Paris in the Spring

Posted on April 3, 2026 by patmathews

April 3, 2026

We seemed to catch up on our sleep overnight. I was up for a couple of hours but then slept until 7:30 and Norm had a good sleep too. So we had breakfast in the hotel and headed out for a walk to Musee d’Orsay. We were here many years ago and really didn’t remember it too well.

The building was inaugurated in 1900 for the World Fair. Orsay train station ran services to the capital from right across southwest France. Also housed within the building were a luxurious hotel and a grand reception room.

With the modernization of trains, the station was gradually abandoned, In 1977, the French government decided to turn the building into a museum. The Musee d’Orsay was inaugurated in 1986.

It is a spectacular building, inside and out. We had tickets so we got in pretty quickly. The temporary main exhibition was Renoir and it was amazing. I am just going to share some pictures of the art, by Renoir and other artists of that time. The middle of the building houses an exceptional display of sculptures and the art is in galleries along both sides. We were welcomed by the Statue of Liberty!

Not Renoir, of course, but you can’t miss Whistler’s Mother!
We didn’t realize Renoir also did sketches and worked in many mediums
Model of the inside of the Opera House. There really is the water that we see in the Phantom of the Opera
This is a small part of the replica of Paris under glass that you walk on top of

It was a wonderful visit and I am sure there is much we didn’t see. We enjoyed every minute.

Norm got this picture of the outside of the Louvre with the small pyramid, the large, famous one and the roof against the Seine.

We headed out to find a cafe for Lunch. The temperature had warmed up from the 31 in the early morning but was still too cold for us to want to eat outside, no matter how charming it is! The first cafe had no open tables inside, so we ventured to Cocorico (sounds Spanish but it is very French!) This man was preparing fresh seafood outside the restaurant.

After a very relaxing lunch, we headed back along the river to our visit to the Conciergie and Sainte-Chapelle. We had a timed ticket for Sainte-Chapelle and could visit the Conciergie any time.

The vendors along the river were opening their metal containers and displaying their items for sale.

We first walked back to Notre Dame because we initially missed the suggested rear garden. I was told that it was open by one of the staff, but it seems that the exhibit surrounding the back of the cathedral has enclosed the garden!

We arrived at the Conciergie which was the site of the Royal residence in the 6th century. In the 13th century, Saint Louis initiated major renovation and enhancement, adding the Sainte-Chapelle. Now, other than the Sainte-Chapelle, the lower parts of the palace are all that remain of the medieval royal residence.

We toured through the complex which served as the Parliament and eventually a prison during the Revolution. A short film describes what took place here. The areas are all empty now.

We had a device that helped lead us through the complex and a very helpful docent showed us the secrets of how to work it.

This is the expiatory chapel of Marie Antoinette. It was converted in 1815 during the Restoration by order of Louis XVIII. The chapel is located on the very site of the queen’s cell.

We were tired but ready to tour Sainte-Chapelle and were we were very glad that we got tickets!

The Palais de la Cite was the residence and seat of royal power from the 10th to the 14th century and housed both the Conciergie and Sainte-Chapelle. The chapel was built between 1242 and 1248. It consists of two sanctuaries, one on top of the other. The upper chapel was used by the king, his close friends and family and the canons leading the services, and the lower chapel was the place of worship for the palace staff.. While the lower chapel is beautiful, the upper is simply breathtaking. We didn’t know before our visit that there was an upstairs!

Here are some pictures of the lower chapel.

The upper chapel owes much of its fame to the stained glass windows. The 1113 scenes depicted in the 15 stained glass windows tell the story of mankind from Genesis through to Christ’s resurrection.

We spent quite a bit of time just marveling at the beauty and workmanship in this chapel.

We walked back to the hotel to relax before dinner, and saw some more beautiful flower beds. The temperature warmed up to 55 and we felt just a few raindrops, so our two days here started cool and got better as the day went on. Hope for continued good weather luck.

We walked almost 14,000 steps and many staircases today so we will have a nice dinner and get ready for tomorrow.

Posted in April, Europe, France river cruise | 1 Comment

Paris, France

Posted on April 2, 2026 by patmathews

April 2, 2026

After a very uneventful airport experience and flight, we arrived in Paris on time at 7:30 AM.

We already had TSA precheck and I read that there is now a touchless TSA precheck so we both enrolled. We walked right through to the baggage screening, I needed an alternate screening due to my hip replacement and that went fast too. We did see longer than usual lines in the regular check in but it didn’t seem too chaotic.

