Dubai to Christchurch - Friday 8 and Saturday 9 September

I'm breaking new records - I even managed to get 30 minutes sleep just sitting and waiting at our departure gate! Well, we thought it was our departure gate, and it's what the board said for quite some time. But, once I woke up I noticed that a different flight was listed beside the gate. Another check of the main board revealed that our departure gate had been changed. Off we went to the correct place. This flight also departed late, but I was pleased to find that I still had a vacant seat beside me. No worries, the passenger on the end of the row helped herself to the space by leaning right across and falling asleep immediately. The cabin staff had to wake her for take-off, but she was back across the seat with her head almost touching me, as soon as she could. After a couple of hours she woke up and then asked me if it was ok. By now I had figured out that this empty seat was because of my cpap machine, and probably an effort not to inconvenience another passenger with the sound of my machine. I tried to explain to this woman (French, I think) that she was fine to use the seat for now, but I'd like it later because I needed to use a machine to help me sleep. Eventually, when the plane lights dimmed, I set up my cpap and leaned into half of the additional seat space. I can't say I got any sleep, probably because I'd had a good 2.5 hours recently, on the previous leg of the journey.

The GF meals on the flights out of Dubai and Sydney left a lot to be desired. There was one reasonable chicken and apricot meal out of Dubai, but no GF snacks available when David was offered pretzels (I don't think the cabin staff member I asked was interested at all - not even offering a piece of fruit instead). The other meals were all dry and tasteless omelette breakfasts - the GF bread was inedible (though may have been ok if it had been warmed up), again no dairy products - so no cheese or yoghurt (although there was yoghurt on the final leg out of Sydney, but given soy milk for my coffee) - so no consistency either. In the end I could barely eat the meals and left most of them.

The flight from Sydney was quite empty - certainly our F section of the plane was probably not even half full, and this time there were two empty seats beside me - unfortunately, by then, I was beyond sleep, so couldn't make the most of it.

One good thing about the flights was that, with that bit of sleep, I was able to concentrate enough to watch four movies over the three flights: 'Churchill' (new perspective added, having been to the D Day Beaches), 'A United Kingdom', 'The Zookeeper's Wife', 'Lion' (a few tears with that one....). 

In Christchurch, we declared the fact that we'd been on some French farms (snails, truffles, caviar), and that I had some food - they needed to check one of the foods, but other than that everything was fine. 

We were delighted to arrive back in Christchurch on a warm, sunny day, and to see the blossom on the trees. We quickly got a taxi home, popped out quickly to get some basics from the supermarket, and then I had a three hour sleep! We both enjoyed some good, basic food for dinner - soup with cheese on toast! We both slept like logs that night!

Bordeaux - Paris - to Dubai - Thursday 7 September

We were lucky we didn't have the early start on our final morning that some people did (ie 3:30am)! We enjoyed our breakfast and farewelled our lovely waiter, Nicolai.



Then we did our final packing, with suitcases needing to be outside our cabin and our cabin vacated by 9am. We then waited in the lounge with other departing passengers, for our taxi to arrive at the appointed time of 10:40am. We farewelled the Barrows when they left for the airport at 9:45am and to pick up their rental car for their independent travel. Our taxi was nearly 15 minutes late and the trip to Bordeaux St Jean railway station was slow in the traffic, but the driver was very nice. We arrived around 40 minutes before our train was due to leave, and along with some fellow passengers from the boat who happened to be on the same train AND the same Emirates flight out of Paris, panicked a little about how to get our big suitcases to the right platform (sometimes requiring the use of stairs) and onto the train in the 20 minutes time you have between the notification of platform, rushing to that platform (there are so many) and the train leaving. We were upstairs on the train, in First Class, but left our big cases below, but some people lugged bags up the narrow stairs to the top. Actually we were very grateful for the assistance (three times) from SNCF train staff directing us to the right place even before the train arrival platform was announced, and assisting to get one of our cases up the stairs to the platform (no ramp etc where we were at the time).

The train was a lot more comfortable than the one we'd travelled on from Paris a week earlier. Also, this time I was able to charge my iPad, and the wifi actually worked! We dined on a banana each (scrounged for us by Nickolai) and I enjoyed a couple of GF muesli bars that I'd carried all the way from New Zealand. We also had a few leftover chocolates that were left on our pillows each evening, and that we hadn't eaten.





