Le Havre: Six steps forward one step back

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Geo: 49.4926, 0.106502

Time has just flown by (albeit on a ship!) The ordeal of Atlanta seems another age away and all but forgotten by the memorable and enjoyable events of the past fourteen days. The final sea day saw the progressive trivia draw to a conclusion. The Scrambled Eggheads (us!) were top of the pack with 150 points from seven rounds of trivia. We were hotly pursued by both EFTA and Reunion 2015, both had 138 points. Geeks@Sea had done well. We had a twenty-five point lead after round three and now with 137 points, they had clawed it back to within thirteen. Although we liked to think we had enough in the tank anything could happen in the final round. The topic of the final round was multi choice. Not as easy as it sounded. Most of the questions required a guess so the winner would be the team who had the best luck!! However, everyone was in the same boat (so to speak!) and the Scrambled Egghead's fears were ill-founded as we scored 17/25, the second highest total (19 was the top score). For our stress, sweat and frustrations (yes we still haven't got out of the habit of talking ourselves out of the right answer!!) we won…….a rubber thumb with the words 'I'm a winner', something you'd give a five year old for winning the ‘hunt a duck' game at a fun fair!!! We also won a bottle of champagne and as no one else on our team drank alcohol I found myself escorting the bottle back to our cabin!! Over the fourteen days we accumulated a number of note books (very useful), two bottles of champagne (will always come in handy!!), 4 beach back packs (very practical!)…and two rubber thumbs!!!

On deck 7, there are several bulk heads that are covered in plaques. These are awarded by the port on the ship's inaugural visit to a specific city. There were plaques from Barcelona to Boston, Melbourne to Manilla and Lisbon to Liverpool. Yes, there was even a plaque from the city of Liverpool. I didn't spot this. It was the eagle eyes of John who spied the rather unusual crest of Liverpool. Of course, John wanted all the elements of the crest explaining.

‘That's Neptune on the left,' I started, ‘holding the trident. His mate is standing on the right. In the middle stands one of the Liver birds with an olive branch in its beak.' Although making it up as I went along, my explanation was accepted but on returning to my cabin I had to rely on Google to realise ‘his mate' was actually Triton, another God of the Sea, the top half a man and the lower half a fish. The bird is a cormorant, on which the mythical Liver bird is based holding a slither of sea weed (known as lava) in its beak. Close enough!! There is a scrolled motto running along the bottom of the crest: Deus noblis hæc otia fecit - God has given us these days of leisure, taken from the Roman poet Virgil (apparently!!) I've never thought about this before but that motto is quite apt for anyone venturing on to a cruise ship!!

The weather has not been great on this voyage. It has not been unpleasant. In the curry world, you could say we've sailed through a korma rather than a vindaloo!!! It has been mild but very pleasant without blowing your socks off, so much so, the Movies Under the Stars always went ahead when scheduled.

EFFY is the company on Princess that have the monopoly on the jewellery franchise. Whilst one of us was window shopping, I overheard the manager speaking to a customer. When he had finished, I asked him if that was a Liverpool accent I detected.

‘Wirral, Bebbington.' He corrected me. Liverpool lies on the River Mersey. On the opposite site to Liverpool is the Wirral peninsula. We started to chat. I found it quite amusing that the manager was trying to muti-task by small talking interspersed with attempting to sell us overpriced trinkets!! During our ‘small talk' he happened to mention a cruise director, Billy London. Roisin and I have had the pleasure of sailing with Billy on two occasions, in 2011 on the Grand Princess and again in 2013 on the Star Princess. Billy London was never around throughout the day but could usually be found in the bar during the evening unless the captain was about then ‘our' Billy would only be two paces behind. Before we had a chance to convey our thoughts about Mr ‘London' to the EFFY Manager he told us that he and Billy, now retired, were best of mates. ‘Mr EFFY', as he is referred to, said that Billy London told him he was the nephew of the notorious 60s gangsters ‘the Krays'. It's a shame we didn't know about that before as we may have laughed at Billy's jokes more!! Although Billy was good at spinning a good yarn, perhaps Mr EFFY may have misheard and Billy London was actually the nephew of ‘the Greys'; Alf and Ethel Grey who own a newsagent in Peckham!!!

The ship's itinerary badged this ‘stop' as Paris/Normandy. However, an excursion to Paris would set you back another $200 each on average as this port, Le Havre is at least a 2 ½ hour drive from France's capital. The port guide showed Le Havre in a much smaller font and in brackets!!

