never can tell what that real customer may look like, so you have to be nice to them all.

Tomorrow, we are off to Bayeux, and back to camping which we are looking forward to.  WWII D-Day landing beaches, the Bayeux tapestry and more small French villages to wander through.  What fun.