April 11, 2026

Because we spent 3 days in Paris before the river cruise, we have a relaxed afternoon, so I am catching up on my posts.

We chose to do a walking tour of the Latin Quarter and we were happy to have Aurelie for our guide again today.

We took a bus for a short trip to the St. Germain area and walked the narrow, historic streets, all to the commentary by Aurelie. The Latin Quarter is named for the many students in this area and was home to icons like Matisse, Picasso, Rimbaud, Sartre and Hemingway.

Apartments are very expensive in Paris so most people go out for their coffee and pastries since they do not have much room and rarely have dining space. The cafes have tables facing out so customers can people watch.

This used to be a monastery where the monks created manuscripts on sheepskins. It took three sheep to produce one page and the manuscripts were often 300 pages long and took two years to finish. That’s a lot of sheep!

After our walking tour, we went to Shakespeare and Company and I just had to have a real Paris hot chocolate. Delicious.

Aurelie told us about the prices for health care and education, both of which are much lower than in the US. To get a PhD at the Sorbonne for example, it would be about $3000 euros per year. And a dental checkup and cleaning costs 28 euros.

And then it was back to the ship for lunch and to write my delayed blog posts and start packing for our train trip to Lyon tomorrow. They will take our bags by truck so we need them out by midnight.