Life After Work: 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.