Since my mom started taking trips to Europe with her boss back in the 90’s, I have been VERY interested in going to Europe. Then, as the Bear and I got more and more into the wine world and more of our friends had been places, it became a near obsession for me. Still, neither of us are very daring- particularly in unfamiliar situations- and the idea of going on a big trip overseas, with just the Internet or travel agent to plan, seemed daunting.

I glommed onto the idea of a river cruise. We did our first on the Rhone on Uniworld in 2022, and the European travel bug only got worse. As soon as we were home, I had decided I wanted to do another river cruise in Italy, but realized that there really weren’t any great ones that got me to the gorgeous interior of Italy, so we went with a land tour with Tauck in 2023. We enjoyed the land tour just as much but missed having a hotel that moved as opposed to us moving. I “accidentally” planned a river cruise through Portugal for the following year with Scenic and had ANOTHER amazing time. When we returned from the Douro, I started looking at small ocean cruises on Seaborn and Regent Seven Seas. (We like to travel fancy, what can I say). I knew that the Bear (my husband, Richard) REALLY wanted to do Normandy and D- Day. I had been researching many of the small boat ocean cruises, but I kept drifting back to the rivers after our other amazing trips. Many told me that the Tauck boats were the best, so I ended up booking the Impression from the Seine through my sister-in-law with Fairy Godmother travel. She specializes in Disney, but can book almost anything. Then, the Bear surprised me on our Douro cruise when he said that he wanted a few more days! (He has NEVER said that before!) So, I came up with the idea of tacking a few days on at the end in the champagne region. He was all for it! Then, I contacted my European expert friend to customize a few days in Reims and Epernay for us. I asked if anyone else wanted to go, too – and to my surprise and delight, two of our long time “winey” friends decided to join us.

Well, surprise and delight and – a little concern. Our friends are VERY experienced world TRAVELERS; whereas, the Bear and I are TOURISTS. We enjoy people ferrying us around, leading us by the noses, and telling us what to do and where to be. I was worried our friends would be bored and frustrated. Still, they reassured me multiple times on the trip that they really loved the sailing time, the views, the plans already being made. They would wake up early and go exploring on their own before getting to hear more about the places on the slower paced tours, and found a way to make it work for them.

After a year of anticipation, it was time to embark on the trip in June 2025. Since we had already done a previous trip with Tauck, we got to take advantage of the “gift of time” . I’m not sure if this perk is going to stay around forever, but it’s pretty amazing! You get one day before or one day after at a hotel paid for by Tauck. They also take care of the transfers associated (from airport- to hotel- to ship at the beginning or vice versa at the end.) And the hotel is the quality you would expect from Tauck. Our reservation was at the VERY five star Intercontinental Le Grand in the heart of Paris with a view of the opera house. Ooooh la la indeed!

So, according to the Bear, a trip across the pond MUST be done business class. I’m definitely not one to complain about that! However, the PRICE of those flights is astronomical, so a few years back I invested in the best travel card ever- the Chase Sapphire Reserve. It covers travel insurance, Global Entry, and a HOST of other things… But. most importantly, are the points. We use the card to pay for most things in our day-to-day life. Most years, the card pays us back for at least one of our round trip business class tickets. This year, I used 300k points and $2,500 total for the two of us to fly on Air Canada.

Our trip on the way there had a stop in Toronto, and it was the FIRST thing on the trip that I was really excited about. When you book an overseas flight business class on Air Canada, Toronto has a “Signature Suite” that is more than just their regular business class lounge. I love flying business class, and I also love lounges. We got to start at the rather nice United lounge in Austin before Toronto.

I will say based on some YouTube videos and things I saw, I expected the Signature Suite to be a LITTLE swankier and feel a little more like a high end restaurant, but it definitely wasn’t bad. The food and the wines were good, and it was a nice included interlude between flights.

When it was time to board, we got all settled into our little cubbies. (I love having a dedicated overhead bin and all kinds of storage space, a lay flat seat, and the other things that come with business class.) They started bringing food again, and by the time dinner service was over, there were really only about four hours left of the flight- barely enough time for a nap. I mean, sure, I could forego the dinner service, but it’s all part of the fun to have some little bites…

We actually landed in Paris around 10 AM and about 20 minutes early. We had heard horror stories about CDG, but on both ends of out trip it was empty and easy to navigate. Since we were so early, we did have some trouble finding our driver. But after a few phone calls and texts, they sent us SOMEONE. His sign said “Emirates” not “Tauck,” but our names were on his sign, so we went with him!