The train arrived 20 minute late at Charles de Gaulle Airport, and we had four minutes to get ourselves and our luggage off before the train continued on, all this while others were trying to board the train with their luggage!

We thought we were in for a long wait from 4pm till 6:50pm before being able to check in, so headed to a McDonalds for some sustenance. But then discovered that check-in now commenced four hours before the flight, not the three hours as listed on our tickets. After queuing for 20 minutes (with my cpap machine, we're not allowed to do online check-in), we finally got to the counter, only to wait another 20 minutes while the person fluffed around trying to get someone to look at my cpap medical paperwork (on the Emirates template), even though I'd been told by Emirates staff at home that they'd noted everything on my file and there'd be no problems at counters. A senior staff member eventually came along, barely glanced at the letter, didn't look at the cpap or its lithium battery, and waved me through. Then it was on to passport control, where one person was checking through EU passports, and one was checking everyone else. We kept getting held up by what seemed to be Chinese people getting in the EU queue, and being escorted down to our person, whereby they were able to jump the queue, Sheesh... oh well, it didn't mean we got on the plane any later or sooner, I just hate standing in queues with my knee. Keeping moving isn't so bad.

As it was, our flight was delayed 30 minutes due to the late arrival of the incoming flight. Eventually we were under way, and it was nice to find that there was an unoccupied next to me in our centre row of four seats. There was someone on the other end, but this seat gave us both more comfort. I managed to get a couple of hours sleep on the 6 hour 50 minute flight from Paris - without using the cpap - a miracle, but it was effectively the middle of the night so my body clock was ready. I didn't bother to photograph the GF dinner as I was too tired and the meal was not a good one - another of those everything-free meals. Very dense, dry fish with tomato paste, some poorly made mashed potato, two tiny circles of carrot, two soft sugar-snaps, an inedible bread roll, and a friand. I'm over GF aeroplane food, compared to the good meals I see David getting.

Bordeaux - Wednesday 6 September

We were spending our final tour day in Bordeaux, the largest city in Aquitaine with approximately 245,000 inhabitants. The city has been a major port since pre-Roman times and for centuries a hub of European trade. Around 300BC the Celts established a small village named Burdigala that was later taken by the Romans. After the fall of the Roman Empire chaos reigned until the 12th century when Duchess Eleanor of Aquitaine married the English King Henry II. Thus the region as under English control and prospered greatly with merchants making huge fortunes due to its wine trade especially to England). After the Hundred Years War the city and region came under French rule. Peace didn't return again until the 18th century, and Bordeaux experienced another golden age, trading also with the Americas. This is when many of the elegant buildings along the waterfront were developed, with wine warehousing on the ground floor and wealthy merchants' homes on the upper floors.

More recently the city has been developed even further, with old warehouses being demolished to make way for the amazing esplanade along the river (for walkers, cyclists and the excellent tram system), and the blackened limestone facades of the buildings have been cleaned and restored to their white/yellow colour.

Our city tour was a combination of bus and walking, and took us through a new residential apartment area, including around an area that used to be a submarine base for the Germans in World War II. Then we visited the central city Triangle d'Or area, driving past or stopping at the Cathedrale St-André and its Pey-Berland Tower, the Opera House, the Rue St Cathérine (a long pedestrianised street), the awarding Public, the Palais de la Bourse and Miroir D'eau, the Monument Des Girondists, Pont de Pierre, Porte de la Monnaie, and Porte de Bourgogne.











We actually ended up abandoning the tour after an hour or so because couldn't see things from our side of the bus, and when we were doing walking sections the guide was too fast and not giving time or good positioning for photos. So we went on our own way and walked about 7km, mostly along the esplanade area and in the direction of our boat, so we could see things properly and I could get some decent photos of the sights in Bordeaux. It was a beautiful morning, and not too hot for walking.

We got back the to boat around 12:30pm for lunch followed by a brief rest. Then we headed out in the other direction from the boat to see some outlet stores nearby at the Quai des Marques where we did just little shopping. Then it was back to boat for a shower and to begin packing for tomorrow's long trip home.

At 6:30pm we had the Captain's Farewell cocktails (held at the end of each cruise and at which which we meet all 41 staff members). There was a big cheer for our favourite waiter, Nickolai. We also found out that the youngest passenger on this trip was 45 and the oldest was 91! There were 78 Aussies and 17 Kiwis on this leg of the cruise. We also had some Brits and some Canadians. Next, we all headed down to the restaurant for another amazing dinner. My baked goat cheese brûlée entree and the chicken main course were exceptional! Then it was an early night, to finish packing and to try and get a good sleep under our belts for the journey home.

