Trip Report - Paris & the Heart of Normandy – Viking Skaga - Paris>Paris 5-12 September 2024

[pontac]

 

 

This was our 18^th River Cruise and the 14^th with Viking. It was also the 4^th River Cruise we’d taken in 2024, two with Viking and two with Scenic.

We had not been cruising on the Seine before; we had been waiting for Viking to introduce shorter boats to the route which would permit them to moor in central Paris. Skaga was shorter by having fewer cabins, but apart from that the boat was to the same clean, airy design as the rest of the Longship fleet. We had a port side cabin at the rear of the upper deck. The cruise started and ended in Paris.

 

There were 148 passengers. The capacity is 158, so there were 10 people fewer than there could have been and the boat was 93.7% full. Most of the passengers were from the USA, there were about 13 British and 6 Canadians.

 

Viking’s fare included on-board gratuities, Silver Spirit Drinks package and economy flights. Flights from London were with BA. We paid a supplement to upgrade to business class.

 

Trip Review

 

All timings use the 24 hour clock, thus 07:00 is 7am and 19:00 is 7pm.

Mooring locations are identified by a What3Words square. What3Words have divided the world into 3 metre squares and given each square a unique combination of three words. To see the location click the what3words link. You can switch between map and satellite view.

 

 

Day 1 – Thursday 5 September 2024

 

 

Vegetarian lunch on the short hop to Paris - with two or three glasses of Champagne

 

Our flight was scheduled to depart London at 11:00 and arrive, thanks to the hour time difference, at 13:20. We left later but it was only a 60 minute flight which landed at 13:28. Immigration and baggage claim were quick and there was no problem seeing the Viking reps wearing  bright red fleeces outside arrivals, and we were in a taxi with two other couples 65 minutes after the plane touched the CDG runway.

It was dark and raining in Paris.

 

The journey to the boat took a long time. Although the Paris Olympics had finished the Paralympics was still on and Olympic restrictions continued. Outer lanes of motorways were restricted to official Olympic vehicles and some bridges across the Seine closed to traffic.

 

We boarded Viking Skaga at 16:00. The boat was moored on the Left Bank with its starboard side to the bank and was not rafted so our cabin faced the river. The rain stopped and the sun came out at 17:00. There was a safety drill at 17:45 so we just had time to unpack and enjoy a coffee in the lounge.

We could see the Eiffel Tower ahead of the boat, ten minutes walk from the boat.

 

 

 

Sirloin Beef from Regional Specialities menu - with chips instead of gratin potatoes

 

Its accompaniment

 

and restrained dessert

 

Night Location: Paris https://what3words.com/expose.laws.suspect

 

Day 2 – Friday 6 September 2024

 

 

We’d booked the included excursion Panoramic Paris but decided not to go on it as during the Monday’s Port Talk we were told that only one bridge was open to coaches so none of the sights on the Right Bank would be visited, in addition the excursion was leaving a hour earlier, at 08:30 – to add an hour to allow for delays caused by congestion as a result of Olympic road closures.

 

It was a warm sunny day so we walked across a bridge to the Arc de Triomphe, back to the Eiffel Tower and then to the boat for lunch.

 

A week before the cruise we’d received an email from Viking which said “We have just been informed by French authorities that due to newly added measures being implemented for the 2024 Paris Paralympics Games we must use a different sailing channel when departing from Port de Grenelle. As a result, your ship must relocate from Paris, approximately 5 miles northeast to Courbevoie, at 2:30pm on Day 2.

This change will not impact your ability to enjoy Paris and your full itinerary will operate as planned.

Should you wish to remain in Paris for free time after the ship departs, we will provide a shuttle from the city to Courbevoie at 5:00 PM, returning you to the ship for dinner and evening activities. Your regular itinerary will resume upon departure from Courbevoie in the evening.”

 

It was warm enough to enjoy both lunch and dinner served in the open on the prow.

 

The Always Available menu is the same every evening (except for wines), so I only show it on Day 1

 

 

The Crispy Mediterranean Tart starter has appeared n several Viking cruise I have been on. It's interesting how different chefs interpret it

 

Night Location: Cruising on Seine from Courbevoie to La Roche-Guyon

[pontac]

Day 3 – Saturday 7 September 2024

 

When we awoke we were moored at La Roche-Guyon

https://what3words.com/napkin.interpreting.deflation

 

As can be seen on the What3Words link, the boat was moored to a jetty that led to the kitchen garden and orchard of Chateau La Roche-Guyon - https://www.chateaudelarocheguyon.fr/english. 

