I TALK a fair amount here about our travels to some of the larger cities of the world. This is a cruise-oriented blog, but honestly, a single day cruise stop is not really the best way to see these cities. As I have mentioned before, I think that when you travel to a cruise embarkation destination, it is worthwhile to plan to arrive a few days early, and plan to spend some time in a major city at or near the cruise port. We have done that now with Barcelona, Venice, Rome, Athens, Amsterdam, Dublin, and London (cruise port was Southampton, about a 1-hour train ride away. I touched on this on last week's post, about our trip to London. Two years later, we booked a cruise out of Southampton. Generally, you will fly into London and find your way down to the port. We planned a full week in advance and from Heathrow, took and express train to our destination for the week, the Paddington Hilton. London requires at least a week, in my opinion.
Champs-Élysées
PARIS IS another one of those cities which really needs several day, at a minimum. That one is on our list for a more extended visit one day. But one of the things you can do on a cruise is at least see the city (perhaps at a glance) and determine whether it is one of those places worth spending more time. Some - to be frank - probably aren't. If is certainly going to be different for each of us, but for example, for our stops last year in Helsinki and Stockholm, a day stop and an overnight were enough for me. Copenhagen, on the other hand, I wish we had spent at least an overnight in.
Arc de Triomphe and roundabout - Champs Elysees
OUR PORT the day after Dover was just across the English Channel: LaHavre, France. LaHavre is an interesting port, and there are decisions to make on a cruise stop there. Normandy is a distance of about 100 miles. But any student of history would want to visit the site of the U.S. Troop landing there - by all accounts, in spite of the violence and lost lives, the turning point in WWII. Paris is just about 100 miles in a different direction.
Paris Street from the Hop on - Hop Off Bus
I WOULD guess that the majority of passengers on our cruise chose Normandy and the beaches. I suspect that though it would be a full day's excursion, it is more manageable than trying to do Paris on a cruise stop. I am certain that our next time in LaHavre, that is what we will do.
Eiffel Tower
BUT IN this instance, we had some unusual (in our experience) circumstances. Because the trip across the Channel was short, we landed at LaHavre early the next morning. This was an overnight stop (interestingly, as we generally haven't experienced 2 overnight stops on a cruise). Anyway, the ship was not due to leave the port until midnight on the following day - giving us essentially 2 full days. Knowing this in advance, we booked a motel overnight in Paris, and railway tickets to and from. We arrived in Paris around 10:30 and were checked into our hotel by 11:00.
The Eiffel Tower from the Esplanade de Trocadéro
THERE ARE, of course, a few "must see" things in Paris. I suspect, like London, we could spend a week there and not get it all done. But we had to make the best of 2 days, and we surely got more out of that excursion than the London one. We had tickets with a late afternoon reservation for the Eiffel Tower, with entrance to the top. For the first afternoon, we bought "Hop on - Hop off" tickets for both the "Red Bus," and the water taxis. I have mentioned before here that we have found mixed results with the "Hop on - Hop off" systems, depending on the country and city running them. We have thought the ones in Dublin and London were very good, so we took a chance on Paris. That turned out to be good too. The nice thing about these is that they to a loop (or multiples) around most of the major attractions in a city. In Paris, that got us past the Louvre, The Notre Dame Cathedral, along The Champs-Elysees' and the Arc de Triomphe, and a few other notable sights. One of the stops (where we got off) is The Esplanade de Trocadéro, which is arguably the best place to photograph the Eiffel Tower from. A photographer can't visit Paris without photographing the tower. Multiple times. From multiple perspectives.
Paris - from The Eiffel Tower
AS DEMONSTRATED with the London shots from the London Eye, getting up high over a city can yield some pretty good photographs. In this case, our vantage point was from as high as you can go up in the Eiffel Tower. We had the good fortune (actually good planning by my wife, the travel coordinator) to get up there in the late afternoon and be there for the sunset.
Paris - from The Eiffel Tower
THE TOWER view provides a pretty nice perspective of the sun setting over the city. And being there after sunset, we were also able to photograph the Tower while it was lit up at night (see earlier image). The next day, I would have several other perspectives, from the water taxi ride we took up the Seine and Back.
