Trips, Pics, and Tales

It was already Thursday!  This cruise was going so quickly....today we had two different included options for our morning. We could either go to visit Van Gogh's Auvers-sur-Oise.  This is where Van Gogh spent his last three months. I'd heard this was a great tour! Or we could go to visit the palace that Josephine purchased for Napoleon and herself, the Château de Malmaison. Carol and I decided that today would be a day of Palaces, and chose the Château. In 1799 Joséphine purchased the run down estate while Napoléon Bonaparte was away fighting.  He wasn't too happy about the purchase, but she vowed to make Malmaison "the most beautiful and curious garden in all of Europe, a model of good cultivation".   We toured many of the rooms of the Château which was restored in the early 20th century. Joséphine's dinner service Joséphine's personal toiletries The luxurious bedchamber of Joséphine ...

After our morning guided tour, we went back to our ship for lunch, which was just a short walk away. This was yet another thing that I was coming to really enjoy about river cruising....we were docked right up at the town.  We'd walk into town for the morning, go back and have lunch, and then today for example, we could head back into town and have the rest of the day free to just explore!  It was such a fantastic way to have the best of both worlds. The guided walking tour to become familiar with the area, just a bit, and then we got to head out on our own and come and go as we pleased! Since today is a day of sharing ship photos, here are some of the dining area...today there was an option for lunch. We could either eat in the dining room as usual, or a special Grill Lunch was being offered up on the Sky Deck! These pictures are of the Lunch Buffet area.  We enjoyed all of our meals on board!  And on this side of the dining room, the curtains were closed be...