Libourne (caviar) & cruising to Bordeaux - Tuesday 5 September

We departed at 9am this morning for an hour-long coach ride to the Dordogne district where the Neuvic caviar estate is located. We saw the sturgeon ponds and learnt about the farming techniques including the important fact that it takes seven years before the eggs can be harvested as caviar. We had to wear special booties for our visit.

It actually takes three years before they can even determine what sex the sturgeon are, which is important as of course only the females can produce the eggs. These don't require fertilisation but it takes 3-4 years to develop eggs ready for harvesting, and this can take much longer for some species). In the meantime the males are sent away to be used for their flesh. Eventually, the females undergo an ultrasound to check the stage and size of their eggs, and then they're killed to harvest these. The eggs are processed according to size (2.5mm or bigger) and (dark) colour. The whole process is very labour intensive which results in the very high price.



Some volunteers amongst the group got into waders and had the interesting experience of trying to catch a sturgeon with a net.



We sampled the sturgeon and a small amount of caviar (one sample mixed with herbs, another mixed with butter, and then straight caviar eggs) along with a glass of sparkling wine. The fish was good but caviar is probably not something we will be indulging in often.



We were back at the ship by 1pm for lunch. The afternoon was quiet and relaxing, and I was tired (not having slept well in the previous two nights). I caught up on some blog posts and managed a 30 minute cat-nap. Anja did the talk about tomorrow's tour and the disembarkation coming up on Thursday. During her talk, another tidal bore was coming upstream and in fact this one was one of the biggest the crew had seen this year. It was certainly quite a surge and there were some guys with jet skis making the most of it!

The evening dinner was the usual wonderful affair, and then we moved up to the lounge to await our arrival in Bordeaux, with the anticipated sail-past of the lights and the city all illuminated around 9pm.

Libourne and Saint-Emilion - Monday 4 September

This morning we visited Saint-Emilion, a beautiful hilltop town in the heart of the world-famous Bordeaux vineyards, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is located 35km north east of Bordeaux. It has a 2000 year history with the Romans having planted vineyards that long ago. The town dates back to the eighth century when Emilion, a Breton Monk, came to settle in a hermitage carved into the limestone rock which we saw as part of our visit. There remains 200km of underground galleries and the largest monolithic church in Europe which was quite amazing - a huge underground church, carved out of the limestone by hand by the monks. We were not allowed to take photos of this. The bell tower built later, sits over this underground church, and the church beneath is only able to be visited due to strengthening with metal structures against the older pillars. Limestone is everywhere and accounts for the soil that is exceptionally well suited to wine growing.

Next stop was the Les Cordeliers cellars, also with barrels stored underground within what the aforementioned passageways. Again, we heard about and saw some of the wine-making process for their specific wine. Directly above the underground galleries and ideal wine-ageing cellars was a picturesque vineyard. The wine is mostly pre-sold on the futures market and we had a tastingk of two red wines and also sampled a traditional macaron (different than the coloured ones in Paris, and a recipe handed down by nuns). After this we headed off on short tour of the town, seeing some great views over the lower town and surrounding area, and also walking through a lovely church and cloister (Église Collégiale). It had been drizzling in the morning and the cobblestones in the older areas of the town rounded and highly polished) were slippery and treacherous, especially on some of the steeper streets. But thankfully the weather had cleared up and we didn't need to return to the lower part of the town. Then it was back to the ship for lunch.







In the afternoon was a 1.5 hour walking tour of the older part of the town of Libourne, where we were docked. We had to dock across the river and cross a bridge to enter the town, the more regular docking area having been destroyed earlier this year when a Viking Cruises ship's captain had forgotten to undock and move to the centre of the river for the regular Mascaret (tidal bore) wave (a few centimetres high) that surges many kilometres upstream from the Gironde every few hours. Surfers are known to have fun with the bigger surges when they occur, and there are only 60 sites of these in the world. Our tour had to be completed by 4pm, if we were wanting to return to the ship, before it undocked for 45 minutes to await the surge. We just made it back in time after a fairly uninspiring tour of the town which, being a Monday, was mostly closed and deserted. We waited for the bore to occur, and although there was a definite surge, it wasn't as exciting as we'd hoped. We were to remain docked here overnight.