Got a little sleep on the flight and we were met on arrival by our driver to take us to the Hotel du Louvre, right next to the Louvre Museum. Immigration was speedy at this time of the morning, so we were on our way pretty quickly.The traffic was just terrible – don’t know how these drivers handle it – but we got there in one piece.

We were very lucky to find that our room was ready, so we could get organized, have breakfast and head out to our first “must do” sight, the renovated Notre Dame Cathedral. It was about a 20 minute walk from our hotel. The day was cloudy and cool so we really enjoyed the walk.

We made advance reservations but they were for entering at 1 PM. It was only about 10:30, but the attendant let us in once he saw the passes. The line for those who did not get advance tickets was very long.

They have done a remarkable job in the renovations. We visited about 25 years ago and remember it being very gray inside. It is much lighter and brighter.

The stained glass is still so beautiful.

The fences outside the cathedral were just covered with the locks we have seen at so many other places.

We tried to get in to see the Saint-Chappell but the line looked like it was 3 blocks long and they were not letting anyone in without advance tickets and none were available until April 10. Later we got some through the hotel concierge, so will go there tomorrow. So, back to the hotel to take a nap since we didn’t get much sleep on the plane.

After our refreshing nap, we headed out to the Tuileries which is also very close to our hotel concierge- it is a great location. It was a lovely walk and a very relaxing place. As you can see, lots of flowers and trees are in bloom. It was created in 1564 for Catherine de Medici, wife on Henri II and has been modified several times over the years.

It is adjacent to the Louvre and just around the corner from our hotel.

The Louvre

We went back to the hotel to have a small dinner in the bar where we were entertained by a singer who played the guitar. Lovely. And I had a French Martini, of course.

We have two more days before we board the river boat. We have lots of plans so stay tuned. Ah, Paris in the spring.

Posted in April, Europe, Excursions, Food, France river cruise | 2 Comments

Heading to France…Again!

Posted on March 27, 2026 by patmathews

As many of you know, we had to leave our river cruise to France last spring for medical reasons after we almost finished the first part in and around Bordeaux (that part is already on the blog.) We are returning to do the week on the SS Joie de Vivre (Paris area on the Seine River) and then the next week on the SS Catherine from Lyon to Arles (Rhone River).

We leave next week and will be spending three days in Paris before the cruise and spending three days in Marseille at the end.

We are looking forward to good weather and good health!

Posted in France river cruise, March, Preparation | 2 Comments

Two sea days on the way back to Miami

Posted on January 3, 2026 by patmathews

January 2 and 3, 2025

We are having a relaxing time on board as we complete the final two days of our trip. What a pleasure to travel with Adam, Mark and Ramsay. We had the usual sea day activities – two second places in Blackjack, spa deck, sauna, lovely meals and relaxation on the deck.

Forgot to put the item in the St. Maarten – Mark, Ramsay and Adam did the America’s Cup 12 Metre Challenge and their ship won. Norm and I had done that when we visited St. Maarten years ago and had fun.

Our Friday night dinner was in Red Ginger and it was a wonderful as always. One of my favorite things on the menu is the Miso Glazed Sea Bass. The other picture is a summer roll. Just a small sample of what we had – all delicious.

The show on Friday was Our World by the entertainment team. I saw it on our three day Inaugural trip a couple of weeks ago. I enjoyed it again and everyone else did too. The singing, dancing and multimedia staging were so good. After the show some of the performers came out to chat and pose for pictures. These costumes were from the last country represented – Italy.

Many of the Bowl Games were shown on TV and on NY Day, they were shown in Horizons with the accompanying snack foods.

On Saturday, I placed second again in the tournament and we were second in trivia too, with extra points given because it is the last day. We went to the passenger art show to see the pieces that Mark and Ramsay did. I showed their Miami harbor ones in an earlier post. Here are the florals they did.

Mark’s painting
Ramsay’s painting
They didn’t do the flamingo one, but here was one we liked

The creperie is new on the Allura ship. Two whole weeks went by and I hadn’t tried it, so this afternoon we shared a peach melba crepe. Amazing.

We will have dinner in Toscana and then the Elton John duo, “This One’s For You” for a second show. And, of course, packing for home. And another wonderful family time together comes to an end after lots of fun, laughs, good food and explorations.

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Philipsburg, St. Maarten

Posted on January 3, 2026 by patmathews

January 1, 2026

Happy New Year! You will get a few posts in a row because I was unable to load photos for a while. I am doing this one on January 3.

