Cruising, Eating, Dancing, and Loving

 

On September the 7th, our 6th day of the cruise, we stopped at Conflans, just outside the city limits of Paris to see Malmaison, the house that Napoleon and Josephine lived in when not in the city.

 

As far as palaces go this one was not that flamboyant as the Versailles Palace for example. This is a simple manor house with very low key furnishings. Josephine was the one who spent the most time here and her touch is everywhere. She wanted the most beautiful garden in Paris and her roses and rare plants are quite nice ... but not massive or flashy.

 

This is reflected in the dining room with a very simple table and chairs.

 

Her bed was a bit ornate with the walls covered to look like a tent and with the blue sky above.

 

At noon the ship sailed again and we landed at our port in downtown Paris. That evening the captain held his farewell dinner that was more of a dress up affair. After dinner and a bunch of wine we ended up dancing quite late with the view of the Eiffel Tower not far from the boat.

The next day was our anniversary and we were reminded by some towel art swans which appeared in the afternoon on our bed. We opted out of the ship tours and just spent the day walking along the Seine and went over to one of the indoor malls close by to stock up on some food and wine to take to our hotel the next day when the cruise was over.

 

 

Somebody tipped off the staff and at dinner that evening we were presented with this rocket cake ... quite an anniversary treat. We found out that our new friends Jim and Carolyn had put the staff up to the presentation and obviously we were surprised and acting a bit goofy, eh!

 



 

That evening we took a late evening bus tour of the city to view the lights and enjoy the last evening of the cruise. The weather held out for us and the Arc de Triomphe was lit up just for us.

As was the pyramid at the Louvre ....

... and the magnificent tower itself. It's hard to capture photographically as the thing sparkles with intermittent strobe lights that are really awesome.

And on the evening of the 8th we settled into our now familiar room on the River Seine for the last night as the next day we would be off to a hotel and district of our own choosing for the remainder of our stay in France ... Vive la France!