Well, we made it. We arrived several hours late into Paris, found our Viking representative, and found our way to our river boat at about 11am yesterday after little sleep, but many movies. The adorable, new Wharton Business School graduate sitting next to me and i played french language games against each other for several hours -- he usually creamed me. Then he convinced me to watch "Drive" , suggesting that the violence was minimal. Seriously, never trust a 20-something. I'm still sick to my stomach,but I made it all the way through. All I really wanted to watch was "Lady and the Tramp", but I was too embarrassed. How dumb can you be?
So, we couldn't get into our cabin until 3pm, so we took a taxi to Sacre Couer in the Montmarte area, and we spent a wonderful, jet lagged Parisian afternoon watching painters, ogling the church on the hill, sitting in the sun drinking wine, and walking, walking, walking. wonderful.
We walked down to the Louvre and were completely mesmerized by the architecture, the number of people around, and just being there...so cool! Here's an artistic rending With the infamous I.M. Pei's pyramid:
We got back to the boat to find our luggage in the last remaining cabin available. Let's just say that it is a bit...tight. It is also at water level. One must just laugh and reframe these things !
Today we awoke to a great breakfast and then a tour of Paris. We are docked quite lose to the Eiffel Tower, so we got some great pics here, the a trip down the Champs Élysées, the new Prime Minister's mansion, the Louvre and place du Concorde, and finally Notre Dame. Here we got out and because it was a holy day here, we entered the cathedral during a mass.
Then we met up with Katie at the Musee D'Orsay, and spent several hours here. The Orsay has an amazing Impressionist collection, and the museum gas began to get us after about 2 hours, but this is a place to come back to for sure. Then we had lunch in a wonderful cafe then a long walk in the sun through the Luxembourg Gardens.
Now we are finally under-weigh on our river boat from Paris to Vernon with the 70 and older crowd listening to "Besame mucho" in the Viking lounge, and I'm not kidding. Ok, we may be a few decades young for this trip, but so far it has been kind of wonderful. Actually, this is the antithesis of our Spring break in the Dominican Republic at the Hard Rock resort with a thousand drunk teenagers and 24-hour piped in rock music . Now we are listening to a slow Donna Summers tribute by a non- English speaking singer....hmm. Clearly, we are still trying to find some vacation middle ground, but we haven't been completely successful so far, to say the least.
But, but, but, we are sitting in this lounge at 11pm having seen the sun go down over the Seine and feeling pretty darn happy about this full day. Watching the miles slip by on the boat is quire lovely too. Tomorrow we will arrive in Vernon at 5am, and see the Giverny Gardens that we saw so clearly in the museum today....how fabulous is that? Ok, we heard a lot of illness stories at dinner, but the chateaubriand helped!
Back tomorrow!
Love to all
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