Brian Holden: La belle France - c'est magnifique!

The And Another Thing team is reluctantly uprooting itself from their cosy, chic apartment in Honfleur, Normandy and heading across the channel to Britain.

One could be forgiven, in thinking that the small city is simply another tourist mecca with its visitors swarming through the streets especially on weekends. However there is a lot of history here and many of the buildings are incredibly old, dating back to the end of the medieval period.

Honfleur is a town with character and charm. There's so much to see and do, and with our apartment right in "centre ville", we have been able to experience French life first-hand just by looking out the window on to the street below.

Shopkeepers are calling out to each other across the street, gesturing, often with cigarette in hand. Kids are kicking balls and skateboarding, while men in their double parked white vans are unloading packages, and cars rapidly backing up behind. The French will wait albeit under sufferance, as the time-pressed delivery man assures that he will be only "deux minutes monsieur/madame!"

The pace in centre ville can be frantic and pedestrians have long developed the expertise of nimbly stepping from the street up on to the narrow trottoir, only to be forced off again to make way for others coming the other way. Ah yes indeed, there is noise during the day, but at night all is so quiet - almost deathly quiet, as the locals retreat to their homes, either in these very streets or in the suburbs.

However, by 7.30 the following morning they start filling the streets again for another day of bustling and mayhem. France has been even more wonderful to us than in previous trips, fulfilling every expectation.

Okay, the good weather took a couple of days to come right and the quaint streets could be just a teensy bit wider to more easily squeeze our little Peugeot through. My wife has done a superb job of retracting the wing mirrors as required to get past oncoming vehicles or the ever-present trucks and vans unloading goods in the side streets.

When travelling in a group or just as a couple, travellers should always be aware of their individual roles to make the holiday go much smoother. Even the simple chores such as buying and loading groceries into the car requires more effort than back home.

With us, the teamwork is: Wife does all the driving, meals and laundry, while husband navigates (occasionally gesticulating to turn à gauche (left) when it should be à droite (right), gazole (gas up) and laver (wash) la Peugeot and parle le français (plus important). For us, these daily rituals work well - most of the time.

The highlight of our Normandy stay was without doubt, visiting the memorials and museums commemorating the D-Day landing on June 6, 1944.

We started at Omaha Beach and worked our way back to Benouville where the famous Pegasus Bridge was taken from the Germans by the Allied troops. Further words in this column about this important time in WWII history would not do the story justice, but a wealth of information and heroic stories can be easily accessed online.

I have got to know the French reasonably well, taking time to observe, learn their language and culture - as best I can - and listening to what they have to say. The French are determined, proud people, who fly their flag in the streets, parks, shops and other buildings. They have strong family values, are well educated, focussed, have style and dress sharp. Not to mention, the obliging mademoiselles in the boulangeries and tourist information centres who are simply lovely. We have so much to learn from the French.