Tuesday
Today, like yesterday, we were to spend the morning on a guided tour with the afternoon to ourselves. Our morning destination? Montmartre.
Enroute, our bus drove past the Arc de Triomphe. We got a couple of good shots of the front panels depicting Napoleon (left) and La Marseillaise (right).
We disembarked the bus in front of the Moulin Rouge…and boarded a “train” (in the background) for the climb to the summit of Montmartre.
We all took in the majestic view of Paris from the plaza fronting the Sacré-Cœur church before entering the building. After a tour of the Sacré-Cœur church interior, our entire group continued walking the area before being released to explore on our own. Then, the group was divided between those who chose to ride the train back down to the “ground floor” of Paris and those of us who joined our tour guide for a more intimate exploration of the village-within-the-city.
As we wound our way through a more intimate (read: moins touristique) side of Montmarte, descending the cobblestone streets and byways while absorbing the informative narration from our guide, we found wonderful little artistic touches around every corner.
On our journey, we encountered two locations with theatrical points of reference.
Boarding the bus, we were driven to the center of Paris near to the Louvre, the Place de la Concorde and our destination, the Musée d’Orsay. Located in a former railroad station, the museum is an incredible multi-level space housing a remarkable collection of paintings, sculpture and more.
After several hours — and a light snack in a museum cafe — we returned to the ship via the Paris RER train line which happened to have a stop right next to our dock. It was our final night on the boat culminating in the Captain’s dinner. Or so we thought.
It was announced that, once the sun set, our Captain would set sail up the Seine a bit to give us a unique view of the sparkling light show that transforms the Eiffel Tower each evening. We all gathered on the Sun (or should that be Moon?) deck and watched the fantastic light show on the tower. Champagne was poured, cameras were wielded and souvenir Eiffel Tower keychains were distributed as mementos of this “very special episode.” Unfortunately, our cameras could not properly capture the full effect. To get the full effect, I guess you have to be there.
As the Captain brought the ship around and returned to the dock, we descended to our cabin to pack up and to pack it in for the night. We had the first and earliest flight of the day among those returning home.
Wednesday morning at 4:15 AM, we would be aboard a van on the way to the airport to catch Air France’s first NYC-bound flight of the day.
Au revoir, France. Et merci beaucoup.
France: Normandy to Paris 