Dinner was at the Chef's Table degustation at the back of the boat (the booking we have made each week, with a different menu each week). Snails featured on the menu again, and David and I managed to swallow one each - no need to do so again in future!

Blaye - Cognac - Bourg - Sunday 3 September

This morning we sailed for Blaye, on the opposite side of the estuary/Gironde (about 3km wide at this point) and back 'upstream', during breakfast time and arrived an hour or so later.

David and I took the interesting guided walking tour of the imposing Citadel (fort) of Blaye. The town was an important stronghold during the wars against the English and the French Wars of Religion. Hence the construction of the 17th century citadel on a rock beside the river (ordered to be strengthened further by Louis XIV in 1685-1689), built on the ruins of an ancient Gothic chateau. There were great views from the ramparts, and we also saw where the soldiers' barracks were, there were also the ruins of the 12th century Rudel castle. This castle gets its name from the famous troubadour of the time, who died during the second crusade.

There are additional fortifications on an island in the river and at Fort Médoc on the opposite side. All three fortresses are listed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites. The famous military architect, Marquis de Vauban, planned and built the military complex, along with many others throughout France.

Then it was back to the boat for an early lunch at 11:30 AM before we headed out at 1 PM for the hour and a half bus journey to visit the town of Cognac. Because of a Festival and some road closures, we were unable to do the walking tour of the older part of the town. However, we did have the planned visit to the Château de Cognac Baron Otard, and enjoyed a tasting of cognac (a brandy specific to this region). As part of this visit we toured some of the Royal Château de Cognac that dates back to the 10th century and is a 13th century historical monument and a French History Memorial. At the end of the 18th century, it was purchased by Baron Otard because of the environment, temperature, darkness and humid conditions, perfect for ageing his eaux-de-vie. We saw the rooms where King Francis I spent his time, including the Knight's entrance area, the chapel, and a grand hall. We also saw where the dungeons were, and even an oubliette (where people were dropped and conveniently forgotten). Then we toured through the cellars and heard about how the cognac is distilled (a double distilling process), and the different aromas associated with the different stages of the maturation process. Finally, there was the tasting of two of the younger aged cognacs. 

Then it was back to the bus for the trip back to the boat. 30 minutes later we were still sitting in the bus while the tour guide tried to figure out if we were missing a passenger.... throughout the visit she had kept miscounting as to whether there were 22 or 23 passengers in her group. Finally, after checking with the chateau, the other tour guides, and the cruise director, we were on our way.

For dinner we had the pleasure of enjoying the special Chaîne Des Rotisseurs. And then there we headed to the lounge for the excellent performance by La Strada, a trio with two violins and a guitar (playing mainly classical music). I purchased their CD.

Pauillac - Saturday 2 September

This morning we left our temporary docking in Bordeaux, and cruised down the 'maritime river' section of the Garonne River, towards the estuary where the Garonne and Dordogne rivers come together nearer the Bay of Biscay and the Atlantic Ocean. This wider, more open area is then called the Gironde. Large ships can sail on this waterway, as far as Bordeaux itself. The rivers are all brown due to the tidal effect which is quite profound and affects the rivers many kilometres inland. We docked at the town of Pauillac around 11am.

Pauillac is the largest town in the Médoc region, and the wines in the area are considered to be of premier quality. The vines grow in a gravelly soil, and are sheltered from wind by pine forests (many of these are planted in this whole region). The predominant grape is Cabernet Sauvignon, but it is invariably blended with other grapes in the wines produced.

North of the town is a floating platform where the very large A380 wings and fuselage sections are transferred from sea-going ferries to barges for transportation to the assembly plant near Toulouse.

Everyone had enjoyed the later and more relaxing start to the day, and sitting in the lounge listening to Anja's commentary as we sailed along. It was a bit cool and breezy to be sitting outside. After an outline of the afternoon's programme, lunch was early at 11:45am. The pastry chef had a special treat for me - a creamy rice pudding for dessert.

We were in one of the first groups to head out, from Pauillac, to visit a Médoc family-owned cooperage and to do some wine-tasting there too. The wine-tasting was explained by an oenologist (you can look that up)! It was quite interesting, and there was a fair bit of humour involved. Then we had an hour with the French-speaking cooper, ably translated by our guide. It was more interesting than I would have thought. Next we had a 45 minute drive through this Médoc region, passing many of the big, top-rated chateaux and estates. Vineyards spread out in the distance as far as the eye could see - Cabernet  Sauvignon is the most prominent grape grown in this area, followed by Merlot, Petit Verdot, and Malbec.








