Vernon, France on the Seine River

Vernon, France
M/S Bizet

The fun and exploration continues.  

After breakfast our program director, Anne, gave us a walking tour of this town in Normandy.  In 1951 a rocket was launched from this town.  

Do you notice the headphones that Bill is wearing?  Everyone has a "whisper" in your cabin.  Whenever the guides lead you somewhere you take the whispers which hang on a lanyard so you can hear every word from the guide.  Bill finds using his headphones is more comfortable with his hearing aids.

I know we learned about half timber houses years ago in Germany, but I had forgotten how they are built. 

Anne showed us how to tell if they were old or not.  It takes 14 years to treat the wood.

One of the things I love about the walking tours is they are spontaneous.  Anne saw the postman and stopped him to chat.  He said he starts his day at 7:00 and is finished at 1:30.  He works 6 days a week and delivers to 1800 addresses.

The Collegiale Notre Dame church was built in 1072 and finished in 1610.  The spires are 230 feet tall.





After our walking tour the bus arrived to take us to the village of Giverny where we visited a cider farm.

I guess I wasn't excited about a cider farm but once again it was great.  The producer makes apple cider, apple juice, apple cider vinegar and aperties.  Christopher runs the farm all by himself.  We did learn that the cider contains alcohol in France.  The aperties were 86% alcohol.  

One thing that amazed me was that the apples weren't picked.  They were harvested off the ground.

Naturally, we sampled all of the samples.

We arrived back in time for lunch served again with endless glasses of wine.

Right after lunch we were given a scavenger hunt paper.  We were divided up into groups of four.

It was a lot of fun.  Our team was one of the first ones back with our finds.







We were told to talk with locals to find the items.  The first on the list was a brand of mustard.  The second item was a half pint of beer.  Paris Match was a gossip magazine.  I might mention that we were given 10 euros to purchase the items.

Here's the fellow that we took a picture for the "photo of a man with a mustache".  I must say everyone was very helpful even if they couldn't speak English.  



By the time the scavenger hunt was completed we hurried back to the lounge.  The title of the presentation was "Story of a War Bride, Mrs. Nelson."  Mrs. Nelson was 92 years old and a wonderful speaker.  She told us what it was like to be occupied.  She had many stories  that were very informative and also funny.  

At 6:45 every evening we have a port talk to explain what will be happening the following day.  Dinner starts at 7 pm.  

Cognac was available for everyone after dinner.  It's too late for me to get into the evening's performance, but let me tell you that George had a girl in his lap and one tied up to him.  Details and photos to follow in tomorrow's blog.

Turtle Safely.......