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Monday, 1 September 2025

A Day in Paris and off to CroisiEurope

IMG_20250814_093255Checkout was 10am so breakfast was about 8-30, we left our cases with the hotel and went exploring with a nice view of the tower down the road. The first thing we did was work out where the coach would be picking us up in the afternoon. Then we checked out the two local Metro stations for when we went home, as we would be very tight on time to catch the train back to London, of course we stopping for a glass of beer on the way.  

 

 


Since the Olympic games swimming in the River Seine has become the thing and we saw a couple of places where official bathing stations with lifeguards, pontoons and deckchairs have been installed along with changing rooms and showers. IMG_20250814_112743

The day was hot againIMG_3007 so we spent sometime walking along the riverside until we reached the tower and then up through the gardens  before finding somewhere for lunch, collecting our bags and heading back to the river to await the coach to take us to the boat. Thankfully the driver turned up half an hour early and it was good to get out of the hot sun into the air-conditioned coach. There were 4 other passengers waiting nearby who soon came over when they saw us board. the other 12 were waiting a short way up the quay.

 

 

 IMG_20250815_093221It was about an hour and a quarter to where MS. Deborah was moored at  Pont-l'Évêque. This is the one near Noyon not Le Havre.  The crew were there to greet us, yet again Kevin was our Capitan and Baptiste our seaman just like our last cruise, in addition to this Jonathan the chef and Michelle our waitress, both who we have cruised with before, so it was like meeting old friends. After the introduction and room allocation we headed off ashore to explore where we found a working boatyard with drydock, floating drydock, slipway etc.

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Pont-l'Évêque is a really pretty little town with is canal arm and houses and I wish we had got the train here earlier rather than staying in Paris.

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One place that was very interesting was the Builders Merchant,   The old name on the brickwork is still visible along with a modern notice, so its been in the same ownership for a long time, but inside the building is the first two floors of a house, Probably to show off their wares.

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Then back to the boat for dinner and introductions to the rest of our fellow travellers, it turned out we were the only English couple there, the rest were French apart from one English lady married to a Frenchman, unfortunately she was having major memory problems and was quite confused at times. This meant on all excursions the guides had to do both a French and English commentary, but they all made us very welcome and its probably the most laughs I have had on a cruise.
After dinner was our first excursion to visit a church at Noyon in the dark, using torches and a laser pointer so no reasonable photos.

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