 

There was an optional excursion to the chateau but we went for a walk through the walled gardens. At 3.8 Ha it is the second biggest in the region after the King’s Kitchen Garden in Versailles.

 

Walkways were lined with fruit trees bearing name cards. Apples had mostly gone but pears were ripe and the ground was littered with a great many windfalls. I touched a pear on the tree and it came off in my hand, so I took it back to the boat. The garden was restored to a 1741 pattern in 2004, and we saw a large patch of squashes and a few rows of straggly Cinsault vines, but most of the vegetables had been picked. We had a look at the chateau and wandered through the small quiet village.

Behind the chateau is a sheer chalk cliff face topped with a tower and ruins of a castle. During WWII it housed a German anti-aircraft battery, and for a time Rommel’s headquarters.

 

Pulled BBQ Pork Sandwich

 

The boat cast off at 12:15 and arrived at Vernon an hour later.

 

 

After lunch was an included excursion to Monet’s garden and house in Giverny that left at 14:15. The drive to Giverny took 10 minutes, and we had 80 minutes in the gardens and house before given 90 minutes free time. We could stay on the property or visit the churchyard where he is buried, or otherwise amuse ourselves, but once left there was no re-admission to the gardens or house.

 

 

I had been here before; this time few water lilies were in flower. The time of year one visits makes a difference. It was the end of summer and the garden wasn’t looking as good but there were fewer visitors than my previous visit. That doesn’t mean that it wasn’t busy. If you are a keen photographer it is worth using free time by returning to the garden, taking a seat on a bench and wait for gaps in the tourists to take pictures.

 

We exited, found a bench and enjoyed the sun but as we left clouds covered the sun and it threatened to rain.

 

Night Location: Vernon https://what3words.com/sleeping.rooftop.half

 

Day 4 – Sunday 8 September 2024

 

Bridge lifts two separated road lanes

 

We were scheduled to leave Vernon at 05:00 and the morning was spent cruising. We came to the outskirts of Rouen at 11.45 as it started raining. We passed a moored Viking Kari and went down river under an amazing lifting bridge then turned around to come back. Kari moved out and we moored in its place then Kari rafted next to our starboard side.

 

For dessert at lunch I had the pear from Chateau La Roche-Guyon’s garden. The variety was Buerre d’Angleterre, which translates to ‘Butter of England’ and appears to be an ancient French variety of unknown origin. It had crisp tasty white flesh with a slightly buttery flavour and quickly browned.

Tomb of Ricarde - i.e. Richard (The Lionheart)

 

The included walking tour of Rouen was excellent, with visits to churches both ancient and modern. In Rouen Cathedral we saw the tombstone of King Richard I – Richard the Lionheart – but just his embalmed heart is buried there.

Rouen Cathedral

 

Joan of Arc was burned at the stake in Rouen and at the site is the 1979 Church of Saint Joan of Arc, with a roof like an upturned Viking Longboat. The architect was given the task of incorporating thirteen 16^th Century stained glass windows that had been safely stored during WWII from a church that had later been destroyed in bombing.

We saw the preparations being made the annual waiters race later that day but missed the race.

Gros-Horloge (Great-Clock) 14th century astronomical clock

 

Night Location: Rouen https://what3words.com/settled.state.former

 

[RJMAROB]

We enjoyed your previous trip reports on the Hiln and Denning.Thanks for posting your most recent Journey, Jim

[pontac]

Day 5 – Monday 9 September 2024

 

There were two full day excursions to D-Day beaches, one to Caen Memorial Museum and the US Cemetery and Memorial overlooking Omaha Beach. Most passengers took this excursion.

 

We went on the Commonwealth excursion; unfortunately it was not possible to do both.

Both excursions left at 07:45. There were 21 people on the Commonwealth excursion, fourteen British, five Canadians, and two Americans who chose this tour because they thought it would be more historic. Our guide was a retired history professor of Tunisian birth. He’d come to Paris to study at university, met and married a local girl and they’ve lived in Paris since.

