French escapade august 2024 trip report
2024 Tauck French escapade August 18-Sept 5
We booked this trip in November 2022 at a cost of $23000 plus $10,000 for air. We booked room 211 on the Swiss Emerald. Our Cruise director was Kamel Hamitouche. Our tour guides were Felipe De Castro Bonilla, Emeline Rouvre, and Maxime Gaud.
Aug 18, we flew air Canada from STL to Montreal. We booked our air with Tauck.
The Canadian Paralympic team is on our flight to Paris.
On Aug 19, we arrived in Paris, but the driver did not show up at the airport to pick us up, so we had to call. We arrived at intercontinental Le Grand....room 4305 and were able to check in early. We walked to the Lafayette Galleria to the roof top bar to see the Eiffel tower. We stopped at Paul and Julianne Cafe and had some wine. We came back to the hotel and had dinner at Le cafe de la Paix. 
Comments
cathyandsteve-we’re taking this trip in April of 2023, I’ll try to remember to post a review.
cathyandsteve … GOT was never discontinued. You have to book by a certain time to receive it. This year it was by July 31, I believe. They extended it a bit, we booked this trip for 2023 on 8/3 and they gave it to us.
Cathy, USA today did a photo shoot in the Emerald right after the redesign in 2018. If you Google "usatoday Tauck" it should come up with a link to an article and a slide show. Cat 6 cabins pictures start at about #36. The decor - curtains, carpet, etc - might be different if they've done a refresh. We love the Cat 6. Have had it twice.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/cruises/2017/10/24/photo-tour-inside-one-most-elegant-river-ships-france/793500001/
Alan, thanx for the link. I was on my tablet last night and it's too hard to copy links on it. That is the article I was referring to that shows details of the big ship redesign back in 2017/2018.
Cathy, were you on the Espirit before the redesign i.e. in a 150 sqft cabin? Our very first cruise was the Emerald in cabin #207 which then was 150 sqft. We were on the Sapphire the first year it had gone thru the redesign in #205. In 2019 we were in it again on the Treasures and Espirit (the ship swap on our Budapest to Amsterdam cruise). Friends we met on the Sapphire were in a Cat 7 suite but when we all cruised together in 2019 they took #206 having decided the suite was sort of wasted on them.
As far as I've heard there hasn't been any major changes since 2017/18 though I'd expect they probably have updated soft furnishings and some items like adding the water bottle fill stations, etc. One of the things I love in those cabins now is the 3 drawer dresser that gives some handy counter space and the drawers are a nice size. I do kind of wish they'd do away with the table and chairs and replace them with one comfortable arm chair. It's not like were going to get room service for meals to eat at the table. For us it just collects "stuff". It's probably useful for people that bring their laptop and need a place to work.
When we booked our first Tauck cruise the Scylla ships had this gold and crimson red decor. Very Victorian boudoir vibe. Was so glad that before the cruise started they did a refresh that toned it down to beige. By far their prettiest ship is the Andorinha. Scylla needs to have whoever did the decor for that ship to do all their others.
Not as part of a tour, we enjoyed the Alstadt (old Town) area with its shops, boutique hotels and quaint restaurants. Fondue made with gruyere cheese is divine. There is also a pedestrian-only zone within the Old Town area.
My pleasure. Sorry I couldn't provide more specifics but it has been quite some time. I am sure someone with more recent experience will offer input.
Cathy when we ended our Switzerland tour we stayed a couple of days in Zurich. In part to take the train to Schaffhausen and the Rhine falls.which made a very nice day trip. In Zurich we toured the Swiss National Museum which has some interesting exhibits. There is an audio guide app available for smartphones. I try to download those at home over our own wifi. There is a couple of restaurants but I need to dig out my notes.
cathyandsteve - Glad you had a good experience with Tauck's air department. They have always been helpful and even maintain certain of our preferences on file. I understand that some travelers prefer to book their own air, but I stick with Tauck for the convenience and sheer pleasure of chatting with them.
