France Odyssey: Seine River, Reims, & Paris Day 9

Wednesday, October 11th, 2023

This morning we said goodbye to the staff on the Amadeus Diamond and boarded a bus to head for a tour of the Palace of Versailles. We had a delayed start because our local guide that would be with us for the next three days was late.

Our guide had us wait just inside the gate while he got our entrance tickets. Our tickets had a timed entrance but the Palace was running way behind so we were late. It was very crowded the day we visited. It was a very popular tourist stop and we could tell by the crowds.

The Palace of Versailles spanned over 1,977 acres. It was also an UNESCO World Heritage site. It was the main residence of the French Kings from Louis XIV to Louis XVI. It originally was the former hunting lodge of Louis XIII and it was transformed and extended by his son Louis XIV in 1682. Each king who lived here added his own enhancements until the French Revolution.

The Royal Gate was destroyed during the French Revolution which began in 1789. The French Revolutionary government ordered it dismantled. It was covered completely with gold! The gate below was rebuilt in 2008 but decorated with 100,000 gold leaves.

It was another cloudless day with blue skies. The palace was so big that our phones and camera could not get the entire palace in one picture. We had some pictures of the front of the palace.

We visited the rooms that were open to the public. Every room was grand and full of opulance. Below were a couple pictures from the Queen’s Apartments.

The King’s State Apartments’ layout was identical to the Queen’s State Apartments. One of his rooms was the Salon of Diana was named after Diana the goddess of the hunt.

The beautiful ceiling in the Salon of Diana

Also in the Salon of Diana was a marble bust of Louis XIV.

There also was a full-sized model of King Louis XIV that was sculpted in the 17th century.

The Mars Room was used as a guard room.

The Mercury Room was the Royal bedchamber.

Also in this room was a clock from 1706 that you can see its mechanism and it was decorated with a miniature figure of Louis XIV crowned by victory.

Clock given to Louis XIV by its maker, Antoine Morand

The pictures below show the organ of the Royal Chapel that sat above the altar and also the 2-story entrance doors!

One of our favorite rooms was the Hall of Mirrors. The mirror makers were from Venice, Italy. Construction began in 1678 and the hall had 357 mirrors!

The Treaty of Versailles was signed in the Hall of Mirrors. This peace treaty brought an end to WWI.

As we were walking in the palace we took this picture looking out at the gardens!

We spent time walking around the gardens and fountains. Unfortunately the water for the fountains was already turned off for the season.

It gardens were beautiful even if it was late in the season. Click through the slide show to view the various gardens, fountains (with no water), and statues.

When we finished with the grounds of the palace we walked over to the town of Versailles to find a restaurant for lunch.

The Crêperie La Place was close by and offered gluten free crepes. We sat outdoors and enjoyed the sunny day and had a delicious lunch!

Our next stop was the city of Reims. Before going to our hotel we stopped and visited the Notre-Dame Cathedral of Reims or also called the Reims Cathedral.

The cathedral was a wonderful example of Gothic art and in 1991 was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The West facade had two twin towers and a rose window. The stain glass windows were beautiful.

There were 2300 statues inside and out. It was the only cathedral to display angels with open wings. One famous statue was the “smiling angel” near the entrance.

Reims Cathedral was where kings of France were crowned. It hosted over 30 sovereign coronations. Reims became known as the “City of Kings”!

A statue of Joan of Arc was at the Cathedral’s forecourt. During the 100 year war Joan was beside the crowning of King Charles VII at Reims.

The interior stained-glass windows were throughout the church.

After our visit to the cathedral we checked into our hotel.

This evening we walked into town for dinner. It was a nice evening for a walk and a chance to see the city after dark.

Our favorite picture was the Reims Cathedral at night!

We found a small restaurant and we had excellent service and our meals were delicious! It was another day of exploring another area of France.

France Odyssey: Seine River, Reims, & Paris Day 6

Sunday, October 8th, 2023

We were on the road early because we had a full day ahead of us.

Today we visited visited some of the Normandy beaches. We visited this area on a trip in 2019 and spent a lot of time at all of the D-Day beaches. This time it was just a day trip but it was worth visiting again. A second visit gave us new experiences and insights.

Our first stop was Pointe Du Hoc. Pointe Du Hoc had cliffs(100-120 feet high) that overlooked the English Channel and Omaha Beach.

During WWII this area was a stronghold of the Germans. On June 6, 1944 the US Army Rangers scaled the cliffs to capture this position. You could see remains of German bunkers and machine gun posts.

The French erected this monument on a cliff here to honor the American Second Ranger Battalion.

On the center of Omaha Beach there were two memorials. On the left was the Les Braves which consisted of three elements: 1. the Wings of Hope, 2. Rise, Freedom, and 3. The Wings of Fraternity. On the right was a stone monument to the Allies.

We also saw a memorial for the 29th Division at Omaha Beach of a soldier carrying a wounded comrade on D-day.

Memorial at Omaha Beach of Soldier helping a wounded soldier.

The National Guard Association memorial was important to some of our veterans who served with the National Guard more recently. The National Guard memorial was also located at Omaha beach on top of a German bunker! It commemorated the actions of the National Guard during WWII.

