Day Two – Ah, Paris!
Today we “did” Paris – in 5 hours!! OK, the truth is we did a six mile stretch along the Seine River, from the Eiffel Tower to
Notre Dame Cathedral, walking it both ways! But I’m ahead of myself.
The day actually began with an early call and breakfast in our stateroom. A well organized disembarkation took us to the buses for a two and one-half hour ride to the center of Paris. I almost thought we had made a wrong turn when the first thing I saw was the Statue of Liberty, but then I remembered that the one in New York is a copy of the one in Paris given the USA as a gift from the French! Ah, the French – always in a hurry and willing to run you down with their car or motorbike if you venture into the street without a green light! Traffic everywhere, to say nothing of the thousands of tourists! The biggest challenge of the day turned out to be finding a public toilet. Apparently the French have extraordinarily large bladders, and there are no MacDonalds or Dunkin Donuts to duck into!
We suffered a major disappointment when our guide told us that the Louvre was closed on Tuesdays. (Guess what day it is!) Jessika’s interest in DaVinci will just have to wait for satisfaction until her next trip to Paris! But there was plenty more to see and we made it to Saint Chapelle, Notre Dame Cathedral, the Plaza de Concorde, plenty of the River Seine, the Grande Palace, and, of course, La Tour Eiffel! We ate lunch in a tiny French café’, and then hot-footed it back to catch our bus for the return trip to the ship. A taxi from Paris to LaHavre would have cost us upwards of 250 euros, so we weren’t about to be late!
As we finished dinner in the Windjammer Café aboard ship, the Jewel of the Sea left port and headed for Cherbourg and the Normandy coast, which is our port of call in the morning. See you there!
Today we “did” Paris – in 5 hours!! OK, the truth is we did a six mile stretch along the Seine River, from the Eiffel Tower to
Notre Dame Cathedral, walking it both ways! But I’m ahead of myself.The day actually began with an early call and breakfast in our stateroom. A well organized disembarkation took us to the buses for a two and one-half hour ride to the center of Paris. I almost thought we had made a wrong turn when the first thing I saw was the Statue of Liberty, but then I remembered that the one in New York is a copy of the one in Paris given the USA as a gift from the French! Ah, the French – always in a hurry and willing to run you down with their car or motorbike if you venture into the street without a green light! Traffic everywhere, to say nothing of the thousands of tourists! The biggest challenge of the day turned out to be finding a public toilet. Apparently the French have extraordinarily large bladders, and there are no MacDonalds or Dunkin Donuts to duck into!
We suffered a major disappointment when our guide told us that the Louvre was closed on Tuesdays. (Guess what day it is!) Jessika’s interest in DaVinci will just have to wait for satisfaction until her next trip to Paris! But there was plenty more to see and we made it to Saint Chapelle, Notre Dame Cathedral, the Plaza de Concorde, plenty of the River Seine, the Grande Palace, and, of course, La Tour Eiffel! We ate lunch in a tiny French café’, and then hot-footed it back to catch our bus for the return trip to the ship. A taxi from Paris to LaHavre would have cost us upwards of 250 euros, so we weren’t about to be late!
As we finished dinner in the Windjammer Café aboard ship, the Jewel of the Sea left port and headed for Cherbourg and the Normandy coast, which is our port of call in the morning. See you there!
1 comment:
Oh my you have all been very busy since leaving rainy, cold connecticut. Your pictures are wonderful and the stories are great as always. You make it feel as though we are right there with you. Glad to hear that you are all having a great time. Can't wait for the next update. Linda
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