October 6th

 Normandy, I love your random weather. I actually do, that sentence was only 30% sarcastic rather than the normal 75%. However, it does suck when it rains while traveling. Today was the trip to the small town of Honfleur. A group of us had decided that we should go for two reasons; tour the lovely town and attend the shrimp festival. I was in it for the tour as well as the shrimp; personally shrimp is my least favorite shellfish. Had it been a lobster festival, I would have camped on location. Anyways we had to be at the train station at 8:30 am to catch the 8:45 am bus. The bare fare was six euros for a two-way ticket, which is pretty cheap for France. The unfortunate thing was, it was raining, a lot. The group as a whole was about ten people, which for touring a small city is too many. Thus we split into a group of four and a group of six; the group of four consisted on Kate, Paula, Valerie, and me. We walked around, through the rain, admiring the shops and quaint architecture. Even through the rain everything was beautiful. I had a pain au chocolat for lunch, but with almonds in it. Oh man it was like a mini coffee cake of deliciousness. After we had our pain au chocolat break we went into a chocolate store! I actually didn't buy anything there, my mother would have bought the whole store, but it was still fun seeing all the slabs of chocolate. I debated on buying some white chocolate with hazelnuts in it, but the responsible voice that rarely speaks up reminded me that the pain au chocolat was enough sweetness for today. However I did enjoy a sample and Paula bought some chocolate covered marshmallow logs which she shared. Those were awesome, France can do marshmallows very well. After that we looked around the Saturday market stalls. I grabbed a stripped scarf, good for winter, and Paula nabbed a stunning dress. At about this time, three hours into the trip, we were tired. It was raining which didn't help and the shrimp festival, well it was different than rib fest. I wasn't too keen on eating shrimp that were still alive, least Naperville kills the pigs before trying to sell them to you. So French to take something like a food festival and turn it into something of a slaughter auction. Thus no shrimp, darn. We ended the trip by relaxing in a small cafe off the docks, which even under the rain was lovely. The four of us then trooped back to the bus, tickets in hand, and returned to our grey-skied Le Havre. Once home we all became lazy pigs in blankets, hey we were cold. Oh well, Honfleur may have been drenched but it was still quaint and pretty, plus a sailing scarf to boot.