Honfleur

Slate-fronted houses stand shoulder to shoulder around the Vieux Bassin, their reflections doubling in harbour water so still it seems poured. Honfleur, on France's Normandy coast, smells of rope, diesel and seafood, and the old port is tight enough that every restaurant table faces the same view. Courbet, Boudin and Monet painted this harbour and the changing light over the Seine estuary, and the light that drew them still works.

The Vieux Bassin, the old inner harbour, was dug in the 1680s on Colbert's orders, and the Lieutenance at its mouth is what survives of the medieval town's defences. Behind the quay stands Sainte-Catherine, a church built of timber by shipwrights, its twin naves shaped like upturned hulls, and the old Greniers à Sel — the salt stores — now hold concerts and exhibitions. Eugène Boudin was born here, painted the estuary skies before anyone else, and taught the young Monet to work outdoors; the museum that bears his name hangs him beside the Normandy painters who followed. Cobbled streets, timber-framed façades, small galleries and boutique hotels fill the lanes, and across the estuary the Pont de Normandie strings its cables over the mouth of the Seine.