Cruise stop in Le Havre - what to do??

So have you been to Paris before? Will you likely ever get another chance to go there? Do you fancy touring the doubtless fascinating city of Le Havre? Do you fancy staying on board the ship all day? If you go to cruisecritic.com and click onto "ports" you may find some alternatives to Paris from the port of Le Havre that appeal to you. Me? I'd go to Paris!

Not far from the Normandy beaches, Honfleur, Giverny(Monet), Fecamp (Benedictine). La Harve is a world heritage site. By the time you got to Paris you'd have time to munch a crepe chug some wine before heading back.

You can make the trip to Paris but it does take time. I don't see how anyone would enjoy it. If you've never been before, Paris needs more than a day trip. If you have been before you know that already.

Chech out cruisecritic.com. It has discussion about every port of call. Most of the contributors seem to like ship excursions (which are too expensive and slow for my taste) but the site will give you some good ideas on what activities are possible from the port.

I haven't been to Rouen, but I've read that the cathedral there is not to be missed. You can get there in one hour by train.

Luke,
I don't know which cruise line you are on but I just picked a cruise line (Princess) and looked at their excursions to Paris from Le Havre. Their excursions to Paris looked to be about $200+ PP, that's a lot of money for a long, long bus ride and a couple of sights in Paris (one tour went to Notre Dame, one went to the Eiffel Tower, one did a Seine cruise), obviously you don't have time in Paris for more than one major sight, a lunch stop, and bus ride around the city. If you just want to say you've been to Paris, then weigh the cost and do it if it's in your budget. My advice would be to 1. take the train to Rouen, visit the cathedral, see the Joan of Arc sights, walk around the town a bit, have a nice lunch and train back to the ship, or 2. arrange ahead of time for a rental car for one day and see the D-Day beaches and sights. Or the cruise my have a guided tour of the D-Day sights also.

In my previous post I suggested that you consider going to Rouen. However, if you decide to go to Paris, you don't have to take a tour sponsored by your cruise ship. It's a two-hour ride by train and the standard 2nd class fare is €32.10 each way. If you book well in advance (up to three months allowed) at voyages-sncf.com (in French) or tgv-europe.com (in English), you can get a Prem's fare as low as €15.00 each way. There are some tricks to booking on the tgv-europe site to avoid being bumped to the Rail Europe site which doesn't offer discount fares. If you want to know more, just ask. When you get to Paris you can buy one-day, zone 1-2 Mobilis passes for €6.40/person and hop on and off the metro, the RER, and the bus as much as you like.

Thanks so much for the ideas! Three of us have already been to Paris and the D-day beaches, so I think we'd opt something new. I like the idea of Rouen or Honfleur...easiest to do by train? Taxi? We've had good luck renting a car cheap in Greece at ports...too $$?
Thank you so much for the help! Kind of overwhelmed with all the planning!

My suggestion would be for either Rouen (which we've never been to but hear great things about) or Honfleur. Honfleur is touristy but very picturesque and has a wonderful art museum (impressionist) if you like that.

Thanks everyone! Really appreciate the help! So much to see...so little time...

Rouen: Take the train. Honfleur: Take the bus (no train service).