Days 13-14: Les Andelys and Paris

Day 13: Les Andelys

Les Andelys is a small village on the Seine, located between Paris and Normandy.  It's most famous for Chateau Gaillard, a medieval castle built by Richard the Lionhearted in the 12th century on a hill overlooking the town.  We spent a half a day touring the town and the castle.

View of Les Andelys from the boat

Center of the town

Chateau Gaillard, overlooking the town

Hiking up to Chateau Gaillard

View of the Seine from the Chateau

A medieval festival was in progress at the Chateau

View of Les Andelys from the Chateau

A view of the Chateau walls

Back in Andelys at Our Lady's Church

Inside the church

Day 14: Paris

The boat returned to Le Peq, and we had another day on our own in Paris.  We first took a shuttle from the boat to the Grand Palais in the center of Paris.

At the Grand Palais

Parisian art

We then took the metro to Place de la Bastille.

Monument where the Bastille stood

We then walked over to the Marais area, a historic district and the center of Jewish Paris.  Our first stop in the Marais was the Place des Voges, the oldest planned square in Paris, dating from the early 1600's.

Place des Voges

From the Place des Voges, we continued walking around the Marais.

A church in the Marais District

Agoudas Hakehilos Synagogue

Some apartments in the Marais

Holocaust Memorial Plaque

Shopping street in the Marais

A Parisian Lunch

Visiting our friends at the French Communist Party 

From the Marais, we walked to the Memorial de la Shoah, the French Holocaust Museum.  Unfortunately, we couldn't take any pictures inside.

Memorial de la Shoah

Memorial plaque on a building across the street

Next, we walked along the Seine, stopping across the river from the Eiffel Tower.

View from across the Seine

Proof that we were there

Palais de Chaillot, across the Seine from the Eiffel Tour

Memorial to Princess Diana, near the spot where she was killed

This is disgusting

After eating too much ice cream, we got the shuttle bus back to the ship.  After dinner on the ship, we got on another bus for a night-time tour of Paris.  Surprisingly, very few buildings were lit up.

Arc de Triomphe

Paris Opera

The Louvre

We ended the evening at the Eiffel Tower.

For 5 minutes every hour at night, they do a light show on the tower (which looks more impressive in a video than a still photo).  The blue lights are part of the show.

Au revoir, Paris!

Day 12: Normandy Beaches

While the boat was docked in Rouen, we took a bus tour to the Normandy (D-Day) beaches.

Our first stop was the town of Arromanches, near Utah Beach.  During the D-Day invasion, after the soldiers came ashore, they had to build a complete port to accommodate the ships that followed with supplies.  The Musee du Debarquement documents the building of the port as well as the invasion.

In central Arromanches

In front of the Museum

In the museum

Along the shore in Arromanches

What remains of the harbor built after D-Day

Along the coastline

Official D-Day wine

A church near Arromanches

Near Arromanches, were a series of German pillboxes from World War II

The tour stopped for lunch at the Omaha Beach Golf Club and Spa, home of the "Pro-Am du D-Day".  Nothing effectively memorializes D-Day like a golf tournament.

After lunch, we visited the Normandy American Cemetery

View of the shore from the cemetery

From the cemetery, we then went to Omaha Beach itself.

Some houses near the beach

 

In front of the D-Day House

Next: Days 13-14--Les Andelys and Paris