From the Outer Harbor to the Seine Estuary

Walking along this jetty, you’re standing at the edge of Honfleur’s outer harbor, a threshold between the town’s inner basins and the open sea. Follow this stretch of water further out and it suddenly widens into the Seine estuary, the vast place where the river meets the English Channel. An estuary is a fragile, one-of-a-kind environment where fresh water and salt water blend. The Seine’s is among the largest in Europe, famous for its shifting landscapes with the tides and for its extraordinary wildlife: sandbanks, marshes, flocks of migratory birds, and even the occasional seal. So even if today you turn back toward the heart of Honfleur, remember that just a few steps away begins a completely different world, the mouth of the Seine, opening onto a boundless maritime horizon.