[Worldtrippers home] [2025 Crystal-Viking]
Welcome to France! The Viking World Cruise itinerary includes a single stop in France. Normally we dock in Le Havre at the estuary of the Seine River. This year we went across the bay to Honfleur, a new port for us.
Both Le Havre and Honfleur serve as gateways to Paris and Normandy. Guests can take a ten-hour bus excursion to Paris, which involves a three-hour bus ride each way. They can also take an nine-hour bus excursion to the Normandy beaches, where the WWII D-Day invasion took place.
We did not feel like spending hours aboard a bus, so we had no planned excursion. Instead, we had a leisurely morning aboard ship, enabling us to avoid a morning of pouring rain. By afternoon the skies had cleared, so we took the complimentary shuttle bus 10 minutes into Honfleur.
Honfleur is known for its old and historic houses. Many notable painters have lived here, including Gustave Courbet, Eugène Boudin and Claude Monet. In fact, Honfleur is considered the birthplace of the impressionist art movement.
What a charming, picturesque city! Where our normal French port of Le Havre is fairly industrial, Honfleur is filled with street markets and historical architecture. We only had a couple of hours to walk around, and Gail spent most of the time photographing buildings that dated back to the 16th century.
We were back in time to have tea with master chef Karen Burns-Booth. And this evening was the Viking World Cruise farewell event. We joined a hundred crew members who walked up on stage as Cruise Director Cornelia David gave a final toast.