This was our last port of call. Situated on the mouth of the River Seine, this small port town lies on the widest part of the English Channel, 126 nautical miles across from Southampton.

Whereas in Bilbao, a complementary shuttle bus was provided, the shuttle to Le Havre cost $8 each (one way) for the short twenty minute walk into the centre. The walk from the dock was uninspiring but, surprisingly enough, twenty minutes later we were stood outside Le Havre's Notre Dame cathedral in the heart of the old town. This was the site of a notorious lynching in 1871 of, James de Somerville, leader of the Communards.

The Communards were revolutionaries of the 1871 Paris Commune. They were members and supporters of the short-lived 1871 Paris Commune formed in the wake of the Franco-Prussian War and France's defeat. Insurgents controlled the city, declaring a new government. After Bloody Week, the government asked for an inquest into the causes of the uprising. As a result, to stabilise the unrest, it was decided to deport 4,500 Communards to New Caledonia. They fled to all corners or France. One of the leaders James de Somerville was found hiding in a bolt hole in a rough quarter of Le Havre and immediately arrested. Without trial and as a warning to other Communards, they strung him up by his toes from the highest steeple of Notre Dame cathedral. As the mob disbanded and were walking away, James de Somerville was heard to shout: ‘Don't leave me this way!!'

The Old Town is a bit of a contradiction as being only a few miles from the beaches that on 6th June 1944 witnessed the Normandy landings. Being too close for comfort, Le Havre had the bejeebus bombed out of it. The old town was completely annihilated hence why the oldest buildings date from the late 1940s/early 1950s!!

Cutting through the Rue de Paris we stumbled upon the Monument aux morts (Monument of the dead) This ten metre high monument was unveiled in 1924 to honour those local soldiers who perished in the Great War 1914-1918. For such a small town, the monument bears testament to over 6,000 names but I couldn't read them. They were all in French!!

Opposite the Monument aux morts stands the impressive Le Volcan (In case you're struggling with the translation, it means: the Volcano!!) This minimalist structure is a national arts centre and contains a 1200-seat theatre, a 350-seat cinema and a library. There is also a smaller volcano that has a 500-seat hall and 80-seat auditorium. Out the side of the larger volcano protruded a four-metre hand known affectionately as ‘le hand!!' Water trickled through the fingers of said hand in to a shallow trough below. I couldn't think of any symbolic or practical reason for the hand to be there other than a rather expensive and out of place water feature!!

Back on board in the atrium, technicians had prepared for a balloon drop. Hundreds of gold balloons were suspended in a net from the top of the atrium, three decks above the Plaza.

We won our final afternoon trivia of the trip, winning outright. We had partaken in about thirty games of trivia winning seven outright. We played eleven tie breaks of which we won only one. One of the questions on our final trivia was: ‘Is the voice box a muscle, an organ or a bone?' We, like everyone else put ‘muscle' when it is, in fact, an organ. One team contested this fiercely stating it was definitely a muscle. ‘We have two doctors on our team so you're wrong!!' shouted one of the team members. ‘It's definitely a muscle.' I have since checked the answer and the voice box is actually an organ so I suggest that these two doctors need to go back to medical school!!!

The cruise director led the celebrations with the balloon drop at 22:30 with music (pre and post drop) by the Static Band, a four piece that played everything from Uptown Girl to Uptown funk!! Roisin and I had prime position sitting on the ledge to the indoor pond adjacent to the stage. The balloons were released without a hitch and the few hundred guests reverted back to age seven mode!! One of the guests was dressed in a US military uniform. Once the celebrations had died down and people were starting to drift off I ascertained he was a retired captain in the Marines. His son is also in the military stationed in Bermuda and is also a member of the military band.

‘Oh, that's cool', I said. ‘What instrument does he play?'

‘I'm not sure', came the rather sheepish reply as if he wasn't expecting the question.

‘Well being in Bermuda it has to be the triangle!!'

At that exact moment, a distant clock chimed and the whistle of the wind was heard. You could almost imagine the tumbleweeds roll by!!

This trip we sailed 4,914 nautical miles or 5,651 linear miles but only visited four ports in fourteen days. However, we did eat Pastel de Nate cakes in two of the four ports!! It seems a long time ago now. The best part of these trips is making new friends and it's been very balanced on that front. On one hand, we met Nancy and Ken who I feel we'll be seeing more of in the years to come, on the other hand, we met others who Roisin would have quite happily bound and gagged (especially gagged!!) and set adrift in an open life boat!!

In July we re-embark on to the Crown Princess and will be heading off to the Norwegian fjords. We're excited already!!

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