A Much Better Day!

During dinner last night it rained quite a bit as we sailed through Paris and its outskirts. It continued to rain all through dinner but, when we were done, it stopped and we were able to go up on the top deck for a while. We're still getting used to just sailing along as the world goes by.

The ship continued to sail all night and we actually had a very good sleep. There's a gentle hum of background engine noise that is not unpleasant at all. When we woke up, the River Baroness was docking at the little french town of Les Andelys. Part of it was destroyed in WWII and is not overly remarkable. However, the older part where we docked has most of the original buildings. We started our day, after a great buffet breakfast, with a walk around town. 

Below, you can see our ship, the River Baroness, docked in Les Andelys.

Then we were off with our local guide to do a walking tour of Chateau Gaillard which overlooks the town. The Chateau was originally built by Richard the Lionheart to protect the local territory. It was very interesting to hear the historical background while standing in the site. The Chateau is located about 100 metres above the town so we had some good views of the surrounding territory as well. 

At the end of the tour, we went back into the town where Marilyn did some shopping and we found a boulangerie and had our first official croissants even though we were on our way back to lunch. We also managed to find a nice little grocery store that had a great wine selection for silly low prices. In Paris it was 22 Euros for a half litre of basic red wine in a cafe and here we got two nice bottles for less than 10 Euros. 

We spent the rest of the day on the ship, going up the Seine towards Rouen where we will be docked for two days. Tomorrow, we'll be going to the Normandy D Day beaches, both Juno and Omaha. 
Dinner tonight was the Captain's Gala. This meant I had to wear a jacket. There were some speeches and a couple of presentations. The food was great as usual. 

 Beef carpaccio appetizer.

 Second appetizer was shrimp on risotto with saffron and curry sauce.

 Veal with grilled vegetables.

Dessert was a molten lava cake with sorbet.

Not A Good Way To Start The Day

We had read all about the potential to be pick pocketed or scammed in various ways in Paris. Our money and cameras were well secured as we toured around. However, during breakfast this morning someone managed to get into our room. We had been getting things ready to be transferred to the ship and when we returned, we found that our passports and some other documents were missing. Of course we searched all over but they were gone. In the end, we had an unexpected visit to the police station to make a report. We also had to call Ottawa because of the passports and now we can't leave France! We'll be able to get temporary passports when we return to Paris a week from Monday. It sure wasn't how we'd planned to start the cruise part of the trip! When we got to the River Baroness, we had a glass of wine and pretty much started over. 
In order to not waste any more time, we walked from the ship back to the Eiffel Tower area after lunch. It was a good way to let the frustrations of the morning subside. 

This is a monument to the Jewish families who were rounded up and shipped to camps during WWII. Sarah's Key is based on these events.

These are a couple of shots of our cabin on the River Baroness. It's not huge but is very well organized and comfortable. 

Just beside the bed are sliding doors that open so that you can watch the scenery go by. We started moving just before dinner and have passed through a few locks already. It's very smooth sailing and we're looking forward to sitting on the sun deck tomorrow as we pass through the French countryside.
Dinner was pretty amazing too. Each night there is a different menu with different wines. Everything is included in the cruise. It's a good thing that we'll be walking a lot on the excursions. I may have to make use of the fitness room too!

 Chicken Cordon Bleu

 Sea Bass 

 Cheese plate dessert.

Floating Island dessert consisting of meringue floating on custard. This one also has bourbon in it. 

More Touring and an Interesting Dinner

We were up fairly early today due to residual jet lag but it was ok because our room here includes a fabulous buffet breakfast each morning. I'll include some pictures in tomorrow's post. 
Included in our tour package there were a couple of Paris events. One was today's bus tour of the city. It was one of those panoramic buses and we had a fabulous tour guide who explained where we were and gave some neat insights into the history of what we were seeing. Below are a few shots from the tour. We saw some places that we'll return to next week and others that we've decided we've seen enough of already.

 Here we are at the Eiffel Tower. This is so our niece Paige believes we are on the trip. It was a foggy morning as you can see.

 This is one of the fountains in Place de la Concorde. We stopped there for a bit on our bus tour.

After the bus tour, we went to the D'Orsay Museum which is located in an old train station. You weren't allowed to take photos in the exhibit areas. We were mainly interested in the Impressionist sections as we will be stopping in Monet's home town of Giverny while on the cruise.

After the museum, we wandered back to a cafe we'd seen on the way there. It also happened to be one that I had looked up while at home. As many of you know, I'm not a major fan of eating outdoors due to stupid wasps and bees. Well, they don't seem to have them here in Paris and I'm now loving the outdoor food scene. Here's what we had for lunch.

 This is Marilyn's smoked salmon with creme fraiche.

