Wine, friendship, crème brulee and dinner on the Seine! COMPLETED - Page 15 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
As of January 1, 2019, we have closed our forums. This is a decision we did not come to lightly, but it is necessary. The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk. The server software itself must be updated, and it cannot be without removing the forums.
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There are other changes as well.
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PassPorter is a small business, and for many years it supported our family. But the world changed, print books took a backseat to the Internet, and for a long time now it has been unable to make ends meet. We've had to find new ways to support our family, which means new careers and less and less time available to devote to our first baby, PassPorter.
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I fell behind while away for a few days, but what a nice evening this was. Too bad the glare interfered with photography, but you can tell it was a beautiful cruise. The buildings and the riverbanks are so beautiful at night. Your meal looks wonderful, too, although I prefer my artichokes on the passive side!
I fell behind while away for a few days, but what a nice evening this was.
I didn't think I'd seen you posting....
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Too bad the glare interfered with photography, but you can tell it was a beautiful cruise. The buildings and the riverbanks are so beautiful at night. Your meal looks wonderful, too, although I prefer my artichokes on the passive side!
Soon we were once again passing the Eiffel Tower and I did my best with photos, although there was a lot of reflection from the boat, which did result in some slightly surreal shots.
At this point, we were thinking we were a bit early back, but we kept on going further up the Seine, so that we could see the French version of the Statue of Liberty – and wow, what a great view you got down here of that and the Eiffel Tower. They really did leave the best until last like any good tour.
I loved the way that the boat slowly turned around, so that everyone got a great view from here. That was a really nice touch.
At around this point, these were served up, so I was very happy!
Then we made our way back to our original starting point…
By the time we got back, it was about 11:00pm, and it really had been a superb evening. As well as the food and the amazing views, we had been allocated one bottle of white and one bottle of red wine. Graeme really enjoyed the red wine, but neither Hazel nor Mark were keen on it. I didn’t even bother with it, as red wine doesn’t agree with me at all. I would’ve personally liked more white wine, and we did say the next morning that the three of us should have shared the white, and left the red for Graeme.
I was quite keen to get off as soon as we got back, because as Mark pointed out, they had pulled the covers over the glass roof, so you couldn’t see the Eiffel Tower, and it was doing its sparkling show again, and I wanted to get some decent shots of that. I know Hazel wanted to get going, before she fell asleep, as she was suffering much more than either of us were. I think it was adrenalin keeping me going anyway…
Bateaux Parisiens dinner cruise
Appetiser 9½ 9
Entrée 9 9½
Cheese 9 N/A
Dessert 9½ 9
Atmosphere 10 9½
Service 8 9½
Value for money 9 8
Average score: 9.12
I got some final shots of the boat as we left….
We headed out and I managed to get some great photos of the Eiffel Tower while it was doing its night show…
We were looking for the town car that Hazel had booked, but there was no sign of it. She’d booked it for 11:30pm, and it was only 11:05pm, so we knew it might not be there. We ended up heading back on to the waiting area for the boat, as it was a lot warmer in there, and we watched with amusement as the guy trying to hand out roses was rebuffed by just about everyone he approached. It was a bit surreal, and we couldn’t fathom the whole thing out, as he didn’t seem to be asking for money, but I think everyone assumed he was. At one point, he turned to us, and tried to encourage us to come out and get a rose, but we said as they did look a bit like weeds…
Graeme did try calling the towncar company, and they said that the driver was on the way, but as Graeme said, it sounded like the usual French laid back way of saying that they were doing something, and he wasn’t convinced. Thankfully, the driver did turn out, and we followed him out to the car.
It was a fairly lengthy drive to get back to Graeme and Hazel’s, and I think they were both wondering about the route he took. Finally I started to see things that looked familiar to me, and then we were back a few minutes later. I think we were all very relieved to be back, as it was after midnight now. Hazel apologised, saying she was going straight to bed, but trust me, she was not the only one, as were doing exactly the same. It had been a great day, but it had also been a very long day!
The weather today was dry and sunny with only a couple of downpours while we were on the Eurostar with temperatures in the mid 50s during the day and in the mid 30s in the evening. The best thing today was our dinner cruise along the River Seine. The worst thing today was how tired we all were, Hazel especially, after our dinner cruise. The funniest thing today was the cat and the way he would lie on his back! Today we tried going Standard Premier on the Eurostar And the result was we really enjoyed it. The most magical moment today was seeing the Eiffel Tower light up in front of us as we walked across to it.
Fantastic finish to the dinner cruise! There's something about the Eiffel Tower at night. I meant to ask you earlier, do you think this cruise is geared more towards locals or tourists? Given it's not really tourist season though, it may be hard to tell I suppose.
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Fantastic finish to the dinner cruise! There's something about the Eiffel Tower at night.
It is just beautiful at night.
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I meant to ask you earlier, do you think this cruise is geared more towards locals or tourists? Given it's not really tourist season though, it may be hard to tell I suppose.
I suspect that it's mainly tourists, but I can imagine there are probably quite a few locals who want to say that they've done it....
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we kept on going further up the Seine, so that we could see the French version of the Statue of Liberty – and wow, what a great view you got down here of that and the Eiffel Tower. They really did leave the best until last like any good tour. 
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