Travels With Snacks: More Fossils, Honfleur, and Soccer!

More fossil hunting

Little girl with baguettes

Yesterday was a more relaxed day for us without any set plans other than a 9pm World Cup match in Le Havre! We have really enjoyed finding fossils and Doug took Elisabeth and Charlotte out to the beach at low tide to look for some more on the way to picking up our breakfast croissants.

When we were at Paleospace, I saw a sign that said the museum staff would be happy to help you identify fossils so we decided to test their generosity. Sure enough, we showed up with a gallon size ziploc bag about half full of fossils and they brought out a scientist who sat with us in a room and patiently told us what was 100-160 million years old and what was just a rock. Very, very, very kind of them and exciting for us.

Old port of Honfleur

Saint Catherine's Church

After Paleospace we came home and rested for awhile before setting out to a town called Honfleur for dinner. Honfleur is a small town that has been in existence since at least 1027. The old port area where we spent most of our time has very windy cobblestone streets, alleyways with staircases that get you between blocks, and narrow very tall buildings like row houses all painted uniquely. It looks straight out of a JK Rowling novel. Diagon Alley must be modeled off of Honfleur.

windy cobblestone streets of Honfleur

We wandered all around and spent some time in St. Catherine's Church, which is the oldest wooden structure church in France, dating back to the 15th century.

Game faces on!

We had dinner outside at a cute little restaurant that looked like it would move us along quickly. I think every person eating outside - which was hundreds of people - was either from the US or Sweden. Lots of jerseys, lots of people unable to order easily, lots of waiters confused why people wanted dinner at 5pm.

From Honfleur we went "straight" to Le Havre, after our Google Maps helped us make several wrong turns. We parked at the stadium in plenty of time to get inside before the teams came out for warmups. We sat in the American Outlaws section which is where no one actually sits and everyone stands and chants the entire game. Our seats were behind the goal, 5th row - incredible seats. It is incredible to watch these talented women up close.

Amazing seats!!!

The game ended and we quite literally sprinted out of the stadium to try and beat traffic, which was successful. A journey that I thought might take us an hour plus only took us 42 mins to get home. We tip toed inside so as not to disturb our downstairs neighbor and then all fell asleep.

Today we have to say goodbye to Normandy (after finding a few more fossils). We will drive down to St. Etienne and visit with friends for 2 days before heading off to Barcelona to get on our cruise ship!