 

On the way we were given a Viking leaflet about D-Day with a colour map of the coast with beaches named and national flags showing where landings were, both on the beaches and inland at Pegasus Bridge, Merville and Ste-Mere-Eglise.

 

We arrived, with a 20 minute toilet stop on way, at Bayeaux at 10:00 to see the tapestry. I had low expectations, but was very much impressed. (https://www.bayeuxmuseum.com/en/the-bayeux-tapestry/)The 70 metre cloth is on a wall, lit in an otherwise dark room. There’s a wooden rail at which you stand to see it. On entry you are given a smartphone sized listening device in your language that explains each of the 55 numbered panels embroidered on the cloth. The panels tell in pictures, like a comic book, of William the Bastard’s conquest of King Harold at Hastings and how William subsequently became known as The Conqueror. Like propaganda the tapestry starts by laying out William’s perceived right to the throne of England.

(note: According to the museum’s website “The Bayeux Tapestry Museum will close its doors to the public, for renovation work, from September 2025. Reopening planned for October 2027.”)The Bayeux Tapestry Museum will close its doors to the public, for renovation work, from September 2025. Reopening planned for October 2027. 

Then we had 40 minutes free time before we were guided to The Churchill Hotel (https://www.hotel-churchill.fr/en)/ and lunch in a private room off the restaurant. The meal was a starter of cheese in puff-pastry over a mixed salad, main of chicken breast in a mushroom sauce with potato cooked in cream, and dessert of lemon meringue tart, followed by coffee. There were opened bottles of a decent Blaye claret. But some people didn’t drink red wines, only white. I asked our guide to get a bottle  of white wine, but he came back to say that the hotel said they  had supplied what they were contracted with Viking to do and that white wine drinkers could buy a glass for €6. I thought that poor of Viking since those guests would have their choice if they stayed on board and I hope they made their feelings known in the cruise questionnaire. Meanwhile there was plenty of claret for us red wine drinkers.

 

WWII German bunker on dunes at Juno Beach

 

After lunch we left for a drive on the coast road above Gold & Juno beach. I particularly wanted to see the Mulberry Harbours, having been inside three of the smaller ones on a cruise earlier in the year, but the coach didn’t stop and I was on the side of the coach furthest from the sea. All the same I saw the massive black blocks in the sea. We stopped at the Juno museum and had a brief walk in the strong winds through dunes onto the beach.

Laying the floral tribute to Canadians

 

Then it was a coach to the Canadian cemetery where the five Canadians placed a (Viking supplied) floral tribute. Then to Benouville where just after midnight on 6 June 1944 three gliders landed troops very close to the bridges over the Caen canal, seized and held it against the Germans. That,  and the nearby bridge over the Orne seized at the same time, were the only crossing points to the east of the Commonwealth landing beaches that could be used for a German counter-attack.

 

Horsa Glider reproduction at museum. Single use only, made of wood. Locals chopped up the ones that landed for firewood during the terrible cold winter of 1944

 

Pegasus Bridge - with its modern replacement seen behind trees being lifted 

 

The bridge was renamed Pegasus by locals after the flying horse badges of the Allied glider troops. The bridge was replaced in 1994, but locals insisted it be a similar design and the actual bridge now lies next to the Pegasus Museum.

Laying the tribute at the British Cemetery

 

Lastly we went to the British military cemetery at Ranville (the first village to be liberated on D-Day) where a (Viking supplied) floral tribute was laid.  We left at 16:55 and encountered heavy traffic, so it took two hours to get back to the boat.

 

It was a packed and moving day and I’d have liked to spend more time in the museums.

 

Tarte Tatin

 

Night Location: Rouen https://what3words.com/settled.state.former

 

 

Day 6 – Tuesday10 September 2024

 

 

Viking Skaga left Rouen before we woke, and the morning was spent cruising until we moored at 11:50 at Les Andelys, the outside rafted to Riviera’s Jane Austen.

https://what3words.com/marina.tiredly.indefinite

 

 

Fish'n'Chips, with a glass of dry white wine  -ummmm

 

Les Andelys

 

At 14:00 we went with an enthusiastic female guide to walk through the small riverside town and visit the church built in 1196 before walking up to Chateau Gaillard, the castle that overlooks the town and river.

