Today was a day to relax.
We arrived in Conflans at 9:00 a.m. but there wasn’t much to see there.
The full name of this town is Conflans Saint-Honorine. Saint Honorine was martyred during the persecution of Roman emperor Diocletian in the fourth century. Allegedly her relics (i.e. her bones) were moved here and the town renamed in her honor.
Many on our cruise took the tour to Versailles, which I debated taking, but I had seen it before and opted instead for a day to read and relax.
I highly recommend cruising if you like to travel. I love to travel but I hate the packing and unpacking and moving from one hotel to another. On a cruise, you return to the same room every night and don’t worry about finding a place to eat. It frees you up to relax and concentrate on seeing the sights.
And the better cruise lines treat you like kings and queens, which is appropriate if you are in Europe and visiting castles every day.
If you are going on a cruise, you can also travel in groups because getting everyone from one place to another is not an issue.
Picking the right mix of people to go on your cruise is important. Much of your time will be spent in conversation around the dinner table—dinner on cruises is a 2 ½ hour affair—so good conversation is a real benefit. If you pick the right people, people learned in the subtle art of conversation, you can enjoy verbal exchanges like this one that occurred last night at our table:
G: “So, I’m sitting in my condo and looked out and there is an 84 year-old man in a Speedo and . . .
Me: (Conscious my 85 year-old father-in-law at the table) “Not that there is anything wrong that.
A: This story has taken a bad turn.
Me: Yes, right out of the garage.
G: So, as I was saying…
The Wife: No. Stop.
Or this one:
Me: I hear the Open golf Championship is expecting terrible weather tomorrow.
G: I hear the Tour de France is in the Pyrenees.
A: That’s a non-sequitor! I call your non-sequitor.
Me: Can you call a non-sequitor?”
See what I mean? Heady stuff.
After dinner you return to your cabin to find your cabin maids have twisted your towels into a monkey, crab, or some other animal. See pic at top of post.
And, you are waited on constantly. We were docked in Rouen on July 14th—Bastille Day—and while we were on the deck watching the fireworks one of the servers presented us with red, white and blue Champagne. As you can see, I have photographic (albeit blurry) evidence to prove it.
Tomorrow we head home. GS