Paris Sunset from The Eiffel Tower
THAT SUNSET picture might normally have been a great place to end the post. But we still had another nearly full day. The next morning, we walked about 1/2 block down the street from our hotel to a tiny little cafe that had an affiliation with our hotel and had a nice breakfast. Our next planned activity was a walking tour around the L'île de la Cité, the island in the middle of the Seine River where the Notre Dame Cathedral is located. A unique spot, it makes sets the Cathedral apart from the other city architecture and allows it to be a central attraction from both sides of the Seine, as well as from boats along the river.
Notre Dame Cathedral under repair (2019)
SADLY, SHORTLY before our trip, the Cathedral suffered a catastrophic fire (most will remember as it made the national news for a few days). Consequently, it was closed to the public and we weren't able to visit inside, or on the immediate grounds. We were kind of getting "euchred" on must see sights (with the Big Ben refurbishment in London, and now the Notre Dame). If there was one or two single sights in Paris I would have ticked off as "must see," the cathedral - for me- was second only to the Eiffel Tower. You make the best of the situation you are in, and we were able to see it from both sides of the river, and one of the bridges crossing onto the southeast end of the island. It is still a pretty impressive building, even with the damage showing. Hopefully, by the time we visit again, it will be repaired and open (like Big Ben was on our subsequent London visit).
Notre Dame Cathedral
OUR WALKING tour took us all the way around the Cathedral, as well as to a much older, gothic church on the south side of the river, the Gothic Architecture, St. Severin Church. We also walked around the neighborhood and got a bit of a history lesson.St. Severin Catholic Church
AFTER A nice lunch at a delightful little sidewalk cafe in the shadow of Notre Dame, we boarded one of the "Hop on - Hop off" river boats for a short cruise up and down the Seine. There were some nice views of the cathedral, a couple other government and religious buildings, and of course, the Eiffel Tower (which is one of those monuments that can basically be seen from virtually every part of the city of Paris).
The Seine (the Louvre buildings are on the right)
View from the Seine; Paris
The Eiffel Tower, viewed from the Seine
ALL GOOD things eventually come to an end. After a long, eventful, nearly 2 days, it was time to head back to the train station, and ultimately back to the cruise ship. We were nearly done with the cruise.
I ALWAYS like to recall a funny or unusual anecdote here, when one arises. It is an exaggerated, and certainly unfair common assumption or characterization that the French people - especially in Paris - are rude to, and don't like Americans. I don't recall even a single small instance of rudeness (or even indifference for that matter) during our two days in Paris. Quite to the contrary, we found the people friendly, helpful, and pleasant. Ironically, my own belief is that there is a (perhaps small, but nonetheless visible) group of American tourists who often give their hosts in the country they are visiting good reason to "not like us." I may note (sometimes vocally) how I don't understand why they do things a certain way in another country from time to time. But I also recognize that they are from their own unique - and often different from my views - culture. And we are their guests! One thing they do in France (and I think the entire rest of the world could take a cue here), that is very different, is how they administer their taxi services. In most cities and towns, there is a designated "queue" for taxis, and the expected tradition is that you get in line. There is no stepping out into the street and flagging one down. And in most cases, if you are being picked up in a public area, you don't call for a cab. You go to the queue and stand in line. Taxis are next up - next served. Pretty calm. Pretty efficient. But non-Europeans don't "get" it. They still want to flag one down on the street. This evening, we got off the train in LeHavre and went to the line to taxi back to the cruise port. There were quite a few cruise passengers exiting the same train, with the same need to get back to the ship. They made it chaotic, even though the French cab drivers knew, and stuck to their own rules. As another cab came to the curb at the queue, we were next in line. But a somewhat loud and pushy lady stepped off the curb (not in her place in line) and started to get in the cab. Problem was that my wife had already gotten in on the other side and we were waiting to join her. The lady was incensed. She loudly insisted that she had called this cab for her party, and that this was her cab! My wife said: "no, this is our cab." The lady said: "how do you know it is your cab?" She responded: "it's my cab because I am in it, and you aren't even properly in line." 😀 She huffed that she had called the cab, but our driver confirmed that they don't even do that. She had probably called the company, who told her one would be coming - because they were doing that all evening. Relax. Enjoy. Don't be entitled. 😇
The iconic entrance to The Louvre; Paris
No comments:
Post a Comment