So, here’s the rub. The monkeys are stranded in Paris. I know, I know…there are worse places to be stranded but being stranded anywhere when you’re halfway around the world from home after paying a lot of bananas to be doing something else is not fun. After four days of touring Paris, Kongo boarded his river cruise ship from AMA Waterways for a 7-day roundtrip cruise to Normandy and back. We boarded Thursday afternoon. Here we are on Sunday and we’re still here in Paris. The river levels are too high for our cruise ship, or any cruise ship for that matter, to pass under the bridges between Paris and Rouen. So we’re here at the quay in Paris between two bridges and not going anywhere soon. At least on the water.
The glitch in Kongo’s travel plans is particularly frustrating because he hadn’t planned on this trip at all. He was supposed to be on a trip down the Nile with excursions to Petra, Jordan. That all blew up, literally, on October 7 with the troubles in Israel, so the fall back plan was the cruise to Normandy.
At least we can see the Eiffel Tower from where we are and it is pretty at night. So Kongo headed out for a walk-not-sail-stroll along the Seine. His five-mile walk offered plenty of evidence that the river is not navigable for the river cruises. In the picture below, you can see how one houseboat owner has had to improvise his ramp to accommodate the rising water levels.
But not to dwell on the negative. There were some nice things to see on the walk, particularly the ever changing views of the iconic Eiffel Tower which is being spruced up for the summer olympics in a few months.
The Eiffel Tower is big. Really big. From the ship it looked like it might be only a 15-minute walk but it turned out to be 1.2 miles to get there. By the time Kongo zig-zagged around closed pathways (high water) and walked around the tower base twice searching for nice camera angles, and walked back to the ship he had logged 5.3 miles.
Spring has arrived in Paris so the blooming cherry trees and the plane trees just starting to leaf out provided plenty of picturesque views for the monkey.
There were some interesting views under one of the bridges, Kongo forgets its name.
While under the bridge the monkey stumbled across this photo shoot in progress. It just seemed so, so Paris at just the right moment.
Even pigeons were up for posing.
This poignant reminder Parisian life under the Nazis in World War II reminded Kongo of the complicated and varied history of Paris and France.
In the middle of the Seine stands a replica of the Statue of Liberty. It’s not as big as the gift France gave America in 1886. The statue was built by the same guy who built the Eiffel Tower, Gustave Eiffel.
Blooming tulips and lilac offered another reminder that Spring has come to Paris.
So what is going to happen to the monkey stuck here between two bridges in the middle of Paris? Well, AMA Waterways is doing its best but obviously they have no control over the water levels. The plan, which has changed a few times, is for the passengers to be bused (Kongo hates buses) to Le Havre on Monday to swap ships with the passengers stuck on an identical AMA ship there. From Le Havre we will be able to land on the beaches in Normandy and, hopefully, be able to sail upriver to Rouen. Whether or not we will be able to sail all the way back to Paris is questionable. Kongo will be surprised if they can make it and suspects that another boat swap back to Paris may be in the works. The frustrating thing is all the unplanned packing and unpacking over the next few days.
Kongo also noted, interestingly, that the AMA website is still showing ongoing tours from Paris to Normandy over the next several weeks. This means that there are lots of people boarding planes in Los Angeles, New York, Atlanta, and Salt Lake City who are heading to Paris thinking they are about to embark on a “voyage of a lifetime” down the Seine. Ha Ha. The cruise line is still offering tours in Paris. Yesterday we went to a Chateau about an hour away but it was a poor substitute for what the monkey had booked. More on that tour later.
Stay tuned for the continuing adventures of the monkey!
Travel safe. Have fun.
