Chapter 1

Saturday, Sunday, Monday

Oct 28, 29, 30, 31

Paris, France

Saturday, Oct. 28: Arrival 

Our flight arrived on time at about 12:30 PM, just a little after noon.  I had actually chosen this rather late flight on purpose because, on previous trips, we had been arriving too early and our hotel rooms were not ready.  That would not be much of a problem this time.  Finding our way around the Paris (CDG) airport was a bit challenging, and I somewhat resorted to the tactic of following other people who seemed to know where they were going.  Passport control was quick and our luggage was waiting for us by the time we found the baggage claim area.  We quickly spotted the AMA Waterways representative and he led us to our driver and taxi where we were the only passengers on the 40 minute ride to the hotel.  On the way, I noticed a very large stadium with a equally large banner advertising the “2023 Rugby World Cup” and this would have a minor impact on our stay.

We got to the hotel (The Renaissance Paris Nobel Tour Eiffle) about 2:30, checked in, and our room was ready for us: we just needed to be at an informational meeting at 4:00 in the hotel.  We did a quick unpack and took a short rest.  There had been reports of bed-bugs infesting many Paris hotels lately, but, thankfully, we did not encounter any problems.  At the informational meeting we got some basic schedule information for the next few days and met our “Cruise Director”, Marcia.  She turned out to be both delightful and very effective in managing the tours and cruise activities.  We would get to know her pretty well over the next 12 days.  There were about 12 of us in the AMA Waterways “Pre-cruise” visit to Paris.  Marcia told us that we were about a 15 minute walk from a good place to view the Eiffel Tower and that she would lead anyone who wanted to join her on a walk at 6:30 to view the brightly lit tower. 

Wet Paris street in the evening

If you look closely at the photo above, you will notice that the street and sidewalk are wet, so, yes, there was an on-and-off light rain.  It was a pleasant, if slightly damp, walk to a plaza between two large buildings that make up the Palais de Chaillot.  It was just across the Sein river from the Eiffel Tower and provided an excellent viewing position.  Since it was raining a little and we certainly did not know just where we were, we did not venture far from Marcia.  The Eiffel Tower at night was certainly a beautiful sight.

A wet Eiffel Tower with the lights on

Every hour, on the hour, they turn on some flashing strobe lights for 5 minutes.  The photos do not show the strobes very well, but this video of the lights should give you a good idea.  If you want to see more of the Eiffel Tower, don’t worry, there will be several more photos and videos before we leave Paris.

On the way from the hotel to the viewing area, Marcia had pointed out several restaurants and cafes that would be suitable for having dinner.  We were starting to get hungry, so, as we walked back with the group and got to a place where I knew where we were and how to get back to the hotel, Susan and I stopped for dinner.  Looking back, I guess it is a little strange that for our first dinner in Paris, we had pizza, but somehow some pizza and a bottle of wine was almost perfect.

Waiting for our Pizza: Susan looks tired.

After dinner we made the short walk back to the hotel, got ready for bed, and started our battle with Jet Lag.

Sunday, Oct 29: Paris tour

We had been told in the informational meeting that our group would have our breakfast in a different room than the normal hotel restaurant.  We found out later that this was because the hotel was fully booked with people attending the Rugby World Cup so they were “off-loading” our group to the other room to avoid overcrowding the restaurant.   It was not well thought out, however, because the only access to our breakfast room was via an exterior plaza area and it was raining.  We did have a bit of a laugh over the confusion.

Our main activity for today was a “city tour” via our tour bus.  We covered much of the city, but we were in the bus and it was raining most of the time, so I only got few decent photos and my memory of exactly where we went is a little cloudy.  We did cover some of the standard landmarks, as expected.

Avenue des Champs Elysees (through the bus front windshield) on a Sunday morning

The Arc de Triomphe was actually fairly close to our hotel, in the opposite direction from the Eiffel Tower.  We circled the Arch, using the huge round-about that encircles it and then drove down the Champs Elysees.  The traffic was light on a Sunday morning, but we would see a much different condition later. 

