Home Again

October 26, 2019 by seabreeze223 1 Comment

Well, we arrived home on Thursday afternoon…. a long non-stop flight from Paris to Seattle on Air France…. I was really impressed with Air France, both over and back.

The last few days of our trip were a few more historical stops but we were both ready to be done traveling and head home.  One day Garry opted not to do the side excursion to Monet’s home and gardens and when I got back to the ship he had been shopping… he bought himself some new pants (I told him his nice slacks he took were dated in style), a french hat (not a beret) and a beautiful scarf.  He looked quite the dapper Parisian man.

Our excursion to Chateau Malmaison, Napoleon and Josephine’s summer home, was interesting.  The tour was crowded because the home is quite small and hallways were tight but we learned a lot so it was worth it.  Did you know that Napoleon really wasn’t short?  He was average height for a man back then.  Unfortunately for him, the other leaders of the day were unusually tall and of course his guards were tall and muscular so he appeared small when next to them.  We also learned Josephine had rotted teeth and horrible breath.  All of her portraits she has pinched lips to hide her teeth.  She was raised in Martinique on a sugar plantation and chewed sugar cane growing up, hence the tooth and breath issues… But he loved her anyway.  They divorced because she could not provide him with an heir, but even though he remarried, he provided her with anything she wanted and whenever he bought something for his new wife he got the same thing for her.

We really lucked out on the weather on the cruise because rain was predicted most days but with a couple sprinkles here and there all the heavy rain happened at night when we were asleep.

We met some great people on the cruise.  The cruise manager, Rachel, was amazing.  Our favorite server, Alexandra was a crazy fun person.  We met tons of great people, but we spent several meals with Elizabeth and Sharon from Bellevue, Teresa from Vancouver, WA, and Mildred from southern California.  There was also a fun foursome from the east coast who did most of the bicycle excursions… Three people from our ship were on the same flight home as us.

We are slowly adjusting to the nine hour time difference.  The first night home we both got up at 3:30 in the morning…. just couldn’t sleep anymore.  Today I slept in to 5:30….Garry even later.  We should be back on track by tomorrow.

Scarf just peaking out

Josephine, lips tight

Napolean (duh)

Napoleon’s bedroom

Our bicycling friends

 

Cheesy picture with Alexandra

Our Captain (right) and his second in command enjoying wine.  Who is running the boat?

Best server ever, Alexandra

Amazing cruise director, Rachel

Elizabeth, Garry, me, Sharon, Teresa and Mildred