Ideas for between Beuvron-en-Auge and Le Havre

Andrea,
As far as your after lunch plans, I would just stay in Beuvron-en-Auge. It appears to be a lovely village with many half-timbered buildings, is one of the "most beautiful villages in France", and is along the Cider Route. Viamichelin indicates the drive to be just over one hour to and from Le Havre, so with debarking, picking up your car, and the drive of (probably) 1 1/2 hours each way, and returning the car after gassing up, you won 't have much time to visit another town. Lunch should be a two-hour affair. Check out the tourist information for Beuvron-en-Auge. It really looks like a nice place to explore. Viamichelin shows three route choices, two of which use the autoroute (toll) roads. Another route, longer, inland, no tolls, shows 1 3/4 hours, which means probably a little over 2 hours drive. And getting to or from your ship can take a while. (I have never driven in Le Havre.) The shorter drives are near the coast, so you should have some pretty views, and they both go by Trouville and Honfleur. Your choice. Whatever you decide, have a lovely time and bon appetit!

Andrea,
Just fyi, Ascension Thursday is a Catholic holiday, but not a major state holiday. We were in France last year on that day and nothing was shut down where we were. Pentecost Sunday was more observed, but no restaurants were closed that day in Paris, at least from what we saw.

Most businesses, stores, supermarkets, will be open on Thursday May 9. Only administrative services or banks can be closed.

But note that in early May 2024 there will be several public holidays, Wednesday 1st, Wednesday 8th and Thursday 9th, and schools will be closed on Friday 10th, which means that many French people will take the opportunity to take some days of vacation.

To reach Beuvron-en-Auge from Le Havre (or on the way back), I would advise you to avoid the motorways and take the small departmental roads (starting with a D)
Either by following the coastal road from Honfleur then Trouville, Villers sur mer and Cabourg, or by driving inland via Pont l'Evêque (and its famous cheese)

There are several castles in this area, perhaps you have spotted:

Saint-Germain-de-Livet Castle:

https://www.authenticnormandy.fr/en/explore/must-sees/saint-germain-de-livet-castle/

Crèvecoeur Castle

https://www.chateaudecrevecoeur.com/en/

Canon Castle

https://www.chateaudecanon.com/home.html

Carel Castle

https://www.calvados-tourisme.co.uk/offer/chateau-de-carel/

A 15-minute drive from Beuvron-en-Auge is the Pierre Huet calvados, cider and pommeau distillery.

https://www.calvados-huet.com/gb/

Be careful, alcohol and driving are not compatible

Thank you so much, Judy and JoLui.

I knew Beuvron-en-Auge was one of the "Plus Beaux Villages", its why I targeted it. Looks like there's a lot of little shops to mooch around before or after the lunch, so perhaps we will stay there for the whole day. The menu at the restaurant looks amazing but I wonder if there's a different lunch menu. Time will tell and I'm really excited about this restaurant. I'll report back to the community.

JoLui, thanks for the links. It was Saint-Germain-de-livet that I had previously found online. I'll keep it at the ready in case we have time to visit. And perhaps the distillery. No worries, DH does the driving abroad and never drinks even a sip when at the wheel. The rest of us have a good time!

You can visit first Honfleur and then follow the coastal road – D513 – to Trouville / Deauville. I heave driven it several times, but in this direction it’s more scenic than in the opposite direction as the view is a bit spoiled with the harbour of Le Havre at the background. Expect Honfleur overrun with tourists on Ascension Day and will be hard to find a parking lot for the car close to the old harbour. If you can arrive there in the morning it will be (hopefully) doable. I arrived there once on a Sunday noon and it was too busy there, so skipped the place and visited it a few years later.

To my opinion Trouville has a more pleasant vibe, especially during market days. Deauville has a few lovely streets at the backside of the Casino.

Beuvron-en-Auge is hard to beat but Cambremer is also lovely and more east Blangy-le-Château too, however Beuvron is the best to walk around for those with mobility issues. These places belong to the Pays d'Auge and the region to go if you like those lovely half-timbered houses you can find there in abundance.

Last: Never visited it but Calvados Christian Drouin near Pont l'Évêque looks a great place I want to see somewhere in the future. The same for JoLui suggests

After looking on the Pavé d'Auge website, it seems to me that the menu is the same for lunch and dinner.
Taking the "4 courses" menu (4 temps), i.e. starter, mains course, cheese and dessert, will allow you to taste the famous and excellent Norman cheeses.

As a starter I would have taken the sea urchin tongue, sea urchin, egg yolk and sunflower seed condiment (I love sea urchins), and as a main course the fattened hen from the Bec d'Or farm in two ways, truffles and root vegetables doesn't seem bad at all to me...

look carefully at the list of desserts, you are asked to order them at the start of the meal.

Bon appétit!

Thanks Wil. I think we will skip Honfleur because of the holiday crowds and stick around closer to Beuvron-en-Auge.

JoLui... sea urchin? Tongue? Not sure I can bring myself to it. I don't eat very much in the way of seafood, though I recently ate alligator. Which I guess isn't seafood! I'm definitely doing the four course menu.

Actually what we call sea urchin tongue seems to be called "gonads" in the USA, and probably also in Canada.

It's extremely good with a fine flavor (and usually quite expensive)

I've never eaten alligator, but sometimes weird things like insects or toad burgers...(and alligator is probably better than toad in my opinion)

Testicle?? No thanks. But I might try to trick my friend into ordering it.

With Ascension the French will take a so called long weekend, so many will be on holiday and so on the move to visit tourist places. So expect Honfleur, being one of the Normandy hotdpots will be more busy as it already most of the time is. But you can drive through it (and see that old harbour) and see if it is doable to visit it or not and then take that scenic road to Trouville. Honfleur is close to the first exit south of that huge Pont de Normandy you have to drive over from Le Havre, so easy to reach to find out worth visiting or not to my opinion. Ofcourse up to you what to decide.

So Beuvron will welcome more visitors too than during normal weekdays for instance. I have visited Beuvron a few years back on a Sunday and there were more visitors than I saw during my visit years before during a weekday. That first visit I had the place almost to my self.