From there we made our way to the Eiffel Tower, to a viewing area on the opposite side of the tower from where we were the previous night.

A daytime view of the Eiffel Tower

If you look through the bottom arch of the tower, you will see the two buildings and plaza between them where we went to view the tower the previous night.  We didn’t hang around very long because it was still raining lightly and there was a rather cool wind.  We did take the time to get a “Yes, we really were in Paris.” Photo.

Yes, we really were in Paris!

Then we drove through some of the (expensive!) shopping areas, a few people in the group got excited, and asked for directions back here after the tour.  There were also several museums and art galleries and we did make a quick pass by the Louvre Museum on the way to our next stop, the Cathedral of Notre Dame. 

Restoration of Notre Dame: it is in progress, but slow.

It had stopped raining, so we got out of the bus and did a short walking tour around the Cathedral, taking in the work being done.  We were told that they hoped to have the restoration complete by the 2024 Summer Olympic Games in Paris, but I have to doubt that will happen.  There was a lot of work going on (well, not on Sunday of course) but there remains a tremendous amount of work to do.

Tour boats on the Sein River close to Notre Dame

Immediately in front of the cathedral was a plaza where there was a viewing area, complete with bleachers for people to sit and watch the construction work.  Notre Dame actually sits on an island in the Sein River and we saw a number of tour boats going by with a surprising number of people on the upper, and exposed to the light rain, decks.

After looking over the restoration work, we got back on the bus for a short ride off of the island and a stop for some “free time”.  I think the main reason for this stop was to allow people to go to a Café to get some coffee and snacks and then take advantage of the Café’s restrooms.  Susan and I wandered around a little and explored a small but colorful park where we also had a view of Notre Dame.

Colorful little park, with Notre Dame in distance.

On the way back to the hotel, we did another trip up the Avenue des Champs Elysees, this time heading toward the Arc de Triomphe, allowing me to get the more classical photo of the arch.

    Looking up the Champs Elysees toward the Arc de Triomphe 

The tour ended a little after noon, dropping us off at the hotel.  Marcia had pointed out a couple of potential restaurants for lunch along the way, so we headed to one that was about halfway toward the Arc de Triomphe, thinking that we would take a better look at the Arch after lunch.  We did not realize how popular the restaurant would be for a slightly late lunch on a Sunday: it was packed and service was very slow, even well beyond Parisian relaxed expectations.

We did continue on to the Arc de Triomphe and, by this time, the clouds had mostly cleared and the sun was out, allowing a much nicer photo.

The Arc de Triomphe in sunlight

We walked all the way around the Arch, staying on the outside of the huge traffic circle.  The traffic had increased significantly from the early morning, but still not too bad, considering the round-about was about 5 lanes wide.  About the time we had circled the arch, we realized that we had passed the entrance for the walkway that goes under the roadway and allows you to come up in the middle, under the arch.  We decided that we had seen enough and headed back to the hotel where we relaxed and rested for a while.

Since we had no planned activities for the evening, we decided to walk back to the plaza where Marcia had taken us to view the Eiffel Tower, but without the rain this time.  We got there about 20 minutes before the hour (7:00PM), so we had a little wait until the flashing lights started, and that gave me time for more photos, of course.

The tower also looks good in dry weather

I also captured some more videos of the Eiffel Tower, with both standard lighting and the flashing lights, as demonstrated in this short combined video.  Since this was a Sunday evening and there was no rain, there were a lot more people filling the plaza this night.  On the walk back to the hotel, we stopped at a different restaurant and decided to have a relatively light dinner of French Onion soup, a salad, and a bottle of wine, of course.  It was good, but I like Susan’s onion soup better.

