France - Overview

This was a great trip! It is always a bit of an risk, taking a trip without knowing anyone else, but it worked out great. I am totally fine doing the traveling-to-destination on my own; I had years of experience during my heavy travel days at United. And now, on vacation, I love wandering around new places during the day on my own, but I do enjoy being with others at the end of the day to compare notes while relaxing with drinks and dinner. My tall ship experiences by their nature require constant interaction with crew and fellow passengers, and Road Scholar trips (my Norway and Greece trips) tend towards interactive experiences. I know river cruises are geared towards couples (all the boats are made with only double cabins) and so I wasn't sure how it would go. 

The flight over was uneventful, what we all hope for. I went back and forth on whether to check my bag, which was about the maximum carry-on size allowed. My checked bag did not arrive with me in Norway last summer, and since this cruise departed the same day I arrived I was afraid a late bag would never catch up with me. On the other hand, it was a single non-stop, and so I took the risk and checked it. (Spoiler, no problem.) In spite of talk about long TSA lines, things moved quickly at Dulles. Certain airlines and airport combinations allow you to upload a photo of your passport in advance to the airline app, and then go through the pre-check "touchless" lane - I didn't even have to show the passport as it took a new photo and compared it to my passport on file. I had gotten a "miles + money" upgrade to business class on the way over, and with the lie-flat bed I got a solid, deep, almost three hours sleep on the way over - so much better than sitting up in coach! If I hadn't done the upgrade, I probably would have flown over a day early and gotten a hotel room to catch up on sleep.  

There had been a lot of internet buzz about the new European/Schengen region "EES" (Entry and Exit System) which will use biometrics to record every person from outside the region. There is a regulation requiring it to be in full effect as of the day I arrived. There are kiosks at all ports of entry to the Schengen region (The EC plus Scandinavia, Switzerland, a few others but not UK anymore), where initial biometric readings of fingerprints as well as face photos would be taken and stored. Eventually, the idea is not to need passport documents at all, but setting up the database would obviously take time initially. So there were warnings about huge delays upon arrival. I was arriving in the morning, and the ship wasn't scheduled to depart until evening, so I wasn't worried. As it turns out, my flight got in early, at 7:15 am, and they didn't have the kiosks up and running. So processing was relatively smooth, passport scan, photo to compare, stamp by human being. BTW, this EES system is separate from the ETIAS system scheduled for the EC in the fall, essentially a visa system good for multiple visits for a few years at a time. 

After getting my bag, I called the boat to verify its location, to ask what exactly to tell the taxi driver about how to find the boat. The person I spoke to was SO NICE and pleasant - and he set the tone for absolutely all the staff on the ship. An official taxi is much more expensive than the train, but anywhere in the city of Paris from the airport is a fixed rate, no meter or negotiation. I had decided in advance to go with that, rather than schlepp my bag or deal with uncertainty. To my surprise, the taxi driver spoke no English, but my fatigued brain was able to limp along enough in French to convey what he needed.

Arrival on Paris riverbank, fatigued!
Eiffel Tower way in background.

Cabins would be ready by 2 pm, but it was still morning when I arrived at the boat on the Seine. I dropped my bags, had a glass of water and used the restroom, was invited to have a pastry and hang out in the lounge, but I instead set out on a walk. The boat was just inside the city limits all the way downstream on the left bank, and the Eiffel Tower was a couple of kilometers away along the bank. The weather was lovely, and I had scouted the neighborhood on-line before leaving. I walked along the river bank, decided I wouldn't make it all the way to the tower, and headed inland. I visited a supermarket, stopped for a sandwich at a sidewalk cafe, and just looked at things. I also stopped in a pharmacy, where I bought a fancy facecream/moisturizer with SPF 30 in it, and also three different brands of sunscreen. (Internet research had indicated EU sunscreens have some formulations not approved in the US. My current favorite US sunscreen makes my eyes water and my nose run, though it feels fine on the rest of my body. I used the face cream on the ship, the sunscreens await trial as the weather gets warm here.) I hung out for a while on a reclining bench by the Seine, soaking up sunshine while listening to my Paris-set mystery novel. Finally, back to the ship, where my cabin was ready a bit early. I started unpacking, but the bed called, and I took a deep but relatively short nap.

The first night, we all met in the lounge and did quick introductions (about 130 guests on the boat). It became obvious that not only was it almost entirely couples, but mostly groups of couples traveling together. In age, I may have been about the median. But as we broke up from intros and headed to dinner, I ended up next to what turned out to be the only other solo woman on board! We agreed to find a place to sit together, which was a relief because the dining room set up was tables for 4, 6 or 8. It would be awkward, especially with all those big groups, to occupy only one seat at one of those tables, closing off another couple from using it. We picked a table set for 6, with two couples already there. It was fortunate! They were friends traveling together, but they were really open, friendly, and funny. Laughter at the table ensued, we sat with them every night, and have exchanged photos and emails. We sat with others, also friendly, at lunch, and breakfast usually I was on my own because no talking before coffee.

My new friend Susan and I

My new friend Susan and I agreed to join the same smaller group for tours each day, and we exchanged texts so we could double check neither was being left behind. Mostly, however, I did my own thing and she did hers, our preferred modes of operating. It was a nice arrangement. She had been a bank examiner, a professor of finance, and lastly a diplomat as her third career! She had been on three foreign tours, Mongolia, Poland, and I forget the third. So she was an accomplished and confident traveler. Also extremely amusing.

My cabin aboard was roughly three times the size of my cabin in Norway in January, very nice with a lot of storage and a mini fridge. The bathroom with shower was about as small as it could get, the same size as the Norwegian one. I had a floor-to-ceiling window that opened. Sometimes the view from my cabin was great, and sometimes it was blocked by another riverboat tied up to next to us. Some times we had to walk across the other ship to get to ours. 