We got in a nice Mercedes van, which seemed to be the regular for our trip. He did get the backend stuck on a fence, which was a pretty funny way to start. Still, off we went. Paris traffic is NO JOKE. The city has been made EXTREMELY bicycle friendly, which has made it EXTREMELY vehicle UNfriendly. Motor bikes whip in and out of lanes, but cars sit still. It took us almost 2 hours to go 17 miles.

Once we got to the hotel, our room was ready!!!! We went upstairs, cleaned up, and took a pretty solid nap for the next four hours or so!

As I have said, we are not very good “travelers.” We struggle with what to do without someone telling us, but we have friends who have been in Paris MANY times. And we definitely know our way around a bar… (that’s actually one of the reasons we go with the cruise lines we do- we want all of our drinks included.)

So, off to Willi’s we went. The streets of Paris were what I had always seen in movies. Flower shops, bakeries, statues galore… and SO many people.

The wine list at our first stop was great. With all the food we had eaten over the last 24 hours, we only ordered a “few bites” before we went to our NEXT bar- the iconic Harry’s New York bar where you are supposed to go find your college pennant. I was looking all over for mine, but in a crazy coincidence, I was actually sitting right beneath the Baylor pennant and didn’t even see it until the Bear pointed it out to me! After a cocktail there, we ventured back to the hotel for – you guessed it: another cocktail (or two) in the hotel bar before going back to the room for the night.

I have found that I have the most trouble the morning AFTER a long flight. Jet lag doesn’t hit me until later, and it affects EVERY part of me. I sweat, I shake, I’m disoriented. It’s a mess. (I’m guessing the cocktails didn’t help), BUT our transfer didn’t come to take us to the ship until 3 PM, so there was no way I wanted to waste a day. We looked at the map and saw that the Louvre was not far away.

Confession: I had no interest in going INSIDE the Louvre. I do like museums – history museums, science museums… BUT I don’t enjoy art museums. I know… I know… No culture right? But, to me, it makes no difference whether I am looking at the art on a computer or a print of the art, or the REAL thing… I just don’t care that much. I still wanted to SEE the Louvre, however. So, off we went. In the “okay, some things can be kept private, Tamara” part of this blog- we got about a mile away from the hotel, and my body decided it needed to evacuate everything I had put in it for the last 24 hours. I had the SAME thing happen to me on a walking tour in Porto- also the morning after our flight. I got to find out the hard way that Parisians REALLY don’t care if you’re having an emergency in Paris. I walked into a hotel, and NO WAY was the hostess at the café going to let me use their restroom. I told her we would take a seat and would buy food. She said they didn’t have any reservations available. I told her it was an emergency. She told me there was another café a block up the street… I did make it: BARELY. And why is it that every restroom in Europe is either at the TOP of a long windy staircase or in a basement? We did have to buy a soft drink and water to use that restroom, but it was worth it. (Side note: I am fat. I’m not curvy or thick. I’m fat. France was VERY hot and crowded while we were there. On more than one occasion, people oinked/snorted at me on the street in Paris. It is what it is. I’m just throwing that out there in case anyone who is self-conscious happens to be reading this and would be very bothered. I’m self conscious, but I’m not very bothered. I ignored it, but it stung. )

We continued our walk across the street through Tuileries Garden to the Lourvre. We saw the very cool little Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel… and when I spun around, I realized I got my first view of the Eiffel Tower!

We went back to the hotel after that to cool off for a little bit. (I am INCREDIBLY glad I brought my neck fan. I was thinking I wouldn’t need it, but Europe was under a heat dome while we were there, and the streets were SO stuffy. Plus, the air circulation in those old buildings is so bad!) Then, we took one last excursion to the truffle shop and bought some truffles there – and some chocolate at another shop we passed- to take home.

Back at the hotel, the groups were starting to gather for the Tauck transfer. It was pretty easy to tell us apart from the people there for the Paris air show. Paris is a VERY chic city, and one group of people were wearing suits that cost far more than my entire wardrobe. They were young, fit, and looked rich. We Tauck people ranged in age from a few teenagers to people in their late 80s. I would say that the median age were likely in their early 70s. (I’m 52, the Bear is 49). This particular cruise of 90 people were all from the US. We all looked like we were prepared to be led around cities.

Two large luxury busses came to pick us up and we went through Paris for about a 20 minute ride that took us only about three miles.

I was glad the river was at a level where we were close to the city center at Port de Javel bas, because I had heard when it’s too high, the port is a long way away.

So… an entire blog finished, and we had yet to board the Sapphire! I’ll pick up there for part Deux!