Back at the dock at 5pm, David and I had a quick walk into Pauillac but, being a Saturday and at that later hour, everything was shut, and the place looked quite run down.





Dinner was a Gala Dinner, which means it was a bit more special than the always excellent meals.

Cadillac & Garonne River - Friday 1 September

At 9am we headed off with our Vox headsets on one of the two tours on offer. The first part of the tour we chose was to the Château de la Brede. This chateaux is in the Sauternes wine region of Bordeaux that is known for producing excellent sweet white dessert wines and also some dry whites. This particular chateau has been a classified historic monument since 1951, and was the residence of the famous 17th-18th century author and political philosopher, Montesquieu. We enjoyed a tour of what had been a castle, transformed over the centuries into more of a home. Nevertheless, it was very dark inside the rooms, with few windows. We heard about the life of Montesquieu and saw the large room that had been his library, the rooms where he slept and wrote his famous essays (often in satire) commenting on different aspects of society at that time. Indeed, his ideas about how society was organised, and could instead be organised (a risky undertaking), contributed to key aspects of the American constitution. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take photos inside this chateau.

Next, our tour bus took us to a wine tasting at the famous Chateau Carbonnieux. This place had a long history, including wealthy families and monks, and ownership changes due to the French Revolution (something we hear everywhere). Picking of the sauvignon blanc grapes had just begun, and we were able to see the process of preparing them for wine under way. We tasted the grapes, visited the underground cellars and heard about the more technical aspects of temperature control and processing in the vats, before the wine was put into barrels. We also saw the historic storeroom where the wineries are all required to keep a selection of each year's vintage. There were bottles here from 1905. Apparently the reds aren't too bad, even when very old...





Next we enjoyed a wine-tasting of three wines - two reds and a sauterne. This was the correct three steps in the tasting, smelling as well as tasting. The first red was lovely, the second was too dry, and I really loved the sweet sauterne. Apparently these really sweet wines should not be consumed with sweet foods - that would be too overpowering. They should be used with sharper tasting foods such as a cheese or pâté.

On we went, into the town of Cadillac, where we were taken to a wine museum place, that had a big seating area under cover where we could eat the picnic lunches that we'd been given in big brown paper bags as we left the boat early in the morning. I had two lovely sandwiches (ham, cheese, lettuce, mayonnaise), a small fruit salad and a banana. David's lunch included a bread roll, quiche, tart, fruit salad and a banana. We then viewed the small but interesting wine museum, which explained more about the different types of grapes and wine regions around Bordeaux, and the processing.

It was a short drive or walk back to the boat that had now docked in Cadillac, having followed us up the river once the tides were suitable to allow it to get under a bridge nearer Bordeaux.

Two hours later, at 4:30pm, we were all dressed up and back on the buses for a 1 hour drive to the Chateaux de Cazeneuve for a special evening. We were greeted at the chateau by the young Count, himself, and served canapés and a drink in the courtyard. Unfortunately, it started to rain, so we were rushed inside and enjoyed wandering around parts of two floors and multiple rooms that were gradually being restored. We weren't allowed to take photos inside.



This estate once belonged to the King of France - Henri IV (16th century). The family he belonged to had owned the estate as far back as the 12th century. It was considered to be one of the kIng's favourite estates and he spent quite a bit of time there. Even Louis XIV had visited here.

After looking around the beautifully restored rooms, and being entertained by a trio playing baroque music, we were seated at big tables for 10 people, and served a lovely three-course meal. I was taken care of very well, largely thanks to the attention and care taken by our Tour Guide, Anja. We were served three different wines a white and two reds) with the meal.



At 8:30pm we left for the quicker (less traffic) 45 minute journey back to the boat, which had to leave Cadillac by 10pm in order to work with the tides and get us back to Bordeaux.

Paris to Bordeaux - Thursday 31 August

This morning our bags had to be out by 6:45am as they were being transported separately by truck, all the way to Bordeaux. We said our farewells to Mark and Jill who were finishing the cruise and heading to London and the south of England for a few days. Those of us continuing on to Bordeaux were transported by bus to Montparnasse station to catch our late morning super fast TGV to Bordeaux. This was a train journey that covered the 700km trip in 2 hours and 10 minutes. Mind you, we were in a first class carriage, and it was quite scungie so I don't like to think what second class would be like... we were accompanied all the way by two tour guides, picked up by bus upon our arrival, and driven to our new boat - the AmaDolce, waiting at the Bordeaux dock for us to embark at 1:30pm.