After Omaha Beach we visited the Normandy American Cemetery that overlooked Omaha Beach.

The cemetery was dedicated in 1956 and was located in Colleville-sur-Mer, France. It was built on the temporary American St. Laurent cemetery. It was established by the U.S. First Army on June 8, 1944 and was the first American cemetery on European soil in WWII. The cemetery covered 172 1/2 acres and contained the graves of 9,837 military dead. Most of them lost their lives on the D-Day landings. The cemetery also had a wall of the missing with 1,557 names inscribed on it. A rosette marked by a name meant they were recovered and identified.

The statue by Donald De Lue was made from bronze and was called “Spirit of American Youth Rising from the Waves”.

Across from the statue one of our travelers in our group was a retired Major General and she presented the veterans in our group with a challenge coin. She also presented those that served prior to 1973 with a coin.

The Veterans traveling with us. We honored their service!

This time capsule was buried on June 6, 1969 and will be opened on the 100th anniversary of the allied landings along the coast of Normandy.

Our lunch was served at the L’Albatros Restaurant that was part of the Omaha Beach Golf Club. The La Mer course had each hole named after a liberating American veteran or famous battle. We enjoyed the lunch that was served.

After lunch we visited the new D-Day museum located in Arromanches’ seafront. It was built on the geographical center of the D-Day landing beaches. This museum focused on the D-Day Landings!

We were interested in the Mulberry Harbor and the museum explained it well. Right after D-Day the beach of Arromanches one of two Mulberry harbors was created. It was quite an engineering feat. The pieces to build the harbor were carried over from Britain. This allowed the heavy equipment to be unloaded. Below were models that showed how the harbor would work.

We saw remnants on land and some that were left out from the beach area.

On our way back to the riverboat we passed the Eisenhower roundabout in Bayeux, France. In the center of the roundabout is a memorial dedicated to General Dwight D. Eisenhower, Supreme Allied Commander in Europe.

When we returned back to the riverboat we had a little time to walk into the town of Caudebec-en-Caux.

In 1940, the Germans wanted to bomb the ferries crossing the river but missed and instead hit cars waiting to cross on the ferry. The cars caught on fire and the fire spread quickly and 80% of the town was destroyed because most of the buildings and homes were made of wood. The Church of Notre-Dame of Caudebec-en-Caux survived. It dated from the 15th and 16th century.

The church was listed as a historic monument since 1840. The Gothic style had many decorative carvings on the outside of the church. We were unable to visit inside because it was late in the day and all the doors were locked.

The sun was setting so we headed back to our riverboat.

France Odyssey: Seine River, Reims, & Paris Day 5

Saturday, October 7th, 2023

This morning we arrived in Le Havre, France. It was a major port city in the Normandy region and it was located where the Seine River emptied into the English Channel.

Near our dock we could see the last US Army tugboat that served here from 1944-1946. The boat was now a museum ship.

We rode through the town of Le Havre on our way to Étretat. Le Havre was almost completely rebuilt after WWII. It was the first modern city and one of two post-WWII cities recognized as a World Heritage site by UNESCO. Auguste Perret was the chief architect for reconstruction and used reinforced concrete.

A little over 370 acres of concrete made up the city.

This memorial was to commemorate residents of La Havre who had lost their lives in WWI, WWII, wars in Indochina (1946-1954) and Algeria (1954-1962).

The “Catène de Containers” art installation was constructed from shipping containers by Vincent Ganivet for La Havre’s 500th anniversary.

The Le Havre Cathedral was one of the few buildings that survived the bombings of WWII. The main facade was Baroque and the bell tower was from around 1520.

The Cathedral was built in the 16th-17th century and was only partially damaged during WWII.

This morning our first stop was Étretat. It was a seaside town that was known for its white cliffs which many impressionist painters had painted. The most famous was Claude Monet.

Erosion created arches and the needle-like structure. We had time to climb the east side or west side of the beach. We climbed the west side path that also lead to an 18-hole golf course. The views were beautiful from the top of trail.

Click through the slideshow to see the gorgeous cliffs, beach, and town!

The old wooden Covered Market was built in 1927 for fish stalls. Today there were shops inside.

Etretat had old medieval half-timbered homes.

Maurice Leblanc’s home was built around 1850. Maurice was a French novelist. He called the home “Clos Lupin” after his fictional character from his popular short stories that began in 1905. The home was confiscated by the Germans during its occupation of Etretat. The home eventually was purchased by his granddaughter and she turned it into a museum.

Our next stop was Honfleur, France.

Bell tower would signal when time to get back to work!

Le Vieux Bassin, the old port was a focal point of this beautiful city. It was lined with distinctive tall, narrow, timber-framed, and slate-clad townhouses built from the 16th to 18th century.

Sainte Catherine Church was the largest wooden church in France. Its bell tower was separate from the main building.

The inside of the church.

The La Lieutenance was the last bastion of medieval Honfleur.

We walked past the town hall.

We saw the Roncheville manor which once was the residence of the governors of Honfleur. We walked into the Courtyard of the Roncheville Manor.

Closeup of the entrance to the courtyard of the manor.

