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A visit to Deauville and Honfleur (LFRG)

I wasn`t the onlyone taking advantage of the lovely weather last sunday. It was forcast a couple of days in advance so I took the opportunity to use my IR on the first long(ish) trip abroad. And what a great day we enjoyed. I flew with my father in law and a good friend (also a pilot, ATPL).

We filed IFR at FL140, and with a nice tailwind it took us approx. 1 hour and 45 minutes to complete the 300 nm flight from Teuge to Deauville. We enjoyed good weather along our route with low st to the east of us but we saw the ground beneath us most of the time. Not a bad way to start februari! I was in Honfleur before and would love to visit again. On the way to Deauville I wanted to try out the Golze150, but something was wrong with the datatransfer, I got a mail from Sebastian the same day to sort it out.

We got vectors to the ILS30 on LFRG and without any hassle except a `mandatory` visit to the friendly douanier we made our way to the taxistands where we met our cabdriver (we called at the C office). It cost the dear sum of € 45 to take the three of us to the old harbour. The sun was shining and we sat on a terrace by the water and enjoyed a nice lunch.

In the old town there was a brocante market around the beautiful church of Sainte Catherine, it’s entirely made of wood with a lot of techniques also used for building ships.

We didn’t have a lot of time to take in some more of the picturesque scenery, we had to be back around 1745 LT at Teuge. So off we went, after taking along some of the mandatory macarons for the girls back home.

The flight back was as easy and relaxed as the flight in. We departed RWY30 and flew a SID over the sea and the River Seine to Dieppe and soon after we were cleared to the Belgian border and soon after that to the Dutch border, where we had to leave FL090 for 3000 ft and then we got a direct to Teuge. This was a two hour flight with the most amazing views. I did think about Sala and his pilot who crashed with their Malibu in the Chanel we flew along. We could see much of the Kent coastline from our cruising altitude.

These are the days that make flying truely amazing!

Last Edited by Bobo at 05 Feb 13:21
EHTE, Netherlands

The second picture from the bottom is quite interesting! Are those showers falling from such a thin cloud layer?

EDDW, Germany

Thanks for the write up, and Honfleur does look nice: I’ve now added Deauville to my list of places to go. How was transport into Honfleur – is it taxi?

EGHO-LFQF-KCLW, United Kingdom

Yes – a thin cloud layer. Not common…

Deauville airport has been avoided by many for many years because the local taxi drivers are taking the p1ss by charging €50 each way. I wonder if anything has changed?

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Great trip Bobo: nice warm up for a fresh IR

Peter wrote:

Yes – a thin cloud layer. Not common…

You need to be very lucky with the timing to see it, after one minute there is probably nothing left !

Capitaine wrote:

I’ve now added Deauville to my list of places to go. How was transport into Honfleur – is it taxi?

@Noe had a recent trip there, was it 40 quids on each taxi leg?

I bought two folding bikes specifically for this place, I still have some few trips before it pays back compared to taxis

Paris/Essex, France/UK, United Kingdom

I don’t think it has changed (we need a national change on that matter, taxi drivers, like other entrepreneurs, pay an awful amount of taxes).

Honfleur is very well preserved.
Deauville itself is more like L2K, a 19th century sea resort for Parisians. Different style.

Le Touquet is an exception from other French fields because the city is a few kms from the airfield, on a completely flat area, so bikes offer good ground transport.
Deauville airport is 500ft above the coast, so rental bikes would be useless to go to the towns

If anyone wants to visit from LFRG, send a PM, I can reach a local club member who is actually a taxi driver. It won’t be much cheaper but you’ll be able to talk airplanes on the way

LFOU, France

Ibra wrote:

@Noe had a recent trip there, was it 40 quids on each taxi leg?

I think it’s a “50 euros flat fee” from honfleur to the airport. We were by the meter, and only had a limited amount of euros, so the guy only charged us 44 (what we had) out of the 48 on the meter. I didn’t cycle the way back, because I didn’t want to be a 3rd wheel (I flew with a couple), and instead cycled Honfleur → Trouville → Airport.

They paid the “flat fee” from honfleur, for what would have been a 20-25 min ride on my brompton. Then you wonder why the acceptance

On my brompton, it’s about 20-25 min, some decent scenery and exercise (especially when you start from the beach at trouville). It also allows to access some less accessible beaches (I had a swim back in November, and the water was warmer than on the coast west of Lisbon a couple weeks before).

Trouville has a great sea food market, I always try to bring some back (there are probably less fishmongers in London than in Trouville). They can also cook the shelfish on the spot for you, and you can eat it there, at market prices.

I think out of the 3 towns, Deauville is the least interesting one

For me, it’s always a great pleasure to get my bike on the place, cycle from the plane to the terminal (sometimes under amused CAT passengers), and go wherever I want. I can also feel less guilty about the lunch I’m having ;)

Last Edited by Noe at 05 Feb 19:27

I visited Deauville a few years ago, the airport was great, but it costed us about 100 Euro to go to the city and back. Which is crazy for a short visit in my opinion. If it wasn’t for the crazy taxi price I would visit it more often.

Last Edited by jvdo at 05 Feb 19:24
EBMO, EBKT

Jujupilote wrote:

I can reach a local club member who is actually a taxi driver.

On a slight off topic tangent, my view is that taxi driver is one of the professions that requires the lowest qualifications. With the advent of GPS, you pretty much litterally only need to know how to drive a car. I don’t see why take-home pay (after costs of car / taxes) of a taxi should be higher than my cleaning lady – which requires some basic skills (equivalent to know how to drive), plus common sense (for tidying up / organizing), and trust (not stealing).

I can understand how taxation (sending profits off shore) causes people to react adversely to Ubers (using Uber in the general sense of the term), but I can’t see this type of taxis (such as in Deauville) holding out for much longer, and that seems like a reasonable thing.

Ibra wrote:

I bought two folding bikes specifically for this place

I dont blame you, we could have bought another plane with what we have saved on taxi fares over the years

We go to Honfleur and Deauville several times every year, (mainly because no customs notice reqd) …. the best bit is the bike ride up that bloody hill out of Honfleur, but even thats better than shelling out 50 euro on a taxi

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