A native of Normandy's Honfleur, Eugène Boudin (1824-1898) is considered one of the founders of Impressionism. He is renowned not only for his paintings, which celebrate the here and now − fleeting sensations, the impermanence of light − but also because he encouraged Claude Monet (1840-1926), then a teenager, to paint alongside him outdoors. Boudin has a museum dedicated to him at this small Norman port, with its picturesque alleyways crowded with tourists.

These tourists are especially numerous on the iconic Vieux-Bassin, a reminder that Honfleur was once an important port from which many explorers set sail, including Samuel de Champlain, the founder of the city of Quebec in 1608. Moving away from the water and the beautiful Sainte-Catherine church – another local landmark with its wooden structure and separate bell tower – the crowds of tourists start to thin out.

Perched on the hillside, the Musée Eugène-Boudin houses around 100 works by the painter. It is the third largest public collection after those of the Musée d'Orsay and the Musée d'Art Moderne André-Malraux in Le Havre. During his lifetime, the artist made a major bequest to the institution, which was founded by his friend, the painter Louis-Alexandre Dubourg (1821-1891).

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