My lunch was a campagnard salad with smoked duck breast, prosciutto, sausage, beans, tomatoes and lettuce. Both were great with a half carafe of chardonnay. 

 After lunch we had a leisurely walk back along the Seine. This gentleman was perusing one of the many book selling stands that are found all along the river.

Near the city hall, there is an installation called Paris Plages. It is a beach, thought up by the mayor. Most people think it's a waste of money and apparently not many people use the "beaches". 
Tonight's dinner was an interesting story. We walked around for over an hour just looking around. Many stores and businesses are closed for the summer now. We found a little cafe recommended by our tour guide. It was early for dinner, around 7:30 and there were only a couple other people there. We ordered from the menu formule, which is basically a preset menu with a few choices. The people before us ordered and then we asked for pretty much the same thing. But they said there were now out of both! I was not overly happy and wanted to leave but Marilyn persuaded me to stay. In the end we tried some other items on the menu that were excellent but I still don't understand how you can be out of the menu specials at the very beginning of service!!

This was the salmon tartare that we both had. It was really interesting with the salmon, some chorizo and fine herbs mixed together. The swirl is reduced balsamic vinegar.

Pork chop with chanterelle mushrooms and mashed potatoes.

This is Marilyn's filet de beouf with a galette of vegetables and mashed potatoes. The beef was perfectly cooked.

We are off to the ship tomorrow. There will be a Seine river cruise in the morning followed by transfer to the dock where the River Baroness is moored. The next post will be from the ship! 

Nous sommes arrivés à Paris!!!

We left Toronto at about 5:45 p.m. and "enjoyed" an almost 7 hour flight to Paris. The quotes are because there was a lovely 2 year old girl across the aisle from us who communicated largely by screaming. Luckily, we had headphones and were able to crank up the volume. The flight was made easier by the fairly constant flow of alcohol at the start. We had signed up for a package that included, among other things, 2 little bottles of sparkling wine to start followed by 2 little bottles of South African wine with dinner.
Our arrival was at 7 a.m. local time which was 1 a.m. at home. We didn't really sleep at all because it was noisy and there wasn't that much time. It seemed like by the time they finished serving one meal to the whole plane, it was almost time for the next. We arrived at our hotel in about 45 minutes thanks to a great driver who picked us up. It was the first time we'd been picked up by someone with our name on a little sign. We were the only ones in the van because we were so early. Check in was a breeze and we met the Uniworld Tours hostess who helped us get into our room early.

The room is nice other than the fact that there are 2 beds pushed together. I've already fallen into the gap once! After dropping everything off in our room, we headed back out with the hostess for a quick walk around the area to get oriented. For this part of our stay, we're in the Opera district. It's got a lot of high end stores as well as historic buildings. Here are a couple of shots of the Opera Garnier, where the Phantom of the Opera originated.

Then we walked down Rue de la Paix to Place Vendome. There is a peace monument made of melted down cannons and other weapons. The streets in the area are full of hyper expensive stores. We happened upon a photo shoot for one of them. And, I felt compelled to record the scene...

Even though it was the hottest day of summer in Paris so far, 31 C, we continued on the to Jardin Des Tuileries. It's a popular park and they have a carnival type thing going on with rides for the kids. We wandered about and saw the fountains and lawns and gardens. Oddly, as in many parks here, you can't walk on the grass. But, they have lots of chairs scattered around so that you can sit where you like.

 I liked this one because of the relative positions of the girl on the phone and the stature. Could have done without the bags of garbage however...

By this time, we thought it must be getting close to lunch even though it was 6 a.m. by our body clocks. We walked back to a big department store called Galleries Lafeyette. They have a lot of high end stuff like shoes and purses. I was amazed at the lineups to spend hundreds of dollars on a purse!! Same with the shoes. There was a cafe on the roof but it was too touristy so we just looked around and searched for something better. Here are a couple of views from the roof and inside of the Galleries.

We did quite a bit more today like meeting with the other people on the cruise. To say the least, we are on the young end of the spectrum. Some people could be our parents!!! However, we did meet a few fellow Canadians who will join us at Juno Beach when the others visit the American D-Day beaches. We did eventually end up at a sidewalk cafe attached to our hotel for lunch. Despite the 11 Euro beers, we had a good time and ate well. We start tomorrow with a bus tour of the city then we'll be walking around some more.

 Our 11 Euro French drafts!!

 Marilyn's tartine provencal was really good. We'll be making this with our tomatoes when we get home!

My croque monsieur. I'm trying to eat a number of "classic" French dishes while here. This was really good although simple. Basically a ham sandwich with broiled cheese on top. It went perfectly with the beer. No dinner pictures because we were too tired and just had a nice Viognier and some brie and crackers while I was doing this!