The wind screamed all night, and we woke to find waves crashing over the breakwater into the marina. Good thing we had already decided we wanted to stay for a day, because we wouldn’t have been going anywhere!

There were heavy showers, too, and we were very lucky with our trip to the supermarket – there was a torrential downpour while we were inside the cavernous Super U, but the rain stopped long enough for us to carry the booty back to the boat.

After lunch the sky brightened and we went for our promised walk (taking waterproofs in the backpack). Le Havre doesn’t look very interesting from the sea – it was one of the RAF’s top targets during the War, and much of it is post-war concrete jungle.

But, as the pilot book promises, it is actually more interesting than most people expect. For one thing it has a 1.5km long shingle beach, which starts from the marina wall, and has long been a fashionable seaside holiday resort, which attracted many artists, Monet and Dufy among others, in its heyday.

As you walk along the prom, there are notice boards showing some of the most renowned paintings, in the locations where they were made. There are still a few of the buildings they would recognise, too, in this part of town.

But even more interesting today was the living display put on by the crowds of kitesurfers and windsurfers making the most of the stiff breeze and the breaking waves it was generating.

There must have been about 100 kitesurfers, between the 60 or more we managed to count in action, and the 30 plus who were readying their kit on the beach – firm sand below the high water mark.

Their colourful kites, like small spinnakers, their half moon shape achieved through inflatable “spars” and sail-type battens, made a fantastic spectacle as they zoomed about at remarkable speeds, somehow managing to avoid what seemed inevitable collisions in over-crowded waters.

We agreed that, if only we were a great deal younger, we’d love to have a go.