Last Day in Paris

10/23

Today we made another attempt at the walking tour and arrived on time. Our guide was a lovely, knowledgeably young woman who took us to see interesting Paris sights that weren't on the usual tourist itinerary.

Note that the end of the Champs Elysee is visible through the arch that's in front of the Louvre

A unique metro station with our guide in front

Elegant galleria

Expensive wines

It was fun and we felt like we saw things in Paris that we hadn't seen before. Our guide had recommended a restaurant in one of the gallerias that we had seen so we went there for lunch. Ted and Sandy weren't impressed and decided to go somewhere else for lunch but Dave and Lesley and Dick and I stuck it out. We all had mussel soup, a creamy soup with lots of tiny mussels. it was quite good and filled the need adequately. We walked back to our hotel where Dick (still fighting the cold) rested and I went out to check out our neighborhood and potentially do some shopping. Unfortunately, Berthillon was closed but I found an adequate place for some ice cream, went to the drug store for some remedies for Dick and bought a scarf.
For dinner, we went to another neighborhood restaurant, this one recommended by a chef friend of Dave and Lesley's. It's called Nos Ancetres Les Gaullois (our Gaul ancestors) and is kind of a theme restaurant like the one in the Excalibur Hotel in Las Vegas

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There was nothing on the menu that Sandy could eat so she and Ted went somewhere else. It's a prix fixe, all inclusive menu of crudites, salads and dried sausages, roasted meats with vegetables and baked potato, cheese plate, fruits, and dessert. The wine is in barrels and you pour it yourself.

Lesley refilling our wine pitcher

It was OK...certainly plenty of food but not great. There was also someone playing a mandolin/guitar kind of instrument and singing.
Back at the hotel, we went to tell Ted and Sandy good bye because they were leaving earlier than we were then went to our room to finish packing up for our trip home.

Paris

10/22

Our plan was to take a guided walking tour of non touristy sights of Paris. The tour began at the Louvre but we took a rather circuitous route and ended up missing the tour. But we were in Paris! So, no problem.

We decide to walk to Les Halles and find a place for lunch. Unfortunately, the Les Halles that we had read about has been torn down and replaced with a gigantic, modern shopping mall. There was a nice park in front of the hideous mall but there was no way we were going to eat in that mall.
We began walking home and found ourselves in the Marais. Ted and Sandy decided to go to Monmartre but Dave, Lesley, Dick and I continued on meandering through the charming Marais neighborhood and picked a little bistro where we had lunch before continuing on to our hotel. Dave and I wanted...no, NEEDED...ice cream and luckily Berthillon, the BEST ice cream in Paris was just up the street from our hotel. It WAS fabulous ice cream!! I was very sorry I only had one scoop!

Dick was feeling pretty poorly and it was now mid afternoon so we rested a bit in our hotel room before heading out again at dinner time to a restaurant a couple blocks from the hotel that the desk clerk had recommended called L'Ilot Vache which translates roughly to something like "place of the cows" referring to the history of Ile Saint Louis having been pasture land in its history.

It was a beautifully decorated restaurant and the food was excellent and the staff terrific.

And, of course, we enjoyed some very nice wines with our dinner. We walked home in a light drizzle....our first rain of the trip!

Disembarkation Day

10/21

Disembarkation day and all went smoothly. We didn't need to have our bags out until 9 AM so a fairly leisurely start to the day. The ship had arranged out transportation to the St. Jean train station in Bordeaux where we would take a high speed train to Paris at 11 AM. There was some anxiety as we arrived in the station with all our luggage until we figured out which track our train was leaving from.

Getting on the train was stressful to say the least because the are for large bags filled up quickly and there was a bit of scrambling to get everything stored somewhere.
Our hotel had arranged pickup at the station in Paris but we couldn't find the guy that was there to pick us up. Several anxious phone calls and enlisting help from station personnel and we finally connected and made it to the Hotel Lutece on Ile Saint-Louis. Our rooms weren't ready so we went out for a light lunch at a creperie near the hotel.
After lunch, we settled into our rooms and rested a bit. Dick had a definite cold and was not feeling his best so he really needed some down time.  Dinner was at Coupe Chou, a favorite of Ted and Sandy. It's an ancient restaurant with a warren of small charming rooms and great food.

We had a delicious and leisurely meal with some nice wines then headed back to the hotel for the night.

Arcachon and Oysters

10/20

Today I scheduled an optional tour to the Bay of Arcachon where almost all of the oysters consumed in France are farmed. We were docked in Pauillac and boarded a bus at 8:30 AM for the couple of hours drive through not terribly interesting countryside but I was excited to see the coastline and see oyster farming.

Sunrise at the Pauillac marina

Most of all I wanted to EAT oysters! Dick stayed back at the ship with most of our group other than Hillary and Nelson who came along to Arcachon. Once we arrived at the town, we boarded a small boat that took us on a tour of the bay which includes the largest sand dune in Europe.

Largest sand dune in Europe

Our boat

We also saw the oyster beds which were everywhere. We were told how oysters are farmed in great detail.

Oyster barge

Oyster farm. These are young oysters

Oyster farmer

On the opposite side of the bay we stopped at a small home of an oyster farmer who also has oyster tasting at a simple outdoor, small snack bar. The wife of the farmer had shucked and served oysters on the shell with slices of lemon and bread with butter and some white wine.

