Oceania Marina - Europe Cruise Blog #7

From the pretty and quaint seaside towns of the French Atlantic to the grandeur of of one of the most majestic European cities. Paris has attracted pretty much ever superlative and it's one of those places which has to be seen to be believed. It's been nearly 14 years since we were last here so we opted for a ship's tour again, even though it's a two and a half hour drive up and the same coming back from the town of Honfleur.

The tour was called "Paris Highlights" and it really was a whistlestop tour given the fact that five hours is spent travelling so we drove past the Eiffel Tower in our motor coach, then through the Latin Quarter, past the Louvre, Notre Dame Cathedral and then a one hour and 15 minute stop in the Opera district for lunch on our own. The Opera district is quite touristy and wasn't really a great place for us, but most of the other guests loved it because of the "shopping opportunities".

Fortunately, we did a 15 minute stop at Place de la Concorde which gave us a few photo ops and a couple of vintage Citroens also did a drive past which added to the French flavour. From here you can also see straight up the Champs Elysee to the Arc Triomphe and our final stop was at a square which offers a fantastic view of the Eiffel Tower. We only had five minutes here but that was enough to grab that photo of one of the world's most famous tourist icons.

A long day, but worth it just to see Paris again, even if only briefly.