Paris

Arrived here just before noon with the TGV – free wifi!!! Jacques Olivier met me and we went to his place for an aperitif…..crémant de Touraine (sparkling wine) Next, lunch at Axeria, a new restaurant with Basque cusine. It was delicious: boudin de crevettes (kind of like quenelles, but not quite), spring lamb and soufflé Grand Marnier, tout arrose dèun excellent Bourgogne.

Jacques accompanied me to the River Baroness at the Quai André Citroën in the Port de Javel bas in the 15th arrondissement……downriver from the famous Pont Mirabeau…..

Sous le Pont Mirabeau
Coule la Seine
Et nos amours
Faut-il que je m’en souvienne?

Ah, the memories!

Met up with Connie who arrived in Paris on Thursday. Reconnoitered the boat and had drinks in the lounge. After an informational session with the lovely cruise director,
Emanuelle, and the captain, we went to dinner. Since I had only finished eating lunch at 4pm, I was not hungry…but the menu was very nice. Our cabin is well…as Jacques said when he saw it….compact!!! But it has sliding doors and a French balcony –meaning you can just about stand on it. The entire ship has just been renovated and redecorated and it is impressive. I have never seen so many plugs: European, English, American. Wifi is free. And we all have walkie talkies to be sued with the guides…it means we can wander away, hang back or move ahead and still hear what the guide is saying. Oh how I wish we had them in Karnak when we could not hear our guide and we ran away! Remember, Ross!!

We had beautiful views of the banks of the Seine, the suburbs of Paris and then villages. We went through two sets of locks and we were right up tight against the lock walls. We also went through more locks during the night, but that did not preventme from having a wonderful night’s sleep.