Supply at the oyster farmer's home

YUM!!

There were 4 oysters per person but luckily Hillary and Nelson didn't like them as well as several others so those of us who were fans had a quite nice serving and they were DELICIOUS! The wine was perfect with them also.
After our oysters we continued around the bay to our lunch spot where we had a lunch of fish, potatoes mashed with olive oil, veggies and bread along with wine and some lemon tart for dessert. After lunch we had a brief time to wander about and found a stand selling macarons. I bought a few for the long bus ride home...God forbid I get even a little bit hungry!
We enjoyed more views of the way bay on the way back.

I bought a few for the long bus ride home...God forbid I get even a little bit hungry!
Meanwhile, back at the ship, Dick was having a relaxing day and getting packed for the trip home. The ship had returned to Bordeaux and in the afternoon there was a group including Patty, Ira, Ted, Dave and Dick that went to the wine museum where they had a lecture about Bordeaux and its wines, how to taste and an exercise in smelling many of the fragrances that make up the nose of the wine. Then they had a had a tasting of a variety of wines of the area. Surprisingly, they all felt they learned things they hadn't known and really enjoyed themselves.
That evening was our farewell dinner. The chef went all out on this one and we had a great meal! Ted bough a Pomerol and Dave a St. Julien to enjoy with our meal in addition to the wines that the ship served. We definitely didn't lack for good wine!
After dinner, as I was packing for our departure in the morning, we heard strange banging noises and when we opened our curtains we saw fantastic fireworks! They were in celebration of the 2 week All Saint's Day holiday that began that day. It was an elaborate fireworks display that went on for some time and we had the perfect viewing spot! What a great way to end our cruise!

Left Bank

10/19

Unusual day...we slept in and had breakfast a little later than usual then we had a talk about the day ahead since we would get in late and not be able to have the usual afternoon talk. In addition, we were given all the information we would need for disembarkation 2 days later.  Our ship was docked at Pauillac and after a late breakfast, we had an early lunch then we boarded buses to visit the Medoc appellation. We drove through miles and miles of vineyards and saw many big name Chateaux.

Vineyard and winery of Mouton-Rothschild

Chateau Margaux

Pretty but don't remember name

Chateau Cos D'Estournel

Chateau Lafite-Rothschild

We stopped at Chateau Margeaux just to see the outside and take some pictures.
Then made a stop at Chateau Prieure-Lichine for a tour and tasting. It was a very modernized winery with all concrete aging vats that are used before moving the new wine to oak barrels and many modern approaches to wine making.

The wines we tasted were quite young and not terribly good, likely because they were so young.
After our tour and tasting we proceeded to Chateau Kirwan where we had a very elegant dinner with some excellent Chateau Kirwan wines.

We were surprised to find all the staff from the ship in addition to all the tableware from the ship being used on the table.
There was a gorgeous sunset while we had dinner.

Bourg and Blaye

10/18

We woke up in the village of Bourg today. There was a brief guided tour of the town which we elected to miss and take a later walk on our own. There was structure that had been a citadel that is now a park and there is also a public building on the land.

Entrance to town

Citadel

View of town from shore

Park

The gate Patty elected to check out.

Park

We started off with Ira and Patty then Patty decided to go one direction while we three went another and we didn't see Patty again until we went back to the ship. In the meantime, we had a very nice walk around the old citadel and back along the river.

Once we met back up with Patty, she and I decided to go into the town for some shopping. There is a story that the young King Louis XIV was in the garden trying to reach a fig on the tree. A passing monk lifted him to allow him to reach the fig. The monk was arrested because it was illegal to touch a royal family member. He was soon pardoned by the king's mother. The story inspired the creation of a  candy made of crystallized fig surrounded by white chocolate, fig liqueur and marzipan shaped and colored to look like a fig. Quite delicious!! I didn't succumb to buying them until later in the day when we were shopping in the next town.

The special fig candy

On the way back we saw some young teenage boys riding bikes and kind of showing off right at the dock area. I noticed they had set up soft drinks and snacks for sale on a picnic table near by and struck up a conversation with one of them who spoke minimal English.

They tried earnestly to sell us snacks or drinks which we turned down but I asked if I could take their picture and then they shook me down for a Euro. Actually, they tried to get me to give each of them a Euro, the little delinquents!
After lunch the ship moved down the river to Blaye. Along the way, we saw many of the "fishing shacks" typical of the area. They are small houses on stilts that sit right at the edge of the river. The tidal shift in the river is as much as 16 feet so the stilts are absolutely necessary

Viewed from the road

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Many of the fish shacks have a large net on them. Not sure how they are used.

In Blaye, we went on a guided tour of the town and specifically the 17th century large citadel built as a defense of the town because of its vulnerability at the large estuary of the Gironde River. As it turned out, the town was never attacked after the citadel was built. it's a massive structure with multiple levels of defense that now is totally incorporated into the town and used for lots of community functions.

A street within the citadel

Listening to the guide in the main place of the citadel

Taken from internet to show the massive size of the citadel

From internet

There is a modern town on the other side of the estuary that we didn't manage to visit but Patty and I stayed behind in the citadel to check out the tourist shops.
We returned to the boat for a couple of hours of relaxation before dinner.