Paris, France

             Monday, 24 Aug 2015 – We awoke to our alarm at 5:30 AM and went to the Horizon Court for an early breakfast.  Still, we barely made it to the Princess Theater for 7:00 AM meet-up time for our excursion to Paris.   At about 7:40, we boarded our tour bus.  Our tour guide was Manuela (with a heavy French accent) and our driver was Guillaume (the French version of “William”).

            Our tour began with a three-hour drive to Paris.  During this time, Manuela talked about the history of this area, Normandy (“Normandie” in French), a former province of north France on the English Channel.  It was settled by Vikings under Rollo in the 10th century.   The name “Norman” is originally from the word for “northman” in several Scandinavian languages.  We tried hard to see small villages from the bus as we passed them on the Autoroute; however, there were well-placed trees and bushes that always blocked them from view.  Mostly, we saw only farmland.  Manuela mentioned that three kinds of cattle were raised here; one is “Norman” cows, which are beige with brown spots, notably around their eyes (so that they seem to wearing sunglasses), and another kind is Holstein.  Also, horses are bred here and shipped all over the world.  On the road, we noticed large trucks with soft sides, which we have seen previously in Europe.  (We assume soft sides in the U.S. might encourage too much hijacking in the U.S.)

            Almost suddenly, we were in Paris.  Paris is a very old city, more than 2,000 years old.  Originally, traders lived here.  Manuela gave us a map of Paris.  She said the Île de France (or Île de la Cité), an island in the Seine, was originally very difficult to get to and to go from, with forests surrounding it and no bridges.  In Paris, our bus moved right along around the Arc-de-Triomphe; usually a terrible traffic area, drivers often try to avoid it.  However, today traffic was very low – perhaps all of the people were all in the Louvre – yes, a joke, but possibly true!

We passed the Place de l'Opera, often called the Hub of the Universe and considered one of the most elegant streets in Paris.  Our bus followed the Seine River right bank before reaching Place de la Concorde, the largest square in Paris.  Along the way, we also viewed the elegant, tree-lined Champ Élysées.

At the Louvre

At 11:00 we arrived at the Louvre and another tour guide was assigned to half of the passengers on our bus, while Manuela was tour guide for our half.   The Louvre stands at the site of a former royal palace, and today it is perhaps the greatest repository of fine art in the world.   Manuela led us to highlights of this vast collection and provided details concerning them, including the Venus de Milo, the Winged Victory, Leonardo de Vinci's immortal Mona Lisa, and other paintings and sculptures.  Apparently, the number of visitors to the Louvre has skyrocketed in recent years.  In the vicinity of the most famous works of art, it was much too congested.  A crowd of 100 or 200 people surrounded the Mona Lisa, allowing little hope of seeing (or photographing) the painting at close range.

Although we were supposed to have a few minutes of free time to browse in the museum shop before departing for lunch, there was very little extra time.

Sally enjoyed seeing the Louvre Pyramid (Pyramide du Louvre), a large glass and metal pyramid in the main courtyard of the Louvre palace.  The large pyramid serves as the main entrance to the Museum.  It didn’t exist when Sally visited the Louvre in 1970; completed in 1989, it has become a landmark of the city of Paris.

At 1:30 PM we arrived at the Eiffel Tower.  The tower was built for the World's Fair in 1889, which was held in celebration of the French Revolution in 1789.  In 1916, the first wireless telephones were tested on the tower. Although meant to last only for the duration of the World's Fair, the Eiffel Tower still stands today, despite all protests that this huge "object" would not fit into the architecture of Paris.  Of course, today the Eiffel Tower is a beloved landmark of Paris and the symbol of the "City of Light." 

We took one of the elevators to the first floor.  When the Eiffel Tower was built, this elevator was one of the first elevators in France, so that many of the visitors came mainly to enjoy the elevator ride.  It consists of a large box, which people cram into like sardines.  Beside the elevator are large yellow counterweights with the purpose of balancing the load in the elevator.  (If the load in the elevator is too heavy, some people must get off and wait for the next ride up or down.  This happened on our way back up, and again on our way down.) 



58 Tour Eiffel Restaurant, Paris

            We had lunch at 58 Tour Eiffel Restaurant, while viewing charming views of Paris from the venue's large windows.   The lunch was tasty and we were given a choice of white or red wine, of which Sally and I drank more than our share.  We also enjoyed friendly conversation with Holly from New York and a couple from California, midway between Los Angeles and San Francisco.  Since we were scheduled to meet back on our tour bus at 3:45 PM, several of the passengers left before dessert and after-dinner coffee in order to purchase souvenirs.  Thus, Jesse was given an opportunity to enjoy two Key Lime pie desserts.

            It had rained hard at times during our drive back to the ship; however, luckily when we re-boarded the ship at 6:30 PM, we walked in only a light drizzle.  We finished packing our two large suitcases and placed them in the corridor for pickup at 8:00PM.  Since the Janos Quartet had started playing in the Piazza by then, we danced for about 15 minutes before going to dinner.  We sat alone at a table for two this time; and since there were only a few passengers left in the dining room, we were served more quickly than usual.  Back in our cabin by 10:00 PM, we set our clocks back one hour.  (Better back than forward!)