Monday,  Oct 30:  Paris and Montmartre

The next morning, we tried to go to the same separate breakfast room, but all the doors were locked.  After some more confusion, we found out that we had been put in that room only because of the Rugby World Cup overflow and that we were now supposed to go to the normal hotel restaurant. 

There were no planned activities for the day until the evening, but I created an activity to keep us busy.  I had brought my laptop with us, but had forgotten to bring the external power supply, and the battery was about dead.  I figured that I should be able to get a new power supply somewhere in Paris.  I asked Marcia if she could suggest a place to get an appropriate power supply and she suggested a FNAC store within walking distance and gave general directions.  So, with little planning, we headed out on foot.  Of course, I didn’t expect this to be of much interest, so I did not take my camera and did not get any photos.  We first walked to the Arc de Triomphe and headed down the Champs Elysees, but that turned out to be the wrong street: we should have gone two more streets around the Arch.  Anyway, it turned out to be quite an excursion and I finally resorted to using Google Maps on my phone, although when I did so, we were only about 100 yards from the store.  The store did have an appropriate power supply, so I now have a power supply with a European type power plug.  By the time we got back to the hotel, we had been on our excursion well over two hours and needed a bit of a rest.

The activity for the evening was an excursion to Montmartre, a community on a hill overlooking Paris, followed by a short tour of Paris by night.  Our bus picked up up at the hotel and took us to an area where we were meet a small “train” that would take us up to Montmartre.

Our transportation up the hill to Montmartre

This “transfer station” just happened to be in front of a rather famous Paris landmark, the Moulin Rouge, so we wanted to get some photos in front of that showplace.  Marcia had gotten the ladies matching berets to wear to keep their heads and ears warm in the cool night air so we had to get the appropriate photo.

The ladies in their berets (Marcia in blue)

We all piled into the train and headed up the hill for the 15 minute ride to Montmartre.  The first order of business was to enjoy the beautiful view of Paris, the “City of Light”. 

Paris at night, from Montmartre

Marcia led us on a short walking tour, exploring some side streets and finding some old and historic buildings and cabarets.

The famous rabbit on the  Lapin Agile Cabaret

The Lapin Agile is considered to be the oldest bar-cabaret in Paris and is a well known landmark.  (Lapin is French for “Rabbit” so Lapin Agile means “the Agile Rabbit”.) 

After enough of a walk to work up an appetite, Marcia turned us loose to get dinner at one of the several restaurants in the center of Montmartre.  During dinner, the piano player played “Georgia on my Mind”, which of course reminded us of home.

After dinner we gathered together, reboarded the little train, and headed back to the Moulin Rouge where we got back on our bus to continue our “Illumination tour” of the City of Lights at night.  Along the way we passed the Arc de Triomphe, but I was a little disappointed that it did not have more dramatic lighting.

The Arc de Triomphe at night: less dramatic than the Eiffel Tower

Of course, such a tour would not be complete without a stop at, what else?: the Eiffel Tower. So, we were in Paris for 3 nights and got up-close views of it at night, every night.  Yes, I ended up with enough photos of the tower for several trips.

The Eiffel tower from where the daytime photos were taken

This time, I was a little lucky and actually got a video of when the flashing lights started (although it somehow disturbed the focus on my camera).  Here is a combination of a couple of videos of the Eiffel Tower.  After the short ride back to the hotel, we called it a night and got everything in order for our departure in the morning.

Monday,  Oct 31:  Paris, TGV, and Luxembourg

In the morning we had breakfast in the hotel restaurant, finished packing and preparations for departure, and boarded our Paris bus one last time.  It was about a half hour ride to the train station (the large tour bus frequently had to take different and longer routes than a small, more agile, car could have). Our luggage was taken separately, by truck, I believe, to our destination of the river cruise boat in Luxembourg, so we did not have to worry about handling it.

We got to the train station and found the likely departure platform about 45 minutes prior to departure time.

The schedule board: we are the 10:39 to Luxembourg.

