HomeTag: river barge
I just want to reflect on this whole week’s experience. I have to thank Avalon Waterways for providing our home base on the BEAUTIFUL Avalon Creativity. This vacation style and form of cruising is quite a gift. The history that we found in each town and on each excursion was amazing, and the comfort, level of service and quality of food that we received onboard was comparable to any 4 or 5 star hotel property. No, there’s no gambling …
Continue Reading →Categories: Europe, France, French River Barge Cruising, Here and There
Tags: Avalon Waterways, France, history, Normandy, Paris, river barge, Seine, travel, travel consultant
This morning, I was awakened by an early phone call, which was not appreciated after a very late night…early morning. I stayed up last night to watch our boat pull out of Rouen, and that was around one in the morning. You can imagine that 7:00am came much too early. HOWEVER, upon opening the curtains a crack and seeing that the sun was rising, and we were still sailing, I opted to open not only the curtains, but the sliding …
Continue Reading →Categories: Europe, France, French River Barge Cruising, Here and There
Today we had a very long and emotional day. We traveled from Rouen to the landing beaches of Normandy on the Atlantic coast. It was an eleven hour day, but it was so worthwhile.
We started with a two hour bus trip early in the morning that took us to Arromanches, a small seaside town between the Gold and Omaha beaches. I’m embarrassed to admit how ignorant I am of the history surrounding this war, but what I learned on …
Categories: Europe, France, French River Barge Cruising
Today’s experience in France was old and, well, touristy.
We are docked in the city of Rouen, which is home to about 500,000 people and has several different sections.
Being right on the Seine, it is split in two with an island in the middle and seven hills surrounding it….much like Rome, our tour guide told us. This city was severely damaged in WWII, with the left bank and bridge being totally destroyed and much of the right bank …
Continue Reading →Categories: Europe, France, French River Barge Cruising, Here and There
Another day, ANOTHER charming French town….or two. We docked today in Vernon and we visited Giverny. Both were small and quaint towns, each with its own history and highlights.
Giverny is where Claude Monet lived and painted and had two gardens that were the subject of many of his most famous paintings. Again there was much history told on the tour that I didn’t know, so I found it quite interesting. But even if you’re not interested in history, his …
Categories: Europe, France, French River Barge Cruising, Here and There
As it turns out, France does have other lovely towns besides Paris! Today we sailed down the Seine to Conflans St. Honorine, a sweet little river town.
The journey was very nice, smooth and interesting to watch the changing landscape as we left the city of Paris and journeyed into the suburbs. We also traveled through several locks, which was a cool experience, headed down to sea level. One town we passed looked JUST like the French town from the …
Categories: Europe, French River Barge Cruising, Here and There
Oh how I love Paris!!!
Unfortunately, French WIFI does not love me and I’ve been unable to upload any of the videos I’ve taken while I’m here. I even tried walking to a McDonalds (with the very gracious help of Briac and Clementine, our new found French amis), but was unsuccessful even there. I will continue to try to find a decent link, but until then you may have to suffer with just the written word.
The weather has been …
Categories: Europe, French River Barge Cruising, Here and There
Ok, so blogging is good and having photos is an added benefit, but when you travel, don’t you want to see videos? A video of cruising down the Seine will give you more of a feel for the experience of river barge cruising than a still photo, so here is the start to my video blogging…..
I’ll be keeping the videos short and fun with some great ideas for what you can see the next time you go to …
Continue Reading →Categories: Europe, French River Barge Cruising
Tags: France, river barge, Seine, travel, video
I’m just over a week away from heading to France for my river barge cruise and I’m SO excited! Sometimes I enjoy the anticipation of my vacations as much as the vacation itself. I really love having something to look forward to and think about. Better to daydream about France, than about the bills waiting to be paid or the grocery shopping that needs to be done.
As I’m getting ready to travel, I always think about the tasks I need …
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Phone: (845) 810-2747
Fax: (845) 810-2713
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