Getting Ready for the River Cruise



You are looking at the Viking Spirit which will be the boat that will soon take Linda and me from Paris to the beaches of Normandy and back to Paris on the Seine River.  On the cruise we begin in Paris (Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, Musee d'Orsay, Arc de Triomphe, Notre-Dame, Les Invalides, Conciergerie, etc.). We will stop at Giverny (home of Monet and the water gardens),  Vernon (which looks much like it came straight from the Middle Ages), Rouen (Joan of Arc was burned at the stake here), Normandy Beaches (D-Day June 6, 1944), Les Andelys (ruins of the castle Chateau-Gaillard), and Conflans before we return to Paris and fly back to North Carolina. 

Last Saturday Linda and I had a very special history lesson from her brother, Morgan, who lives in Georgia.  Morgan is very well read and knows lots and lots about events in history.  So he enlightened us on all of the events that took place on the beaches of Normandy.  Now my minor in college (many, many years ago) was Social Studies.  I thought that I knew lots of "stuff" about D-Day, but believe me, I learned many, many new things that I had never read about or heard about before.  It was all very, very interesting!  In fact I have done additional reading this week to find out even more about that period in US and World History.  After our lesson, we watched the movie, "The Longest Day".  To think how young these boys were in WWII and how quickly many of them died for our freedom is astonishing.  I am sure that we will learn much more from our tour guide in Normandy.  Stay tuned!

For now my biggest problem is deciding what clothes to take with me - both for touring and for dinner.  I always take too much, but I am really getting a "little" better.  I guess I will wait and see........