 

 

 

Chateau Gaillard

 

The Programme Director – a fit healthy young man – said the walk up to the castle is very steep and that he had struggled. We decided not to go and several people who tried gave up. I went for a walk inland to the neighbouring modern town but the wind got up and it started raining so I headed back to the boat for a warming coffee.

 

Viking Skaga cast off at 17:00

 

The bar

 

Night Location: Cruising the Seine towards Paris

[pontac]

 

Day 7 – Wednesday11 September 2024

 

When we woke Viking Skaga was moored in the outskirts of Paris at Le Pecq

https://what3words.com/task.maternal.rocked

 

 

Napoleon Crossing the Alps, painting by Jacques-Louis David on display in the Chateau. He actually rode on a donkey because horses couldn't cross the Alps

 

At 09:30 we took a short coach ride to Chateau de Malmaison, (https://musees-nationaux-malmaison.fr) the home of Josephine and Emperor Napoleon I and now a museum.

Josephine's Bedroom

Chateau de Malmaison

 

There is memorabilia and a bedroom built for Josephine that is so over-the-top she slept in another room but there’s nothing outstanding about the building.

Two of the Black Swans

 

After touring the house we went looking for the black swans that Josephine introduced to France.  They were camera shy.

There was an optional excursion to the Palace of Versailles that left at 13:45. We didn’t go on it because we’d been there before. Those that did go re-joined the boat at our starting mooring in Paris. The ones who went  that I spoke to thoroughly enjoyed it and were bowled over by the extensive gardens.

 

Viking Skaga departed at 13:50 and arrived back at the same location we started at.  Our cabin faced the water, or would have if not rafted to Viking Kari.

 

In that night’s Viking Daily were details by cabin of the times luggage should be placed outside the cabin and departure time from boat. Crew carry baggage to ones coach/taxi. Cabins had to be vacated at 09:00.

 

The earliest departure from the boat was 04:45 for a flight to Frankfurt, presumably to connect with a flight to North America. The latest departure was 19:00 for people with their own arrangements.

 

Night Location: Paris https://what3words.com/expose.laws.suspect

 

 

Day 8 – Thursday12 September 2024

 

Our flight was timed at departing Paris CDG at 14:10 with departure from boat at 10:15 so we had time for a leisurely breakfast and read in the lounge. We shared a mini-bus with another couple on the same flight. Paralympics had finished now so Paris was opened up and all motorway lanes were open. The driver acted as if he was at the wheel of a racing car and we parked at CDG Departures after a 35 minute drive.

 

A Viking rep greeted us at the kerb, took some cases and led us through the airport to a lift and the checkin desks, which weren’t open for 20 minutes, so she found us seats to wait. When the desks were open she took us to them, stayed with us and lifted our cases onto the belt. When all four of us had checked in, she took us to the security entry and wished us a good flight. Viking's service at airport arrival and departure was exemplary.

 

The lounge BA used at CDG was spacious and there was ample seating. We landed in London, thanks to the time difference, 10 minutes after we departed.

 

Summary

 

A pleasant cruise. Highlight for us was the D-Day excursion and we’d have liked more time. Combining Canadian and British sites made for a more crowded itinerary than those on the American excursion.

 

For the first time, there wasn’t a resident pianist on the cruise, instead were used locals who joined at stops on the cruise.

 

The design of Vikings Longboats is excellent. I like being able to dine outside on the prow with nothing but a chest-height glass screen in front. No dinghies, winches or open hatches to obscure the view.

 

Even   inside it's light and airy with opening glass doors in front and a glass roof.

[pontac]

 

I welcome questions about this cruise, or any others I have been on.

[pontac]

Viking Daily Schedules

 

Viking Daily is a 4 page information sheet delivered to the cabin each evening for the following day. The schedule is on the front page.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[notamermaid]

Thank you very much for the detailed review. No questions from me at the moment.

 

Viking sure appears to make the D-Day excursion a really special one.

 

notamermaid

 

[JordanF]

Thank you for the great review.  We were in Paris last year and took a day trip with Viator to the American D-Day sites.  It was a very intense and moving day, and I highly recommend that everyone visit, especially if their country was involved.  Glad you got to see the British sites, even if the day was a bit rushed.

[mskaufman]

Nice review.  Been on that cruise and had a similar experience.