‘Paris-sur-Mer’

Friends in France

Our original plan for France had been to head towards Brittany before going ashore. However, our friends from Paris, Pierre-Michel and Cristina, were holidaying in Deauville until the 27^th July and, with our late departure from the Netherlands, this was a great opportunity to see them again. In fact, during their previous holiday in May, Pierre-Michel had sent us a message letting us know that there was a spot for Yuma in Deauville. A photo of an empty berth in a lovely looking marine accompanied the message. So, our sojourn in France got a new starting point; Deauville, a place we’d never heard of.

Pierre-Michel is a friend and colleague of David’s and they have spent time together in all sorts of places –Rio Quente in Brazil, Kunming in China, Parimaribo in Suriname, Brisbane, Cairns, and Atherton in Australia, Bali and Banda Aceh in Indonesia, the Drakensberg in South Africa, and in Montpellier and Paris in France. They joined us for a sailing trip out to Fitzroy Island on the Great Barrier Reef, a trip they well remember for some very queasy reasons. Wherever we meet up, it is always a joy to spend time with Pierre-Michel and his wife Cristina. Two years ago they had been our superb hosts in their hometown of Paris, where they treated us to a four day guided tour that covered the history, architecture, political philosophy and culture of the city that they love. It covered everything from the philosophical arguments for why the Sacré-Cœur is an anti-republican symbol, all the way through to the ‘Correct’ way of cutting different French cheeses and the geography of their courtship. Very cool.

Approaching Deauville and Trouville

This time we were going to meet in Deauville. Deauville, and its neighbouring town, Trouville, are beach resort towns that have been servicing Paris, some 200km inland, since the 19^th century – hence the nickname ‘Paris-sur-Mer’. The towns lie at the mouth of the Touques valley and are separated by the Touques River and a short bridge.

As you approach from the sea, the beaches on either side of the river are lined with promenades and very French versions of beach huts.

Behind them are tall, 19^th century apartment buildings in a jumble of styles and sizes running up the hill slopes that contain the towns. At the very centre of the scene, on either side of the Touques river, are the huge Haussmannesque casinos; one for Trouville and one for Deauville. An impressive scene.

Coïncidence of the day

Having not been very successful in communicating with our first French harbour master, we were not quite sure how things were going to work out in the harbour and so we just headed in to see what would happen. We first motored into the Touques river, before turning in through the locks of the harbour, and then headed towards the bridge and the tall faux-light house portals of the inner harbour itself. And now what? Well, what came next was Pierre-Michel, standing by the drawbridge happily waving us in, a grin the size of the planet plastered across his face as he shouted out a welcome. What a delight that man is!

Clearly everything would be just fine. And sure enough, inside the marina, the harbour master was ready in his runabout and escorted us to our berth at the very end of the marina where we tied up. Unbelievably, this was the same berth that Pierre-Michel had taken a photo of for Yuma in May!

Once we were tied up, the harbour master kindly fetched Pierre-Michel from the quayside and brought him to our pontoon in his boat where there was much hugging and kissing, a few happy tears and general happiness. It felt good to be in Deauville!

The Deauville-Trouville treatment

In Deauville-Trouville, we got a very similar treatment from Pierre-Michel and Christina to that in Paris two years ago.

There was much talking, along with leisurely walks along the esplanades and back streets interspersed with visits to exhibitions, brisk ocean swims, meals of whelks and prawns, seafood patês and deliciously smelly regional cheeses with fresh baguettes.

We sampled beers and wines and even managed to fit in the odd croissant and coffee along the way too. At the end of the visit, we even passed the cultural test of preferring Trouville as a place to hang out and Deauville as a place to sleep and swim (Phew!).

Sadly Pierre-Michel and Cristina had to leave two days later, and so we bid them farewell at the harbour, before spending the rest of the day wandering around Trouville.

Another Yuma coïncidence

While enjoying Deauville, a message popped up from Bart who had sailed with us to England last month. A photo of Yuma on the berth in Deauville marine accompanied his message. What the….? Was Bart in Deauville…? Not at all, he had received the photo from two acquaintances who were holidaying in Deauville. They had been standing on the quay next to Yuma when a Cessna flew over. As Bart flies small planes, this Cessna had made them think of Bart, they took a photo of their surroundings (including Yuma) and sent it to Bart saying, thinking of you in Deauville. Bart did a double take and asked them to take a better shot of Yuma to confirm that it really was her, and, sure enough it was. Fifteen minutes earlier, we had been standing on the same spot for Pierre-Michel and Cristina to take an almost identical photo of Yuma, with us in the foreground.. Weird man!

A daytrip to Honfleur

The town of Honfleur, an old fortified port on the Seine, is a stone-throw away from Deauville-Trouville, and came recommended by Frederieke’s brother Frans and his partner Lisetta as a spot to visit. Rather than taking Yuma there (which would have been a long upstream motor), or risking our lives on our bikes on a very narrow country road, we decided to take the bus from Deauville station to Honfleur. This took us through some nice looking, hilly country side with quaint and small villages along the way. It was in this part of the countryside that Françoise Sagan bought her manor house and settled (if that is the right word) down having won 8 million francs in the Casino de Deauville in 1959. Not at all a bad bit of luck.

Honfleur on a Sunday, with an American cruise ship in the harbour, proved to be swarming with tourists. Just like us they were wandering around almost aimlessly, clogging up the footpaths, blocking streets and getting in the way. The desperately quaint harbour, in the very centre of town, was the epicentre of all of this activity and noise, so we were very happy that we hadn’t brought Yuma along, there would have been no respite.

A horde or tourists however was not going to deter us from being tourists ourselves and so we wandered through the maze of cobbled streets away from the main tourist area, had an espresso and croissant, and enjoyed the scenery of old stone houses and buildings. Back at a café terras bordering the inner harbour, we discovered that French smokers and waiters are not at all amused when one requests a change of table to get away from cigarette smoke from a neighbouring table.

Across near the outer harbour wall we visited an exhibition about William the Conqueror that accompanied a shipyard where a replica of one of his vessels was being built. The boat building was in its very early stages with just the keel laid down but there was lots of medieval boatbuilding stuff to look at; tools, plans, techniques. All good fun. This exhibition also reminded us that Bayeux wasn’t too far off our path further along the coast and ‘that’ tapestry was something we should try to see.

Also in the harbour was a replica of an old Spanish carrack. It looked a bit familiar. We wondered aloud in Dutch, ‘had we seen her before? Where? Was it at ‘DelfSail’ (a tallships festival in the Netherlands). And then in chimed a voice in Dutch, ‘Yes she was in DelfSail last month’. And a jolly conversation about the ‘Nao Victoria’ and her travels ensued.

Early evening saw us back on the bus back to Deauville where we stocked up on some food, and prepared Yuma for a departure the next day.