From Pont-Audemer we proceeded to Honfleur: it was market-day at the
place which we had quitted, and the throng of persons who passed us on
the road, gave great life and variety to the scene. There was scarcely
an individual from whom we did not receive a friendly smile or nod,
accompanied by a _bon jour_; for the practice obtains commonly in
France, among the peasants, of saluting those whom they consider their
superiors. Almost all that were going to market, whether male or female,
were mounted on horses or asses; and their fruit, vegetables, butchers'
meat, live fowls, and live sheep, were indiscriminately carried in the
same way.
About a league before we arrived at Honfleur, a distant view of the
eastern banks of the river opened upon us from the summit of a hill, and
we felt, or fancied that we felt, "the air freshened from the wave." As
we descended, the ample Seine, here not less than nine miles in width,
suddenly displayed itself, and we had not gone far before we came in
sight of Honfleur. The mist occasioned by the intense heat, prevented us
from seeing distinctly the opposite towns of Havre and Harfleur: we
could only just discern the spire of the latter, and the long projecting
line of the piers and fortifications of Havre.
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