Sadly, we woke really early, completed packing, weighed both our checked bags to make sure that they are below the maximum weight of 50 lbs or 22.68 kilograms. Made a couple of adjustments and were ready for our 7:00am pick up for the ride to Charles de Gaulle airport via the Paris Shuttle. It only costs $40 euros for both of us including baggage so better an a taxi. The only thing is that like our super shuttle, they have several riders. There were already 2 in the van and the driver made 2 more stops but even so, it only took 45 minutes to get to the terminal 2 drop off. Plenty of time. For the first and longest leg of our return journey, we booked an 11:00am Air Canada Paris to Toronto flight. The ... read more

We woke to another beautiful day here in the city of lights. They say it has been raining a lot here but we are so blessed that we brought the nice weather from the south with us. We enjoyed a leisurely morning before we made our plans for the day. We have been to many of the Paris museums and sites already during our several visits to Paris so we were wanting to create new memories and experiences. We took the metro to rue Saint-Honore and browsed all the famous fashion boutiques and art galleries. Prada, Dior, Chanel, Loubaton, Zenga, Armani and on and on. We were in the Longchamps store and I was looking at some fold up travel bags. Not a single clerk would even acknowledge me because all of these high end boutiques ... read more

Today our journey takes us to the town of Epernay which is about 35 minutes drive south of Reims. The short drive is just beautiful with the countryside lined with acres and hectares of vineyards of the 3 grapes that are used in the production of champagne; Chardonnay , Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunière. All 3 varieties produce a white grape juice when crushed but only the chardonnay has a light color skin. As far as the eye can see there are grapes growing and being tended to along with the most charming old historic villages and their red tile roofs sprinkled along the way. Each village appears to have a gothic cathedral with a steeple to rival the next village. Just lovely. We arrive in Epernay and thanks to the iPad, we are able to ... read more

Today, we will drive from Beaune to Reims. We enjoyed breakfast in the hotel Le Cep cellar and made orange juice from the cool machine they have! We had the hotel call a taxi to take us to the Hertz agency to pick up the car we rented. Jim had quite an ordeal getting the reservation but the pick up process here went smooth. We got a great Peugeot SUV with a navigation system. Of course it is a 6 speed diesel stick shift so a bit of a challenge to drive for Jim. The nice taxi driver stayed with us until we got the car and he loaded all our bags. We headed north out of Beaune towards Reims. We started on the freeway which has tons of toll stops, then somehow we ended up ... read more

Today, sadly, we have to be out of our cabin by 8:00am. An entire new cruise full of new passengers embark today for their new journey. The crew spends the whole day sanitizing the ship for the new tour. Plus getting all the passengers off and assist them with transportation to whatever airport, train station or town (like us) they need to go to. We arranged a taxi to drive us from the cruise ship to hotel Le cep in Beaune departing about 9:30am, should take about 30 minutes. So we awoke on the River Royale, had a nice breakfast of an egg white omelet, baguette, fruit and coffee. Then, we returned to our cabin, finished packing and set our bags out in the hallway for the crew to take to the reception ultimately to go ... read more