From the port of Honfleur left the expedition that led to the foundation of Quebec by Samuel de Champlain in 1608. The Norman city kept developing and the houses pushing towards the sky. Norman roofers competed in know-how and played with geometry and contrasts. With their facades, colored or gray with slate tiles, they fascinated Impressionist artists from the 19th century. Claude Monet and Eugène Boudin painted them, and the poet Charles Baudelaire dreamt of settling in Honfleur.