Better Homes and Gardens (Australia)
Small ship big luxuries
This new sleek ship from Ponant will blow you away with its luxury, technology and breathtaking design
step aboard Ponant’s brand new Le Champlain, and staff will show you to your exquisite suite, one of 88 with private balconies, and four staterooms with large private terraces. At capacity, the French ship sails with only 184 passengers.
Once you’ve experienced your personal luxury, aboard, you’ll be blown away by the innovative underwater lounge, the Blue Eye. Designer, Jacques Rougerie, is an architect-oceanographer who wants you to experience the exquisite underwater universe through two large whale-eye shaped windows. Behind the bar there, three subaquatic cameras project floor-to-ceiling underwater action, such as playful dolphins or schools of tropical fish swimming by. Of course, your destination dictates what you might see.
The sound consists of a ‘natural symphony of the deep sea’, which you can enjoy from a ‘body-listening sofa’. Guests speak in hushed tones. Lighting is low. The bar only serves ‘quiet’ drinks – no shaken or blended cocktails in this subaquatic sanctuary.
On deck, Le Champlain’s stern sports a three-position marina platform that allows easy access for water sports or transfers into any of 10 Zodiacs used for expeditions. But for the most part, the yacht-like ambience comes from the contemporary, sleek interior design lines and Scandinavian light-coloured wood everywhere, thanks to architect and designer Jean-phillipe Nuel.
The food and service, however, are top-class French. Breakfast has bakery goods worthy of the best boulangerie in Paris, and Le Nautilus restaurant opens to the outside and turns each evening into a warm, refined venue with a menu by executive chef, Grégory Mahé. Wines come from an extensive predominantly French, but also international, cellar with prices from 29-1290 euros.
Ponant adds, “Destination is the art of our DNA.” Expedition teams include experts who lead daily adventures on Zodiacs, exploring the flora, fauna, geology, history and anthropology of particular hard-to-reach destinations.
Le Champlain’s sister-ship, Le Lapérouse, was launched last July. She arrived in Australia in January to commence her Oceania cruising schedule through sub-antarctic islands from New Zealand, to Melanesia in late autumn, the Kimberley in our winter months, and off to Asia in the spring. Ponant operates hundreds of other luxury expedition cruises each year to destinations from the Arctic to Antarctica, including tropical destinations such as the Amazon and Orinoco rivers, and the Caribbean.
It has also teamed with National Geographic Expeditions to add to its expertise on a range of voyages.