We walked down the Rue des Petites Boucheries. The name of this street dated to the 17th century and was named because it was lined with butchers stalls.

Near the harbour was a beautiful vintage carousel. Four of us rode it and enjoyed our ride!

After our tour of the town we had free time. We walked around the beautiful harbor and then found an outdoor patio for champagne and an afternoon snack. The owner, waitress, and a neighbor child helped us and were so kind and attentive.

It was a perfect way to end our time in Honfleur!

France Odyssey: Seine River, Reims, & Paris Day 4

Friday, October 6th, 2023

The Amadeus Diamond arrived in Rouen about 8:00 AM.

Across from our riverboat was the newest area of Rouen and the tall building you see in the picture below was the Archive Tower. It was built in 1965, stands over 300 feet and had no windows.

Rouen, France was a port city along the Seine and was located about 78 miles from Paris. In 1204 the French captured the city from the Normans. Rouen prospered until the Hundred Years War (1337-1453) and it was taken by Henry V of England. St. Joan of Arc, in 1430, France’s patron saint was imprisoned in a tower in Rouen. She was burned at the stake by the English in the city, in May, 1431 for heresy.

Cross monument marked the spot where Joan of Arc was burned at the stake.

The church above was the E’glise Jeanne d’ Arc. It was completed in 1979 and built in the center of Place du Vieux Marché (old market). The inside of the church had a beautiful wall of 13 Renaissance stained-glass windows that were from 1520-1530. They were in the Church of St. Vincent in Rouen that was heavily damaged by the Allied strikes in 1944. The windows were stored in a safe location for the rest of the war. Then the windows were used in the Joan of Arc church!

Also in the church was a memorial to Saint Joan of Arc.

Also located on the Old Market was the La Couronne restaurant. It was where Julia Child had her first French meal.

On our walk through the city we saw the Gros-Horloge or Great Clock. It houses one of the oldest clock mechanisms in Europe. It was an astronomic clock that sat on a Renaissance arch and it was flanked by a Gothic belfry from the 14th century. The belfry housed the bells that were linked to the clock’s movement. All of this was restored from 1997 to 2006.

The two faces of the clock displayed 24 rays of sun against a blue starred sky. There were moon phases on the oculus above the face of the clock. Also, a hand showing the week inside an opening at the base of the dial! Since the 1920s the clock was powered by electricity.

The arch below the clock contained bas-reliefs and the center was of Christ as the Good Shepherd.

The narrow streets of the old town were lined with half-timbered houses. Some of which date back to the middle ages. The town had about 2000 half-timbered homes which were made with timber posts. It was amazing that this many survived with all the devastation from WWII.

The Gothic style Cathedral Notre Dame de Rouen suffered damage from the Allied bombings that occurred a week before D-day. It was hit by seven bombs.

It was the highest cathedral in France after the reconstruction of its cast iron spire in 1876. The cathedral became internationally famous because of the paintings of it by Claude Monet who once lived across from the church.

The beauty of the Rouen cathedral continued inside its doors. The mostly Gothic style could be viewed. The right side of the cathedral was destroyed by the Allied bombing but the restoration was amazing!

Below were additional views of the cathedral.

We stopped in the Le Cacaotier, Hubert Masse, Artisan Chocolatier because we were told this shop had the best chocolate. We got some to take back to the riverboat. We enjoyed this delicious chocolate for the rest of our trip!

The Hilliard Area Chamber of Commerce travelers dressed as pirates to “take over the ship” and we took the second captain as hostage. The captain took many pictures and videos. He thought it was great! We had a lot of fun as the other passengers looked on with amusement!

The captain was on the far left and next to him was his second captain and some of our pirates!

The Hilliard Area Chamber of Commerce “pirates”!

The Hilliard Area Chamber of Commerce president captures the second captain!

We did our O-H-I-O in honor of our Buckeyes!

This evening we set sail for our next port Le Havre!

France Odyssey: Seine River, Reims, & Paris Day 1 and 2

Tuesday, October 3rd, 2023 and Wednesday, October 4th, 2023

Tuesday afternoon we left for the airport. Five of us were traveling together and we were meeting our sixth traveler in Paris! Our flight left Columbus and we arrived at Washington Dulles for our overnight flight to Paris, France.

Ready for our flight from Washington Dulles to the Paris Charles de Gaulle.

We arrived in Paris, got our luggage, and the bus took us to the Amadeus Diamond, our riverboat for the week.

We left our luggage because the crew wasn’t ready for us to go to our rooms yet. We met our nephew here, our sixth traveler, and he took us to a riverboat cafe down the way so we could get something to drink and a snack while we waited to board the ship. We could see the Eiffel Tower in the distance.

During the evening’s cocktail hour, champagne was served for a Captain’s toast.

During dinner we noticed the Eiffel Tower was lit and sparkling! The video was taken with our iphone.

We celebrated one of our traveler’s birthday after our first dinner on the ship! The restaurant staff brought him a cake and sang to him! It was a great way to finish our first evening on the riverboat!

We were so tired after getting little sleep on the plane we went to our stateroom not long after dinner!

Tag: Amadeus Diamond

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