Tauck doesn't always offer the best price or routing, but if they have flights that are close enough to what you're looking for the advantage of waiting until final payment is nice. The only negative is that you can end up with some over long layovers because Tauck won't book anything less than about 3 hours to transfer in places like CDG or Amsterdam. We've ended up with some 4-5 hour layovers which can get old.
As to Zurich, we had planned to get from our hotel to the airport via the train which is fairly easy to do but the hotel had a contact number for a transfer service that picked us up and took us to the airport.
For dining we wanted something Swiss and had marked out 2 restaurants - Rheinfelder Bierhalle on Niederdorfstrasse and Zeughauskeller on Bahnhofstrasse. Neiderdorfstrasse and Bahnhofstrasse are streets that kind of parallel one another and the river south of the main train station. Neiderdorfstrasse is pedestrian only and a nice place for casual strolling/shopping. Bahnhofstrasse is much wider with traffic/trams and the shopping is more high end. Both restaurants are very casual places featuring sausage, schnitzel, and a Zurich favorite called Zürcher Kalbsgeschnetzeltes mit Rösti which is veal strips with mushroom cream sauce and hashbrowns. Sadly we only made it to the Bierhalle and I had the pork with mushroom cream sauce and rosti. Rosti is very big in Switzerland. Here's the website for both.
https://en.rheinfelderbierhalle.com/
https://www.zeughauskeller.ch/en/home
Cathy please post a review when you return. We are going in August 2025.
Claudia, A belated thank you for mentioning T's long layovers; so glad I book my own flights. I've had transfer times as short as 40 min. with Austrian Airlines, close even for me...never had a problem.
Thanx MarketArt. I know Tauck does it to protect against missing flights but it can get old.
We received the same "gift" and note for our upcoming Duoro River cruise.
We received it also prior to our Rendezvous on the Seine trip in June. Very thoughtful.
Have a wonderful time...and I love Steve's shirt!
I have a dress in that material, have a great time Cathy & Steve.
Cathy, wishing you all the best on your cruise. Seems like such a long time ago we messaged about this one. Glad it's finally happening.
Have a wonderful trip!
Cathy - I hope you don’t use push pins on Steve’s shirt to mark places that you’ve been to. 😀
I was thinking the same thing! I would use my sewing machine to make raised tick marks/tiny knots. A project for you when you get home, Cathy. I hope you are enjoying the lovely InterContinental.
I also love Steve's shirt, that is so unique. Have a great trip.
Looks like you're having a great time! Thanks for bringing back some wonderful memories.
On Aug 20, we went to Moulin rouge and the red-light district. Then we took the petit train to Montmartre. We visited The Place du Tertre, known for the artists who paint tourists for pleasure and money, The Cimetière de Montmartre, The Moulin de la Galette .... a windmill and associated businesses, The Basilica of the Sacré-Cœur, and we had lunch (mussels) at La Mere Catherine. For dinner we attended the Tauck dinner at Fouquet.
Aug 21, today we took a city tour. We saw many of the famous sights. We then went to the Orsay museum. We had dinner at Le Capucine Cafe. Then we took a beautiful champagne cruise on the Seine.
On Aug 22, we had breakfast at the hotel, then took the train to Lyon. We embarked on the ship...room 211. We unpacked, then had orientation. Then we had dinner at compass rose. It was a tiring day.... but glad to be on the ship.
Aug 23, we arrived in Burgundy France. We drove to the town of Beaune, the epicenter of Burgundy wine production. We visited the Hotel-Dieu de Beaune, a former charitable almshouse, founded in 1443. We visited the Chateau de Rully for a wine tasting.
Aug 24, today we went to Chateau de Cormatin to visit the castle and gardens, built in the 17th century. Then we arrived in Macon. We had a spirit of France concert onboard.
Aug 25, today we drove to Cluny to visit the Abby. We were treated to a concert on the piano forte by an excellent musician. Then we drove to Trevour. Tonight, we arrive back in Lyon for the next couple of days.
