Day 6

Sunday – Fathers day!

Today we are on board cruising back along the river Seine heading towards Paris . Sal and I are relaxing in the scenic Lounge while enjoying an afternoon tea of Strawberry tarts and beautiful French bread and cheeses while listening to the pianist play such wonderful classics including the Music from West Side Story - it certainly doesn't get much better than this!

It is quiet on board today as many of the passengers have gone on optional shore tours so the boat has continued cruising back towards Paris and we will meet up further along the river. One of today’s tours was a visit to the "Palace of Versailles" which I was really keen to do however the Tour Director discouraged us from going as he said Sunday is a really bad day to go as its so busy.

Late afternoon we arrived back in Paris and docked near the smaller version of the Statue of Liberty. Dinner tonight was a special occasion as it was the last night all passengers would be together as the majority would be attending the Moulin Rouge for the dinner and show the following evening. We were lucky enough to attend Moulin Rouge on our previous trip to Paris so we will be staying on board.  

Our table of six has not changed since the first night on board despite there being a "no set" table rule. We all got on so well on our first night together we have continued to dine together for the duration of the cruise. I think getting to know a few Americans on both our cruises this trip has changed Trevor’s mind a little about visiting the US sometime in the future .

After dinner we prepared to board the coaches for a "Paris by night" tour. The coach toured most of the famous sights and concluded at the Eiffel Tower just in time for the 10.00pm sparkling light display. Sal and I were fortunate to enjoy this spectacle two years ago and enjoyed it equally as much tonight. We returned to the boat to turn in as tomorrow was to be our last full day on board before disembarking on Tuesday.

We decided to have a late breakfast as we had not really planned to do much this morning as we were booked on the Louvre tour this afternoon. Trev had opted out of the Louvre tour and decided instead to go on the morning coach tour of Paris however as we had done this tour on our last visit Sal and I decided not to do it again.

Over breakfast Sal and I discussed that perhaps we should venture out and do our own mini tour of Paris. We set off to catch the train to the Arc de Triumphe and take a walk down the Champs Elyssee. Unfortunately we hadn’t calculated the time it would take for us to do our mini tour. By the time we walked to the train station and waited 20 minutes to purchase tickets, then had to change trains several times due to us being unable to read the French timetable an hour had elapsed by the time we reached our designated station.

Once our train arrived, we were girls on a mission as we raced to the Arc de Triumphe to stand underneath and photograph its magnificent arch . We then raced through the underpass to arrive at the Champs Elysse and instead of the planned leisurely stroll down this most famous of boulevards it was more like a trot and the planned coffee at a Parisian café ended up being a take away from McDonalds. Oh well! it did sound exciting in theory however there was definitely something lacking in the timing and execution!

Our return to the boat didn’t go to plan either when we caught the wrong train and had to back track however we eventually made it and only just a little late for lunch but in plenty of time to get ready to embark on our tour of the Lourve. We boarded the coach and were pleasantly surprised to see we had once again been fortunate to have our favorite tour guide Sophie as our guide. The bonus of going as part of a tour is you are fast tracked through the crowd and can start your tour immediately.

Sophie’s knowledge of the Lourve was amazing! First she gave us an overview of the building itself which I hadn’t realised had quite a history of its own. Next it was on to enormous rooms housing the famous Italian and Greek statues including the famous Venus de Milo. We were then shown paintings by the masters including five Leonardo di Vinci’s then it was time to view the most famous di Vinci of them all – the “Mona Lisa”.

There was no trouble spotting where in the room she was located as there was a huge throng of people milling around at one end . We joined the throng and waited our turn to go and stand in her presence – it must have been our lucky day as when it was our turn, the crowd had dispersed enough for us to stand and have a photo taken with her and to have time to view her clearly and take in all of her famous features.

Before visiting the Mona Lisa I had heard many opinions of this painting and in particular how small it was so I was not disappointed when I did finally get to see her as she ended up being much larger than I'd expected. Sal and I both came away feeling very happy to have had the opportunity to stand in the presence of one of the worlds most iconic pieces of art - which is not something you get to do every day. 

Dinner this evening was a little more low key than usual but still elegantly presented. We dined with Lee and Ann for the last time and exchanged email addresses with the promise of hopefully catching up sometime in the future – our sixth table member, Pat had gone to the Moulin Rouge so hopefully we will get to say our goodbyes to her in the morning.

After dinner it was time to return to our cabins and pack as we had to vacate our cabins by 9.00am the following morning.