Le Cruise SEINE-SATIONAL
For a fascinating trip, David Wickers suggests saying bonjour to a boat ride along France’s most famous waterway
Roughly 500 miles long, the Seine may not be the longest river in France, but it is one of the greenest, snaking its way through verdant Norman countryside. And it’s more than just a pretty face. Take a one-week cruise out and back from Paris and you’ll discover ports of call that are varied, historic and fascinating.
I sailed aboard Avalon’s Tapestry II, one of the newest boats on the river, moored on a quay just along from the Eiffel Tower.
She’s long yet slim, with room for just 130 passengers, and there are certainly no shortcomings in terms of facilities. There’s a compact gym, a hot tub on the open deck, a hairdresser, bicycles to borrow, two lounges and two places to eat. In the cabins, the floor-to-ceiling windows slide wide open, transforming the interiors into balconies with beds.
We sailed from Paris, passing under a series of bridges that were so low passengers weren’t allowed on the sun deck for fear of being guillotined. The tower blocks took a long time to shed before giving way to bucolic pleasures. Our first highlight was Giverny and Monet’s pair of glorious gardens, one a floral triumph of multi-coloured blooms that cry out for a place on an artist’s palette; the second, the better known water garden with water-lily ponds, weeping willows and that famous, wisteria-draped Japanese bridge.
In the afternoon, we stopped at the charming village of Les Andelys and climbed a high promontory to visit Richard the Lionhart’s castle overlooking a dramatic loop of the Seine. Next day, we followed ‘Abbey Road’, visiting two of an incredible legacy of Normandy abbeys, the magnificent ruins of Jumièges and the working monastery of St Wandrille, a silent order of 30 Benedictine monks.
From Caudebec-en-caux we were coached to the D Day landing beaches, stopping first at the Pegasus Bridge and its moving museum. We also visited Arromanches, where the remains of the Mulberry harbour, which turned the tiny seaside town into the busiest port in the world, still rings the bay like beached whales.
To historic Rouen, Victor Hugo’s ‘city of a hundred spires’ and an inspiration for Monet, who depicted the facade of the mighty Gothic cathedral more than 30 times in various lights. And, of course, poor Joan of Arc, commemorated by a modern church and souvenir chocolates called The Tears of Joan of Arc.
Returning to Paris, we continued the Monet theme by inspecting his paintings of the Seine, the Giverny water lilies and Rouen Cathedral in the Musée d’orsay. • Avalon Waterways offers an eight-day Paris-to-normandy cruise that costs from £1,984pp, including wi-fi, gratuities, drinks with meals and guided shore excursions at every port, flights extra; avaloncruises. co.uk.