There was a light lunch available, and after 3pm we were able to get into our cabins. We (and the Barrows)have been given an upgrade for this leg of the trip - from category E in the bottom of the boat (small windows at water level) to category B+ on level 3. There is no difference in cabin size or quality, just the appearance of a French balcony (a sliding ranch-slider with a rail to stop you sleepwalking out of your room). Still, the stairs will be a little easier for me, not so much of a curved spiral. I did have to request a better effort on cleaning our room though (and it was done immediately) - it is not impressive when you find someone else's cut fingernails on the floor...

We had a quiet afternoon, choosing from a rather complicated list of tour options for the coming week.

Although we were all going to miss having Janos as our Cruise Director, we were pleased to have Anja as our new Director for this trip. She had been called in as an emergency replacement for the Director we would have had, having toured the Seine with us as a reconnaissance for a cruise she would be directing next year. She is also excellent.

Paris - Wednesday 30 August

We sailed into Paris this morning during breakfast, and docked just along from the Eiffel Tower and beside the bridge that has Paris's 'Statue of Liberty'. There were a number of tours available this morning and we chose the walking tour of Montmartre as we hadn't been there before on our previous visit to Paris in 2011. The option of a tasting tour could be fraught for me, and we had visited the Louvre previously and it would only be another quick skim over some paintings and displays.

We travelled by bus to the bottom of the hill that is Montmartre (enjoying the experience of driving through the enormous Arc de Triomphe round-about). I reckon I could drive through there, no problem, now we understand how it works!

We caught the 'Noddy Train' to the top of the hill and admired the rather hazy views over the city there was a high of only 26C today, with rain threatening on a couple of occasions). We did a quick tour through Sacré Coeur, and then a walk around some of the narrow streets around the top of the hill. It was interesting listening to the history of the area, once a small 'hippy' village (best description for it) attracting drinkers (no wine tax), artists and musicians. We passed some of the cafes and apartments frequented by people like Picasso, Van Gogh, Monet, Eric Satie. We saw where grapes were grown on the hill, and sold as a rather poor but expensive wine. We stopped in the market square area for a coffee, soon joined by the Todds, and enjoyed watching all the tourists strolling past or getting their portraits sketched by the numerous artists.

















Back at the boat by 1pm, we had lunch - a somewhat stressful experience for me on this occasion, partly due to language translation issues with the waiter. Then we stepped out and walked the very short distance to a modern shopping mall, but it was very expensive and didn't have anything of interest to us. Then it was back to the boat to begin packing before our journey to Bordeaux in the morning.

At 6:30pm we headed out in the bus on an increasingly drizzly evening, headed for the world-renowned cabaret Moulin Rouge. It took us 40 minutes to get there in the hectic traffic. We were checked and scanned through security, and ushered to our tables in random groups. We had a fantastic view of the stage up close on the ground floor. The seats were quite jammed together but it was ok. A three course dinner with bubbly was served very efficiently from 7:30pm, including a nice GF and dairy-free meal for me (?).

At 9pm the show started and we were treated to an incredible hour-and-three-quarter show that included spectacular dancing and costumes, music, acrobatics and strength/balancing acts. There was even a scene with girls swimming in a big water tank with several live pythons (all raised up from floor level near our seats. Many moments had the audience gasping in astonishment. This show, with dinner, apparently costs between 175 and 220 Euro per person, so it's not something we would even consider under normal circumstance. However, the price of all outings is already included in our tour price, so it is up to us to make the most of it, and most of the people on this cruise did take the opportunity.

Then it was out into the drizzle and this time only a 20 minute drive back to the boat, again negotiating the Arc de Triomphe round-about. During our return, in the dark and while raining, we saw a woman trying to get through it on her bicycle! She survived, although a car nearly came to grief when it failed to give way to our bus that had the right of way. Vehicles have to give way to all traffic on their right, including vehicles coming into the round-about ahead of and from their right. We also passed through the tunnel in which Princess Diana lost her life. We arrived back at 11:30pm, with some people intending to stay awake all night for their 4:45am departure at the end of the cruise. Thankfully, we were not to be that early!