We had a great time at the deck party last night and went to bed quite late. Many of the crew came and partied with us. When the ice sculpture of the #5 went into the pool and the #6 was added, one of the guests jumped into the pool fully dressed in a suit! Ramsay got a video of it.

It has been quite a few years since we visited this island which is Dutch on one side and French on the other. When the Spanish closed their colonial fort on St. Maarten in 1648, a few Dutch and French soldiers hid on the island and decided to share it. Soon After, the Netherlands and France signed a formal agreement to split St. Maarten in half and it has remained as it is today. We docked on the Dutch side. Our tour today was Two Nation Vacation. We were in a mini bus and our guide was Rudolph.

He was informative about the island and told us that in the past, salt, coffee, fishing and cotton were the main industries. Now tourism is the only industry.

There are 19 casinos on the island. And 127 different nationalities. I didn’t even know that many existed!

In 2017, Hurricane Irma, an extremely powerful and devastating tropical cyclone destroyed most of the island and rebuilding is still going on. We passed the hospital being built. Now everyone needing hospitalization has to go off island so they are anxiously awaiting its completion.

We had a stop at a high point of the island on the Dutch side to take pictures. Then we went on to Marigot, the capital of the French side of the island, St. Martin. Since it was NY Day, most of the shops were closed, but we went to a market bordering one of the beaches where we walked around and had a drink.

Then, we went back to the Dutch side and got to Sunset Beach. This beach is just at the end of the runway at the Princess Juliana International Airport so the big attraction is watching the planes come in right over the beach. And the beach was packed with people. We sat at the bar where Rudolph told us if you come in a bikini and take the top off you get free drinks. We paid for ours!

You have to do some jostling to get a favorable spot for a photo of the planes coming in but we were somewhat successful.

Hat vendor!

When we got back, I played in the blackjack tournament and placed second. I had to miss the trivia which was at the same time, but our team placed second in that too.

Our entertainment was the onboard Bright String Quartet that plays every day at tea and every night in the Grand Lounge. It was a tribute to Queen and it was amazing.

Today is the last of the port stops and we have two sea days before arriving back in Miami on Sunday, January 4. The weather continues to be beautiful and we are all having a terrific time.

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St. John’s, Antigua

Posted on January 3, 2026 by patmathews

December 31, 2025

This is our fourth visit to Antigua and as much as we love the island and have done a lot of exploring here, we opted to relax on board during the day since we booked a sunset cruise for later. If you want to see more about Antigua or what you might do if you are coming here, use the search button on the blog and all previous trips will be available to view.

Here is our first view of the island. I am usually at baristas when it opens at 6:30 AM to get my cappuccino in my Yeti mug. The sunrise this morning was really beautiful.

We enjoyed our balcony and booked the same room with the extended balcony and lounge chairs for our trip next year! I had a relaxing time on the spa deck and I love the heated tiled loungers there as well as the therapeutic spa pool. Very few people use that area so it is usually quiet and restful.

Our trip today was a sunset cruise. Mark and Ramsay also booked it so we had fun together. The crew was fun and entertaining with a music playlist to match. They pointed out places of interest, including the Armani estate, many of the 365 beaches and the lovely hotels. The rum punch and appetizers were very nice.

The locals say this looks like a loggerhead turtle coming up for air
The home of the Armanis

We had to get our evening outfits ready before we left because we were invited to dinner in the private Privee with Dominique, our general manager. I have mentioned before how hands on he is. No matter where we go, we see him assisting guests, pushing wheelchairs, etc. If it needs to be done, Dominique is there to do it.

Corey Kahaney was our evening entertainment in a new show, then we went up to the pool deck for our NY Eve party. The band played and we were actually surprised that it was such a big crowd. Norm opted to skip it but Adam, Mark, Ramsay and I were there for the whole thing. We had the hats, the noisemakers, the champagne and the sweet treats. The culinary staff made ice sculptures of 2025 and when the countdown to 2026 ended, the 5 went in the pool and the 6 was hoisted.

My hope is that 2026 will be a more peaceful year.

Tomorrow we arrive in Philipsburg, St. Maarten.

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Roseau, Dominica

Posted on December 30, 2025 by patmathews

December 30, 2025

First of all, here are the pictures of Mark’s birthday dinner in Polo last night. They finally uploaded.

Room birthday decorations

We spent time in Dominica last year and had a full day tour. So today, we explored the town, the cathedral and the botanical gardens.

