September 8 and 9

September 8

After sailing and then docking sometime in the night, the ship was now moored in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine. Actually a suburb of Paris, we were only 15 miles from central Paris. The Seine is very loopy, so we covered more miles sailing and we didn't sail all night.

 The view out of my cabin window in the AM, you could see the tendrils of mist rising off of the river.

 

 

 The early morning view from the sundeck and of the river from the sun deck as well.

 Four swans flying by. I saw lots and lots of swans along the river.

 

 

 The Ouise River and the small village of Auvers sur Ouise which is where Vincent van Gogh spent the last few months of his life. We had a walking tour and a special guide who in many cases lectured on his life with very little walking! Or at least little walking initially.

 

 

 Medallion along the path it is assumed that Van Gogh walked to places where he painted including the church.

 The view that was painted is being restored so not a good picture. Eventually we made our way to the cemetery where Vincent and his brother Theo are both buried.

 

Back on board for lunch and resuming sailing down the Seine after lunch. Plus we had the chance to get a few minutes in small groups with the Captain in the wheelhouse! Ship has auto pilot, GPS and all sorts of good stuff. Captain is in his second year with the company. He and another captain alternate with 20 days on and 20 days off.

 

 

We sailed by another Notre Dame, this one in Mantes la Jolie.

 Then a bit farther down stream we came by Chateau LaRoche Guyon. We didn't stop here but had commentary from the program directors while we went by, the Captain slowed down so we had a nice long look. The chateau was used by Rommel during World War II and troops were housed in parts of the castle ruins.

 We sailed on until docking at the city of Vernon, which is just across the river from where Giverney and Monet's home is located.

September 9 

Giverney!!!! A bucket list destination for me and to sit on a bench in the Japanese garden by the lily pond was very moving.

A bit of grumbling by some as we had to be on the buses by 8:30 to head the short distance from where we were moored in Vernon to Giverney. By the time we drove there and walked to the group entrance of the gardens it was just before the 9 AM opening time. Our group was first in line to get in and we headed to the Japanese garden. As one of the program directors joked later we had the garden to ourselves for 8 minutes and 42 seconds before being invaded by others.

I think (hope) the pictures will speak for themselves.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then after spending a good 45-60 minutes in the Japanese garden it was time to move over into the Norman garden, more of a typical French garden. Also, so filled with other tour groups that it was difficult to move around. Our group was not tied to a person giving commentary, we could wander where we wanted. Other tours had these clots of people which made getting by difficult.

I just kept moving, taking pictures of the flowers, and trying to keep the people out of the picture. In some cases doubling back to get pics after the clot moved along.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 People do still live on the property, so they have chickens. A nice touch of living being, not just flowers. Then the lineup to get inside the house. It wasn't bad, they only let in 5-8 people at a time to reduce congestion.

The re-creation of his studio with so many reproductions of his famous paintings and much color in many of the rooms.

After a tour into the gift shop, you have to at least walk through to get out of the place! I did purchase a few items, could have bought a whole lot more!

Then stopped in a nearby cafe and chatted with some of my fellow travelers, then back to the bus. On the way there, a clueless woman was so intent on her phone she nearly walked into a car backing out of a parking spot!

 Back on the bus and parked next to a Viking tour bus, they seem to invest in having everything branded in their name. Our buses were just hired locally, so extra money into the local economy.

Uneventful trip back to the ship and then lunch. I decided not to chase around for the afternoon and just chill.

 You may not be able to tell from the pictures but in fact there are three ships dock side by side by side. This is common in ports where there is limited space to moor and the general rule is that the outside ship is the one who is leaving first. So in this case the outside ship took off in early afternoon.

 When moored like this to give access to people to get off they come off unto the other ship and make their way to the actual dock. It also means you at times have to shuffle the order of who is docked where.

 I got a chuckle or two watching the Viking guys dithering on what to do to move and our Captain was like, no problem, we just use our side thrusters to move both ships out and then back once the new ship came in. Viking was due to leave before us and we were not leaving until the next morning around 7 AM.

 So then you can see the ship had been moved out to give the newcomer more than enough room to dock. They backed into position, these guys are good at moving these ships backwards!

 

 Big staterooms along with double beds. Fancy, so I guess you could sit in bed, keep the curtains open and watch the world go by. Or get caught having fun!

Later in the afternoon we had a special guest on board to talk about her experience of being a war bride. The lady lives near Vernon, still drives and had celebrated her 92nd birthday the day before. 

It was interesting to hear what she had to say about the Allies coming through to liberate France and how she met her husband. After they married they moved to the US and raised their family. Her husband started off as a janitor, went to school and at the end of his career was a VP for IBM working in France. He passed way in 1975 and she moved back to France in 1995. 

She was invited to have dinner on the ship that evening and yes, there was birthday cake for her. Only fitting to celebrate.