Robes were provided, and I was surprised to see shipboard laundry service was available, I thought it wouldn't be. But I had brought the right clothes and didn't need it.

The weather was forecast the whole time to be between 45-65, with chance of showers every day. Pretty much that's what we got, though only really rained on once. 

For the nine days, seven nights aboard, I had brought the following clothes, and wore them all (including airplane clothes):

- Three pair of pants (one water-resistant hiking, two nicer but comfy stretch with good pockets)
- Five tees (two merino, three cotton, merino worn multiple times)
- One big overshirt (slight mistake, works best as top layer, not good under a sweater, should have brought a smaller one for layering)
- Three sweaters (one fleece, two wool, could have got by with one less bulky wool sweater)
- Enough underwear and socks for clean every day (luxury since I had room in bag, no sink laundry required!)
- Sweatpants and tee for pajamas (nice enough to wear for workout or very early coffee run)
- Two silk scarves, two buffs (small infinity scarf) One chunky necklace (Wore buffs during day, scarves or necklace for dinner at night)
- Three pair of soft shoes (should have brought more sturdy sneakers for cobblestones)
- Light rain jacket
- Light down puffy jacket (what the Scandis call "summer weight down")

My next post will be about the specific destinations we visited. Pretty much, each day we had a two shore-based opportunities, walking or bus tours, with lunch back on the ship. They would divide us up into groups for tours. They used a technology for the tours that I really like and appreciate, and has been used on most guided tours I've done in the past several years. Basically, it's a short distance radio, where the tour leader has a microphone and every person has a receiver and an ear bud. It allows you to listen to the tour guide while wandering around a bit and not jockeying for position to listen. The tours involved a lot of walking (I averaged over 10,000 steps a day for the trip), and the guides were very informative, universally excellent. But still, sometimes I skipped the organized tour and wandered on my own. I hadn't done the kind of detailed research and planning I would do if I was all on my own, but I did enough to keep interesting things to see. 

The food was a nice part of the trip. Breakfast and lunch were buffets, and dinner was usually four courses plated. There was an appetizer, choice of a clear or cream soup, a choice of meat, fish or vegetarian for main, and dessert, sometimes a choice. They had their own ice cream machine, and ice cream (my kryptonite) was available at every lunch and dinner. 

Typical dinner main, nice presentation. 
The plated food was not big food, 
very European.

As you know, I was a little worried about how eating would work out. Sadly, but maybe fortunately, the croissants on board were not up to snuff. (I did buy one at a bakery ashore and it was fabulous, but I didn't finish it. I got my croissant fix, at least.) They had European and American breakfast choices. I got into a routine of a heaping portion of fresh fruit, maybe topped with a small amount of yogurt, big scoop of scrambled eggs, one bit of breakfast meat (bacon or sausage) and a small pastry, which I didn't always finish. For lunch, they had soup, salad bar, hot bar meat, veggie and starch, hamburgers and fries available to order, and a baked dessert and ice cream. Again, as a routine, I usually did hot meat and cooked veggies, supplemented with something from the salad bar to get more fiber (like garbanzo beans if there was gravy). Susan started and I followed having *two* lunch desserts! But again, I often tasted but didn't finish them. I did have a problem on the buffets with my eyes being bigger than my stomach (as my mother used to say) and I resigned from the clean plate club. But I was happy with how it all worked out. I skipped nothing because I thought I "should" skip it. And I ate nothing that didn't bring pleasure. Because lunch was usually around noon, and dinner at 7:30, I wanted an afternoon snack, and I got in the habit of munching some of my dried edamame beans in my cabin before heading up to the lounge.

There was a daily cocktail hour in the lounge, which included a group discussion of the day, and what to expect the following day. I had a couple of pre-dinner drinks, but not every day. And with dinner, beer and wine were included. It turns out I didn't love the wines (I'm not such a wine person) except for one night where a Cote du Rhone was fabulous and went down way too fast. The house German draft beer was good, and it came in a small size that often I didn't finish - but I really enjoyed what I had.

I was in coach on the flight back. There were more internet horror stories about the time required to make it through CDG to the gate, so I arranged a taxi to get me there four hours before the flight (internet said three hours minimum - I had to be out of my room early so it made sense to me to get to the airport early rather than sit in the boat lounge and fret). There was speculation about needing to register for the EES system on the way out, but instead they were just using the buggy old passport / face matching system. It took 90 minutes from bag check to gate. I had time to visit the duty free - sadly for me, it was mostly high end fashion and not liquor. I was interested in cider or brandy from Normandy, but in the terminal I was in, the selection was sparse. There was lots of designer shops, though, many with velvet ropes across the doors barring entry unless you were up to their standards.

Uneventful flight home, used the CBP app to speed immigration (I don't have Global Entry, but the app takes your uploaded passport and your checkin upon arrival to match with a face scan), bag was ready quickly, and my BIL picked me up and delivered me home. After sitting for so long, and walking so much all week, my OG bad knee collapsed on the way up the steps to my house and my BIL had to carry my suitcase in. I was so happy to get home where I was instantly smothered with dogs and dog hair. 

The next morning, I was up by 5 am, and got on the scale with trepidation, prepared for a big jump up. But yay! The exact same number I saw the day I left! That is a victory, when ice cream was a thing every day, and sometimes twice! Moderation is my new middle name. 

I don't have anything booked for between now and Antarctica. I might need to change that, but we'll see how my finances and legs feel after a week or so (boat coming out of boat yard, dryer needing fixed or replaced).