France Day 7, 11-26-24: A Very Steep Climb with a Huge Reward!

Day 7, 11-26-24: Les Andelys, France

What a gorgeous day! We slept soundly and didn’t get up until 9:00, refreshed and ready. The Seine, like a mini-Mississippi, snakes along in places. We were at a part that narrowed and turned and even had an island in the middle. The sides were mostly vegetation with the occasional country house…so picturesque. The sky was blue with a few clouds, then suddenly overcast. I walked a mile around the deck while John hung out taking pictures. 

Somewhere mid morning we noticed that the gentle waft of music playing through the ship was subtly changing to classic Christmas tunes with lots of choir—absolutely gorgeous. After the port talk, we were ready for the Les Andelys chateau, Gaillard.

This is the chateau tour we’ve been waiting for—Scottish style. This was a ruin at the top of the hill— a long walk. It was so beautiful, with a bit of blue sky in between  the clouds.

The chateau was built by Richard the Lionhearted, king of England and Duke of Normandy, which ran from the coast down the whole west coast of France, 1198. It was huge. And the castle (chateau) he built was meant to keep the enemy out. With thousands of builders, Richard finished the fortress in two years. It was then attacked and destroyed by Felipe August. What was supposed to have been perfect and impenetrable became unusable in just a year and a half. After Richard died, and the French took over the chateau. Bad leadership helped the invasion because when they stored the food in an underground area outside the chateau and the enemy snuck in through the chapel. Anyway, the castle/chateau still stands, but is a proper ruin with the bones of the dead crying for justice.

From there, we went back down down down the steeply graded hill to the church and the town where we said our goodbyes. Katie and I did a little Christmas shopping and then back on the boat! That took us until 3:30. After that, we pushed out to sea, had our REV party (Return Expedition Visitors—people who had sailed with Viking before). It was lovely, but surprisingly, friendly. All the drinks we wanted. Fabulous cocktails already made. John and I each had several, plus the toast (don’t remember why) and were more than a bit tipsy!  Laugh if you must, but we were slurring and staggering!

I suggested we go to the dining room by way of the upstairs patio, but John didn’t feel safe taking that route. He stumbled through to our room while I went up up up onto the dark, slippery, wet upper deck, wondering about my impaired reasoning, feeling my way along—then down down down to the third floor. Oh goodness. No stumbling or splashes on that walk!

We met again in the dining room and found the first table with four spots and ended up meeting some very interesting women who went immediately into deep conversation about work and family. It was a bit of group therapy, especially for one of them, but a lovely evening. John and I had nothing to drink but water. All I had for dinner was a few bites of the entree and two bits of dessert.

By the time I finished counseling my new friends, I found John asleep so I went to the third deck for the music quiz and joined a group… They only played four seconds of each piece and all of it— unknown.  What a quiz. It was an eclectic mix from the 60’s to the 2000’s. Very difficult, except for people in the music biz. There will be some big winners, but not my little midwestern group who did more laughing than answering.  So much fun. Bon nuit!