I think Maureen has found her favorite place on earth. (Outside of Iowa, of course!)

Honfleur is an astonishingly lovely town where the Seine River flows into the English Channel. Impressionist painters flocked to this area for the unique light, and there honestly does seem to be something special in the air here. The “Vieux Bassin” (Old Harbor), which our hotel room overlooks, is a rectangle of water surrounded on three sides by cafes and restaurants. But it’s also a working fishing port—mainly for shrimp, I think.

With the summer solstice just a few days away, it didn’t get dark until almost 11 last night. And Maureen squeezed every bit of light out of the evening, first sitting at a cafe with her sketchbook and watercolors, and then stalking the harbor area with the camera, endlessly repeating “Do you see it?”.

I know we’re well behind in posting photos. But the Internet here is just way too slow, and frankly we just can’t bear the thought of sitting in our hotel room watching an upload progress bar crawl across the screen while we know there’s so much to see outside!