The central district of Roseau, the most important port here, is tightly packed with small and large houses and modern concrete structures. It is framed in every direction by natural elements. The botanical gardens, for example, are rare in the Caribbean. No other center in the region has such an extensive botanical garden.

Here are some pictures of the island from our sail in and docking.

Before we headed out, I had a wonderful massage and facial so I was ready to tackle the day.

On the walk to the botanical garden.

The botanical garden is a large open space surrounded by trees and flowering bushes. It doesn’t have sections of plants like we might see in other places, but the agricultural society has closed off areas that look like they will contain some additional plants. I took pictures of some of the trees and plants but don’t know what they are all called!

I really wanted to get the bird in this photo. I did my best!

We headed back down towards the Roman Catholic Cathedral, Our Lady of Fair Haven, and wound around many streets. Some of them are pretty uneven. We reached the area of the church and stopped in to see how to get to it and a nice man took us there. He explained that hurricane Maria, a category 5 storm in 2017, caused major damage to the church buildings, stripping the roofs and severely damaging the buildings.

They are in the process of restoring the buildings with new roof structures, reinforced columns and retrofitted bell tower. Ongoing work to install a new spire and complete interior finishing has been delayed by tropical storms but they are persisting and the church remains open for services. We were happy to see it.

We walked back toward the ship and checked out the craft booths but didn’t need to buy anything.

Hard to see the fish in the water under the bridge to the ship but there were many!

We do have trivia today and our entertainment tonight is a guest entertainment duo – This One’s For You, a tribute to Elton John. I am sure we will enjoy it.

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Kingstown, St. Vincent

Posted on December 30, 2025 by patmathews

December 29, 2025

This is an island we have not visited before. We had an excursion planned but when we read the full description of it, we decided to cancel and book the new culinary class on board.

Here is our sail in.

Kingstown is set against a backdrop of lush green hills. The dry season is December to May but the rainy season ensures the beauty of the greenery.

We opted to walk around the town. It is not as well developed as the islands we just visited and there are a lot of run down properties. The people are pleasant but the drivers can be aggressive. We didn’t see any traffic lights or stop signs and you have to be very careful when trying to cross streets. This was one of the few street signs we saw! On this intersection, we saw this very entertaining officer directing traffic.

Many really nice and clean vegetable and herb markets
Regular stores all seemed crowded with merchandise
Central police station

I saw a man with a t-shirt that had my slogan for the day: Worry is a misuse of your imagination.

In the afternoon, Norm and I took a cooking class that I was full during the Inaugural Cruise we took a couple of weeks ago. It was called “Snap and Savor”. We made three recipes (in the recipe booklet below) and Katherine from LINC taught us how to use the features of our iPhone camera to take pictures with different backgrounds and viewpoints. I have included some of each of the ways I took them. And we got to eat and drink all of the food and drink. Delicious.

Our dinner was in Polo and we celebrated our son Mark’s birthday. The food was delicious as always and the staff brought a cake and sang to him. Unfortunately the server will not allow me to upload these photos right now, I will hopefully add them tomorrow.

When he returned to their room, it was decorated for his birthday.

The guest entertainer tonight was a comedian, Corey Kahaney. She was very good! Her TV appearances include The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, David Letterman, Conan, The View, Fox and Friends and This week at the Comedy Cellar. She was a grand finalist on Last Comic Standing and a finalist on America’s Got Talent. Her comedy specials have aired on Comedy Central and HBO. She has appeared at festivals in the US and Canada. She will have an all new show on New Year’s Eve.

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Bridgetown, Barbados

Posted on December 29, 2025 by patmathews

December 28, 2025

Since we have been to Barbados many times (you can search previous posts if you are headed there and want ideas), we just chose to take a walk off the ship today. But first I took a class on Instagram since I have an account and don’t use it very much. It’s my second class with Katherine in the LINC digital center and I noticed that all of her classes now have long waiting lists. I am not surprised. She is a good instructor and I learned a lot. I have one more class scheduled. I think I will try my hand at posting to Instagram in the next day or so.

Here is a shot of our sail in.

We really love the friendly people of Barbados. The only purchase we made was some delicious chocolates from the Green Monkey shop. The two women in the shop told us all about the African green monkey that lives wild and free across the island and has become one of the island’s most iconic animals. It is known here as the Barbados Green Monkey. They were brought here from West Africa about 350 years ago.

We have never seen one here although they are active during the day. The women told us that they are curious and often aggressive, coming close or even into places to steal fruit or sweets! They can be quite a menace to farmers. But they are respected here – the women said “they were here first!”

