Photo of Opéra de Paris taken from the bus. Notre Dame from the bus.

We joined our fellow cruisers for breakfast at aropund 7:30AM. The dining room is set up with tables for six and four so you are always eating with another couple or a couple of other couples. This gives you a chance to meet new people and if you find a couple you really hit it off with you can spend more time with them. More about that later.

Our shore excursion for the day is a coach tour of Paris from 9-12:30PM and then we return to the ship for lunch. After lunch there is an optional tour of the Louvre Museum. Optional in cruising jargon means its not included in the cost of the cruise. This tour is 65 Euros per person. We have been to the Louvre before and pass on the tour.

Enough cruisers are going on the coach tour that we need two buses. First stop, the Trocadéro terrace (see caption above). From there I frankly have lost track of where we went first. The tour included most of the Paris hightlights: a drive through the arches of the Louvre and past the Musée d'Orsay, past Notre Dame, the Arc de Triomphe, Hôtel de Invalides and the tomb of Napoleon, a stop at the Eiffel Tower and more crusing by points of interest including fountains, the President's residence, the Opéra de Paris and too many other things to remember all of them. Our guide for the day was Jules from Sweden who had come to Paris for his college studies and stayed. He spoke excellent English and his commentary and background offered about the passing landscapes, buildings and landmarks were facinating. So far I am giving very high marks to Viking for tour guide selection.

We stopped at the Eiffel Tower just long enough to get a bottle of water and visit the restrooms. The lines at the tower were long and the wait at the first stage of the tower to get on the elevator to go to the top was posted as 45 minutes. Even if we weren't on the coach tour I wouldn't have spent 2 hours plus in lines to go to the top of the tower on this overcast day. Can't imagine what the lines must be like in the summer at the height of tourist season.

The Paris City tour was a great way to see the landmarks of Paris on a cold day and by the time it was over we were ready for lunch. After lunch Susan and I found a pharmacy where I could get some pain medicine for my shoulder. Not sure what happened, but I couldn't raise my left arm above my shoulder without feeling intense pain and weakness. The pharmacist said "Qui" to my "Parlez vous Anglais?" and seemed pleased to be able to have a conversation in English. She recommended two pain pills, ibuprofen and another with 25mg of codeine. Also a heat patch. I took the ibuprofen and it helped. When those pills were gone I took one of the codeine pills. It not only cancelled the pain temporarily, it cured me. No pain at all. Wow! Imagine, no prescription required for codeine. It is really refreshing to be treated like an adult when it comes to medicine.

The evening schedule on board includes cocktail hour, 6-7PM, dinner at 7-9PM, then any program that is offered or cocktails in the lounge. Tonight we would be leaving Paris for Conflans where we would depart by bus to Auvers sur Oise. Before dinner there was a talk on European Food Culture in the lounge and after dinner at 9:15PM a French lesson followed by a little organ music.

Conflans & Auvers sur Oise