“France’s Finest”
The Rhone and Seine Rivers - June 2022
The first two weeks in June 2022 we traversed the Rhone and Seine Rivers via Viking cruises, on their longships from Arles to Lyon, and Paris to Rouen and return. The photos best speak for themselves, but I have included the visit to Claude Monet’s Water Lily Pond in a separate gallery (click the button below), since I consider them best of the lot.
(A brief note regarding the paucity of photos. One might reasonably conclude that a two-week cruise on France’s two principal rivers, visiting twelve towns and cities, would result in a vast wealth of good photos. Unfortunately, I threw my back out upon arrival, the result I am sure of pushing a cart laden with 180 pounds of dialysate one quarter mile from the airport baggage terminal to the bus that took us to the ship waiting in Avignon. Walking was painful, so the number of excursions I could take was really constrained to a minimum.
(Then to add insult to injury, upon return to the U.S. both wife Patricia and I discovered we had contracted COVID somewhere along our travels, probably on the flights home or in the crowded terminal waiting areas.)
Avignon, France Sitting ... Waiting ... Watching I am somehow drawn to people with cellphones (see my photos from Japan)
Viviers, France, on the Rhone. What to do when you have nothing else to do. I could sympathize -- others were out on their excursions; I was isolated aboard our ship, the Viking Heimdahl.
Swans and Cygnets upstream from a dam and lock, after departing Viviers.
The train ride taken from Tournon. Fun.
We followed a deep gorge the whole way. The gorge was crossed at several points by these arched roadways, of which this is a good example
An interior courtyard in Lyon, France (an HDR image).
The courtyard again (and, again in HDR).
Window detail in the courtyard.
A wonderful and massive clock in Lyon. (An impossible photo without HDR techniques.)
Muscle beach, right outside our stateroom.
The church in Beaujeu, France, in the heart of Beaujolais-Villages.
A statue around the corner in Beaujeu. (An HDR image.)
The winery we visited near Beaujeu, which makes a good Beaujolais-Villages.
Up each set of stairs is an apartment for the winery's grape pickers. (An HDR image.)
Eiffel Tower under a dramatic sky. (HDR image.)
Macarons from Pierre Hermé, friend Lauren's favorite when she visits Paris.
Two happy workers at Pierre Hermé. (The macarons are comparable in price to the better choices here in the Twin Cities, and our local favorites, at Patisserie 46, are equal in quality to Pierre's.)
Georges Jacques Danton (French: 26 October 1759 – 5 April 1794) was a French lawyer and a leading figure in the French Revolution. He was guillotined by advocates of the revolutionary terror in early 1794. (An HDR image.)
Pastries in a Parisian patisserie ...
... which is also a boulangerie.
Fancy pastries
Impassioned explanations by a master maker of craft beers. Yes, in Paris. Yes, in France.
Following photos are a small portrait of a small French town, La Roche-Guyon, on the way along the Seine to Rouen.
Through the gate.
You must climb in order to speak with God. (End of the La Roche-Guyon series)
Archways leading to some of the gardens that inspired Monet beyond the magnificence of the lily ponds.
Even after the more than seventy years that have passed since D-Day, these hulks and those blocks on the horizon are all that remain from the Mulberry Harbours that were critical to the Allied push inland once the beaches were secured. Look them up.
The beaches of D-Day, where thousands died, are now a tourist attraction. Need I say more?
Apt wall art outside a restaurant above the Normandy Beaches.
The American Cemetery
Reflecting pool looking toward the Cemetery.
The memorial at the American Cemetery
"Spirit of American Youth Rising from the Waves"
"Spirit of American Youth Rising from the Waves" and its photographers. (An HDR image.)
"Ever Forward" -- a soldier carrying his wounded comrade.
Descriptive plaque.
Detail.
Reminiscent of fading barn-side advertisements here in the States. (An HDR image.)
Lucky snap of a pretty Seine-side home with swan and cygnets in the river.
Never enough rosemary. Our chef had his own herb gardens along the length of the upper deck, and, here, near the al fresco dining area on the foredeck.
Luncheon on the Seine.