We were early off the ship on our way home, a 7:30 pick-up. It wasn’t supposed to be like that. When we booked our flights a few months before our visit to France, We flew Singapore airlines between Frankfurt and Brisbane, and Lufthansa between Singapore and Frankfurt and the two flights to and from France….
Today was Saturday! We’d finished our five days of covid isolation, so by rights we’d be allowed to mingle with the masses. But we didn’t feel comfortable doing that so we kept ourselves to ourselves. The Catherine was moored at Tarascon, a small town not far from Arles, where Vincent van Gogh spent a prolific…
I had been looking forward to visiting Avignon. The city has a turbulent history going back to Roman times but it is most famous as being the site of the Papacy (instead of Rome) between 1309 and 1377. Needless to say, the basis for the move was politics. Philip IV was king of France at…
SS Catherine moored overnight at the village of Viviers. As usual, we waited until the passengers had departed for their excursions – one of which was to the famous Châteauneuf-du-Pape vineyard. Oh well. Some more excellent wine missed. We walked up a long avenue lined with plane trees, which were common in many places. The…
Peter and I both spent the first day of quarantine (after we got back from being tested) in our respective cabins resting and watching out the window as the ship turned around and headed back to Lyon. When we awoke the ship was docked next to Lyon’s riverside promenade, much favoured by cyclists, runners, dog…
Sunday dawned bright and sparkly and not too hot. We’d finished our Seine cruise and sixty-four of us were off the ship early for our transfer to the railway station to take a high-speed train to Lyon where we would board the SS Catherine on the Rhone River. The Tour de France would be finishing…
No visit to Paris is complete without a look at Louis XIV’s palace of Versailles. Back on day one of the tour we were given two choices: The main apartments and a look at the gardens The main apartments and some of the king’s private rooms The outlook was for more hot weather so we…
Rouen is the starting point for passengers wanting to visit the Normandy beaches where the D-day landings took place in June, 1944. I think many of our American passengers would have had a grandfather or other relative who took part in that epic invasion. However, Uniworld’s brochure says “you’ll visit Normandy’s beaches, including Utah Beach…
This little village was as far down the Seine as the Joie de Vivre would travel. From here, we could choose to take a bus ride through the Normandy countryside for a guided walking tour of the pretty village of Honfleur, which is on the opposite bank of the Seine from Le Havre, or opt…