Cruising the Seine plus London and Paris
I just returned from this trip, arrived in London 2 days early as I had booked private tours to Bath and Stonehenge 2 years ago. The Savoy was lovely and the tours were amazing. The welcome dinner at the Savoy was disappointing, there was a set menu, chicken leg (which I don't eat) and chicken confit. Through out the trip only 5 people wore masks consistently and I was one of the five, our group was 62, the tour directors only wore the masks while in the bus, at the end of the tour 4 people stayed behind due to testing positive for Covid (don't know if all 4 had it) and I just heard that 2 more tested positive after arriving home.
We had a bus sightseeing tour of London in our second day and an after hours visit to Churchill's War Rooms which was very interesting.
Day 3 - We took the train to Paris, boarded the Ms Saphire and had our welcome reception and dinner, we were served dinner and had many choices from the Menu, from then on lunch and breakfast were buffet style but dinner was always served. Arthur's was open only for lunch with reservation and a continental breakfast was served in the lounge every day. One of the trainees working with the tour directors told me that the shortage of crew is due to all the workers that come from Indonesia not being able to travel, however there was no lack of service.
Had an early dinner and after hours visit to the Louvre which was a pleasure being there without the crowds.
Day 4 - We visited Versailles which was mobbed, but magnificent as I remembered from another trip. We had a Cabaret show in the lounge that night.
Day 5 - Today we visited Auvers- Sur - Oise where Van Gogh spent his last years, visited his room and his grave and then a visit to the Absinthe Museum where we had a diluted taste of the illegal liquor.
Day 6 - Docked in Vernon and went to Giverny, Monet's house and Gardens before it opened to the public, the gardens are amazingly beautiful and well taken care of, after we visited the Museum, after lunch on board we went for a walked in Vernon, lovely town with an impressive cathedral, tonight was the Chef's Signature dinner and a night of dancing with the crew instead of the usual show they put on.
Day 6 - Docked in Rouen today and went on a walking tour, nice church and the Rouen Cathedral with it's stained glass from the 1600's was beautiful, visited the place where Joan of Arc was burned and St. Joan's Church, tonight we went to the Chateau Del Taillis for dinner, very enjoyable time.
Day 7 - We docked in Le Havre and after a long drive visited the Caen Memorial Museum which depicts the was from the end of WWI to WWII, very emotional including a D-Day film with original footage after which we drove to the Medieval town of Bayeux with it's amazing Notre Dame Cathedral of Bayeux had lunch at a very quaint tea room called Les Volets Roses and then went to see the famous Bayeux Tapestry over 1,000 years old and embroidered by many hands, it depicts the fight between William and Harold (Normans and Saxons) incredible masterpiece.
Day 8 - Today was all about D-Day which for me was the reason for this trip, we started by going to Pointe De Hoc where the Rangers landed and climbed the cliffs with the Germans above them. From there we went to Omaha Beach the very sad place where we lost so very many of our soldiers it's hard to believe that such a beautiful place was the site of such carnage as our soldiers were sitting ducks as they came ashore, we went for lunch at Chateau La Cheneviere with beautiful gardens and from there we visited the American Cemetery where so many of our soldiers are buried.
Day 9 - In our last day we visited the town of Les Andelys, rode to the Fermes des Ruelles where they grow apples to make all kinds of apple cider of which we had a taste, they take pride in the fact that they cultivate without the use of chemicals, together with the apple cider we also had a taste of Calvados a very strong apple brandy, after driving back we went for a walk through La Petit Andelys, lovely town and then drove to La Roche-Guyon to meet our boat. Tonight we had our farewell cocktail reception and dinner.
This was a lovely trip and I really felt sorry for those that could not go home the next day.
I still wear my mask in the airport and wore it all through the trip, of course there was no social distancing for meals or any other times but I always ate with 4 ladies traveling by themselves as I was.
Comments
I want to add that I did not have access to the Forum while on this trip, even the cruise director couldn't access it, I was able to read the comments but whenever I logged in it did not give me access to the Forum.
Alan may you can figure out why?
It probably has to do with Tauck's spam filters and how your computer/tablet and or the ship formats data. It may also have something to do with how the boat receives internet- via satellite? I'll reach out to IT when rested and cogent.
On our just-completed Treasures of the Aegean, once we got aboard the ship I was unable to get email the normal way- I had to use webmail. I believe I could send email the normal way. I got all the spam, however!! Luckily it just appeared briefly, before it was filtered out.
The internet (www) worked fine and as you saw I was able to access the Tauck forums to post and upload photos.
Thx for your comments.
I had difficulty accessing the forum when we were in NY recently, it would not recognize my password and I had to change it. I also had to use our VPN which I don’t normally put on in the US though I probably should. In other parts of the world, I get connected to the UK Tauck website when I log in.
Alan - Thank you I will try to contact Tauck's IT department but I believe you may be right in that they have filters that prevent access to the Forum.
British - I had the same trouble logging in sometimes, it would not recognize my password, however eventually I was able to log in but had no access to the Forum. I do not have a VPN, maybe I should look into that.