Sailing back to Paris

Monday was our last full day on the boat. We left Rouen at 1:00 a.m., and were in Les Andelys when we woke up. It's a lovely little village, which I walked all around (it took me less than an hour).

There are ruins of a castle which was the stronghold of Richard the Lionheart, Chateau-Gaillard, which apparently was built in a year. I didn't hike up the hill to see it, but Tod did. This is one of the many photos he took:

At around noon, we were Paris-bound again. During the afternoon, there were tours of various parts of the ship, including the galley, which was very cool.

That evening was a semi-formal dinner with the Captain, after which we (once again) staggered back to our cabin having eaten too much!

We docked in Paris at around 4:00 a.m. on Tuesday. In the morning we had a quick breakfast, finished packing, and took a cab to our hotel.

The Hotel Luxembourg Parc was very different from the Artus, where we'd stayed the week before. It was decorated in a Napoleon III style, very ornate. We were a little disconcerted by the size of the room which was much larger than we expected. We were even able to fit both of us and our luggage into the elevator!

After we checked in, we wandered around the Jardin du Luxembourg, which is huge and includes multiple playgrounds, tennis courts and fountains.

After lunch, I went back to the room to rest, and Tod went to Napoleon's tomb, which includes a military museum, which I wasn't really interested in.

We had an early dinner and returned to our room to prepare for heading to the airport in the morning. It was a wonderful trip, and I hope to go back and see the south of France someday.