This is the colorful bag from the shop

A Windstar ship was right behind us and they were loading supplies – by hand!

We had a team trivia competition – placed third – then went to the returning guest cocktail party followed by the Caribbean Market Dinner and name that tune (second place). Then we went to a wonderful show by the entertainment team called Broadway: A Documentary in Concert, which was a multi-media celebration of the elements that bring a show to life – music, dance, costumes, choreography and the creative process behind it all. We thought it was one of the best Oceania shows we have seen.

Lovely, relaxing, low key day! There was quite a downpour during our dinner, luckily it wasn’t while we were out in port. We were watching the other ships depart.

Tomorrow we will be in St. Vincent, an island we have never visited.

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St. George’s, Grenada

Posted on December 28, 2025 by patmathews

December 27, 2025

Grenada is the first in the chain known as the Windward Islands. It is a relatively small island and is very lush and green. It is well known for its spices. We have been here several times before, and although we love the island, we opted to stay on the ship. Some of my followers may know that I am scheduled for a hip replacement on January 15, so I am limiting my walking, stairs, etc due to the pain.

The delicious martinis and desserts are part of the experience here. Each bar has huge lists of drinks, many I have never heard of. In Horizons, there are drinks named for each of the Oceania ships.

Dessert quartet in Toscana

Our port schedule today is 1 PM – 11 PM. Here are some pictures of our arrival. The weather has been great so far. It is somewhat cooler than other years but still Caribbean warm.

Fortunately, we were invited to a wine tasting today and we both also booked 100 minute massages, so it was an indulgence day!

The wine tasting was by invitation, and there was a misprint in the invitation, so I called to clarify. I assume that others did not, because the Red Ginger restaurant, where the tasting was held, was set up for many more people than the group of about 10 of us. It was a really nice tasting called “Pinot Noir – The Heartbreak Grape”. One of the sommeliers talked about the grape and described why it is called the heartbreak grape. It’s because it is notoriously difficult to grow and make well. That said, the results, when successful, can be extraordinary.

The conditions that make it difficult are:

  1. Extremely finicky in the vineyard because of thin skins and tight clusters which make it vulnerable to rot and mildew, frost damage, sunburn and heat stress and disease in humid conditions. Even the smallest change in weather can ruin an entire harvest.
  2. Very sensitive to terroir. It only thrives in very specific climates (cool to moderate) and slight soil or climate mismatches can lead to flat or unbalanced wine. Great sites are rare and expensive.
  3. Low and unpredictable yields. Even in ideal conditions, Pinot Noir tends to produce fewer grapes which can lead to inconsistent quality and financial losses for growers.
  4. Hard to make into wine. Pinot is delicate and demands precision at every step.
  5. High expectations, frequent disappointment. Because legendary regions like Burgundy set such a high bar, most Pinot Noir is judged against an almost impossible standard- leading to heartbreak when it falls short.

The saying is that Pinot Noir breaks hearts because it promises beauty but punishes mistakes.

We tasted 5 wines and I will name them with the price charged on the ship. Even though Norm thought he didn’t like Pinot Noir, we both enjoyed each one.

  1. Castello Di Spessa ‘Joy” Pinot Grigio from Collio Friuli-Vinezia Guilia, Italy. The only white we tasted. $65/ bottle
  2. Louis Jadot Pommard from Cote de Beaune, France $165/bottle
  3. Prince Hill Vineyards ‘Dundee Hills” Pinot Noir from Willamette Valley, Oregon $155/bottle
  4. Craggy Range Te Muna Road Vineyard Pinot Noir from Martinborough, New Zealand $110/bottle
  5. Silver Trident Winery “Benevolent Dictator” Pinot Noir from Russian River Valley, California $140/bottle

We had a food pairing and here is Norm’s. Since I don’t eat meat, they brought me an alternate one.

After the wine tasting, we didn’t feel like eating any lunch, so next were the massages. All I can say is ahhhhh. We each booked another for later in the cruise.

We made it to trivia where we missed out on third place, but as always we learned something and had fun.

There is always a wooden puzzle being assembled by those who pass by outside the casino. Here is the current one.

Our entertainment tonight was a repeat performance by Panos Karan and he ended with the spectacular Rhapsody in Blue. What an amazing pianist.

Tomorrow we will be in Barbados.

Posted in Caribbean, Christmas 2025, December, Food | Tagged , , , , , , , | 6 Comments