There were about 30 platforms and quite a few trains, but it really did not seem that busy. 

Several trains sitting at their boarding platforms

We needed some smaller change/bills to use for tips (Euros) so we bought some coffee at, what else? Starbucks!  The train arrived right on time and we found our comfortable seats for the 2 hour and 15 minute trip to Luxembourg.  This was one of their fast trains and I discovered that it is very difficult to get a decent photo from a train traveling at 200 mph.  Plus, the photos I did get were not very interesting since a still photo cannot really show the sense of speed.  So here is a composit video of the trip:  leaving Paris, speeding along the way, and arriving in Luxembourg.  Along the trip there were only a couple of reasonably small towns and many agricultural fields.  There was some kind of delay a couple of miles short of Luxembourg and we had to wait about 10 minutes before covering the last few miles, arriving about 15 minutes late.

At the Luxembourg train station, we located our tour bus and loaded up for the short ride into the downtown area.  We stopped and unloaded in an area of very similar looking buildings: some of them turned out to be government buildings and museums, and some were commercial.

This one was the main office for a major bank.

We walked across a bridge, taking in the sights of a lower area with gardens that were built around an old fortress.

The Luxembourg Gardens and parts of an old fortress

Where the walls of the old fortress are in the photo above is an important memorial. Commonly called the “Gelle Fra” or “Golden Lady” for the gold statue of a woman at the top of a spire, it is properly the “Memorial of Rememberance”.

The golden lady at the top of the memorial

The purpose of the memorial is to remember and honor the thousands of Luxembourg young men who volunteered to fight in the world wars and Korea, many of whom did not return.  Because of the  purpose of the memorial, I thought the figures at the base of the spire were more significant than the the golden lady.

This seemed to represent the spirit of the memorial.

Our guide led us to a square in the middle of town and suggested a couple of restaurants where we could get lunch within the limited time we had.  We had a lunch of some local dishes, and just barely got done in time to rejoin the guide on schedule.  He then led us to the Notre Dame Cathedral…  not the one in Paris, of course, but the one in Luxembourg.  It was a somewhat typical large and very ornate and beautiful cathedral, but the stained glass windows were somewhat special.

Stained glass windows in the Luxembourg Notre Dame

After taking a good look at the cathedral, we walked back to our starting point and loaded back onto the bus.  Our final stop in Luxembourg would be a rather somber one, somewhat in keeping with the “Memorial of Remembrance”.  We were visiting the American Cemetery of Luxembourg.  Here lies over 5000 American soldiers who died in the battles of World War II in this area.  Most of the soldiers here died in the “Battle of the Bulge” which was fought nearby.  General George Patton played a major role in that battle and he is buried here, although he did not die until about a year after the war was over.  (He died in an auto accident which many people believe was not really an “accident”.)   Before his death, Patton had said that he wanted to be buried with his men, in a grave like all the others.

The American cemetery with Patton reviewing his troops.

Patton was initially buried among the troops, but so many people wanted to visit his grave that he had to be moved to a more accessible location.  He is still marked by a simple cross like so many others.  I did think it was very appropriate that his grave is positioned so that it appears he is reviewing his troops as they are in formation on the parade ground in front of him.

Back on the bus, our next stop was supposed to be the German town of Trier, but the recent rains had the Moselle River almost at flood stage and our boat, the AmaPrima, could not get that far upstream against the flow of the river.  Instead, we had to go a little further downstream where we met the boat about 5:00.  We were glad to get checked in and to our cabin to unpack (our luggage had preceded us) and relax a bit before another informational meeting and dinner.

We got the usual general information about available excursions, some boat schedules, etc.  Marcia conducted most of the meeting, introducing the captain and key crew members.  She also introduced our two, somewhat special, passengers.  But, I’ll cover that in the next chapter when I talk about the AMA Prima.

End of Chapter 1:  Paris

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