Paris to Honfleur by private car — the old harbour in a day

Honfleur is the harbour that Boudin, Jongkind and the young Monet painted, and the reason the Impressionists ended up on the Normandy coast at all. It is two and a quarter hours from Paris on the A13, across the Pont de Normandie, and it has no useful railway station — the nearest is Deauville-Trouville, twenty minutes away by bus or taxi.

The town itself is small: the Vieux Bassin, the Sainte-Catherine church built by shipwrights out of oak, the Eugène Boudin museum and the streets behind the quay take about three hours. That is why we almost always run it with a second and sometimes a third stop on the Côte Fleurie.

Distance

200 km

Drive time

2 h 15 each way

Day length

9–11 h door to door

From

€760

What Honfleur is actually like

It is beautiful, it is genuinely old, and in July and August it is very busy. The Vieux Bassin fills with day visitors from about eleven, and the restaurants on the quay charge accordingly. Arriving at ten rather than midday changes the visit substantially, and eating one street back from the water changes the bill.

The Boudin museum is the piece most people skip and the one that explains why the town matters: Boudin was Monet’s first teacher and the collection puts the harbour outside the window into context in about forty minutes.

The rest of the Côte Fleurie

Twenty minutes west, Deauville and Trouville face each other across the Touques. Deauville is the boardwalk, the parasols, the Belle Époque villas and the racecourse; Trouville, on the other bank, is the working fishing town with the better market and lower prices. Half an hour in each is enough unless you plan to sit on a beach.

Cabourg, Houlgate and Villers-sur-Mer continue west towards the D-Day coast, which is the reason Honfleur also works as the first stop of a Normandy transfer rather than a destination in itself.

Honfleur as a stopover, not a destination

A large share of the Honfleur bookings we take are one-way: Paris or CDG to a hotel in Honfleur, Deauville or Cabourg, with the town as the arrival stop. It also sits neatly at the start of a two-day Normandy trip — Honfleur and the coast on day one, the landing beaches and Bayeux on day two — which is a much better use of the distance than a single 13-hour day.

What makes this journey different

• The Vieux Bassin and the tall slate-fronted houses on the Quai Sainte-Catherine
• Sainte-Catherine, the largest timber church in France, built by shipwrights
• Deauville, Trouville and the Côte Fleurie, 20 minutes west
• Étretat, 50 minutes north across the Pont de Normandie
• Works as a day trip, a one-way transfer or a stop en route to the D-Day beaches

How the day runs

1. 08:30Pick-up in Paris

   From your hotel, apartment or airport terminal.

2. 10:45Honfleur

   The Vieux Bassin, Sainte-Catherine and the Boudin museum before the crowd.

3. 13:00Lunch

   On the quay, or one street back for half the price.

4. 14:30Deauville and Trouville

   The boardwalk on one bank, the fish market on the other.

5. 19:00Back in Paris

   Or dropped at a Normandy hotel to continue the next day.

What the price includes

• The whole vehicle, not a seat: four people pay what one person pays.
• All motorway tolls and fuel, on both legs of the journey.
• Your driver’s waiting time at every stop, with no meter running.
• Parking charges at the sites you visit.
• Baby, child and booster seats, fitted free on request.
• Flight tracking and free waiting time if your plane lands late.
• Bottled water, phone chargers and Wi-Fi on board.
• A written invoice, issued by a licensed French VTC operator.

Frequently asked questions

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