Blog # 13 - Cruise Ends & Paris

                                                           Blog # 13 - Cruise Ends & Paris

               Looking forward to a great dinner. The flowers on wall are actually leather

                                    We love watching all of the port activity

         Depending on dock availability and harbor depth we may have to take a tender to                 reach land. These tenders carry up to 150 people.

                                A quiet place to chat and catch up with friends

                               Last dinner on the ship with Artie and Lynn

                        A few times the restaurants offered reblochon cheese after dinner. 

Jerry would often ask for it. Most of the servers did not know this type of cheese and would bring a variety of other cheese thinking he wouldn't know or would accept what was served. It became a laughing matter as servers scurried around trying to please.

We love this cheese and discovered the duty free shop at the airport sold it. We purchased some. Delish!

                            Our last night at sea - the moon lights of the ocean

         Entrance to main dining room: "Party of four? Would you like window seating?"

                                                     Beautiful main dining room

                                                            Fancy, formal breakfast

                                    Heading to one of our favorite places - Paris!

                        This building's architecture is a true sign we are in Paris

  Our hotel offers more than we can eat for breakfast: Quiche, fresh squeezed orange juice,      eggs any way we want, a basket of French breads and pastries is over the top

If we had time, sitting on our balcony and having coffee in the morning or a glass of wine in the afternoon would be perfect! Not enough time on this part of the trip.

 Our favorite thing to do: Day or night - Take a picture in front of the Arc de  Triomphe

   Extraordinarily expensive Dior designer's clothes. We noticed that stores now post prices        in the store window to keep "looky-loos" from wasting a salesman's time.

                             This is what was displayed on Sunday at Louis Vuitton

                            Overnight, the store windows were changed. Amazing!

                The building in the background will soon become a Louis Vuitton hotel

                                A funny place for a marching band to play music

Went for a stroll - came across a beautiful apartment building and flowers in front of a local restaurant. 

Discovered statue in a small park which represented George Washington and the help he got from the French during the colonial war.

                                             We didn't do a lot of "touristy" things - 

                We just strolled through neighborhoods and enjoyed the beautiful day.

                                                                "Champs" =  Fabulous street

Dinner at Chez Andre - a local place where we have previously dined. Yes, we started our meal with French onion soup. A nice bottle of (French, obviously) wine hit the spot! Arlene only had a sip. Jerry had a couple of glasses. We offered what was left to another table. They were surprised and quite happy about the unexpected "gift!"

                                    Dinner with new friends: Paul and Sue

Following a lengthy and fun dinner, we got together with Sophie - a daughter of dear French friends and a long-time friend of our daughter, Heather. When Sophie was about twelve, we did an exchange where Heather and our son, David, spent time with our friends in Paris. Sophie came to our home for a visit. We've shared wonderful family occasions over the years.

            The party is over - time to go home. The airport lounge is well appointed.

                                       The plane is filled with fuel and ready to go

                    As our plane headed to the runway, we passed the Concord

                                Maybe we should continue on to Tahiti!?!?!                                  

                                        A little bubbly before we take off

    Seated and buckled up, here we go...

                                                    Up, up and away---heading home

                                                            A funny ending

We were greeted at LAX by "travel assistance" airport personnel. Arlene was wheelchaired to an area where she was transferred to a tram. After a short ride, she was transferred again to a wheelchair located in the baggage area. In each case, her boarding card was scanned to ensure that she would be transferred from one part of the airport to another without getting "lost" or taken to the wrong area of the airport. It turned out, as we landed, so did 150 other folks needing assistance - mostly from India. There were not enough airport personnel to process all of the wheelchair passengers. After a half hour of waiting, realizing, we would have to wait for at least another hour, we decided to leave the wheelchair and retrieve our luggage without any assistance. It took a little effort but it saved time. We're guessing that the airport personnel are still looking for a "missing Arlene!"

                                                         *************

                                              This was one of our better trips!

 Great food

                                                    Unique food presentations

                                              Beautiful art pieces throughout the ship

                                                    And, this trip was a test. 

Could we manage many physical and medical obstacles? We lugged a bit, climbed stairs and actually survived the ordeal. We went from I hope we can to I think we can and then ultimately to We know we can!

                       We're looking forward to another traveling experience.