Parisian Royal Holiday

Generations Excursion: A day chock full of art and history This excursion is only available on sailings that belong to the Generations program. Château La Roche-Guyon From cave dwelling to fortress to castle to palace: This is the history of Château La Roche- Guyon (the Rock of Guy), which takes its name from its medieval lords (traditionally named Guy) and its location, a limestone outcropping—a rock—above the Seine. Medieval knights kept watch for marauding Vikings from the tower high atop the hill and later defended the double wall around a 13th-century manor house; successive lords added to the buildings over the centuries, so you can see not just troglodyte chapels but Renaissance rooms where kings Francis I and Henry II were entertained (and, legend says, Henry IV pursued a lovely chatelaine without success) and handsome 18th-century state apartments. Enlightenment thinkers met with the Duchess d’Enville, who owned the château before the revolution and who had the huge kitchen garden laid out according to Enlightenment principles. You might think, as you walk through the elegantly designed garden and beautifully paneled rooms (mostly without furniture these days, so you can appreciate the Gobelins tapestries without distraction) that the residence’s military function was in the far distant past, but Rommel made his headquarters here during WWII, precisely because the ancient fortifications and caves were so secure. Exclusive guided “Let’s Go” Château La Roche-Guyon fortress tower climb The donjon—the keep—guarding the hilltop is the oldest part of the château. Erected in the 12th-century, it was linked to the 13th-century castle by a passageway carved into the limestone cliff. Climb the 279 steps chipped by hand into the stone so many centuries ago: The stairway is steep and the steps irregular, worn down in some places by the many feet that have clambered up and down them over the past 800 years. When you reach the top, you’ll be rewarded with an amazing view of the village— considered one of the most beautiful in France—far below and the lovely, now-peaceful valley spreading out into the distance. You also get a clear picture of the formal 17th-century layout of the kitchen garden, its squares divided into triangles and crossed with diagonal paths. Château de Bizy concert The Seine-side gates of an estate long linked to kings open for you this evening. A fairyland of lights illuminate a tree-lined lane through grounds dotted with trees planted by Louis-Philippe, the last king of France, at Château de Bizy, which once belonged to the duke of Penthièvre (the son of Louis XIV and Madame de Montespan). As you reach the house, light streams from the tall windows of the neoclassical façade, welcoming you indoors. Though France has no king now, the house still belongs to descendants of Napoleon’s brothers, who maintain its opulent rooms and regal heritage. Take your seat in the marble-columned drawing room hung with tapestries for a delightful concert. Following the concert, you’ll catch a glimpse of the floodlit stable yard (modeled on Versailles’ stables and all that remains of the original 17th-century palace). Generations Excursion: A day chock full of art and history The ship docks right at the gates of Chateau la Roche-Guyon, a castle with a history spanning more than a thousand years. Your first look at the castle might not be too different from Monet’s when he painted a view of it in 1881. But the great impressionist isn’t the only artist to find inspiration there. It has inspired artists of all kinds for centuries, starting with a 17th-century garden designer who laid out a huge and elegant vegetable garden that stretches from the banks of the Seine to the palace. Would you believe that a garden can be beautiful even without green leaves and flowers? Because not much grows here in winter, you can see how artfully it is designed: four great squares are divided diagonally, creating an amazing pattern of triangles. Explore the paths and angles of the garden, then check out the stables, the thousand-year-old dovecotes dug into the chalky stone behind the castle, and look at the colorful, beautifully stitched Gobelins tapestries in the reception halls. Back on the ship, a painting class lets you apply some of the sights you saw at the castle as you learn the rules of drawing and perspective. This excursion is only available on sailings that belong to the Generations program. A special Captain’s Welcome Reception and Dinner will be prepared for you this eve

Generations Excursion: Venture inside a giant clock This excursion is only available on sailings that belong to the Generations program. Rouen walking discovery tour with Christmas Market and cathedral choir recital Victor Hugo called Rouen the city with 100 bell towers— and easily the most famous of those towers is the one rising above Notre Dame Cathedral, which, at one point, was the tallest building in the world. Begun some 800 years ago, the cathedral acquired a multitude of spires and styles as it was renovated in different eras. When you leave the cathedral square, you’ll walk under the arch housing an ornate Renaissance clock and begin your exploration of the Old Town. The cobblestone alleyways are lined with tall half-timbered houses, characteristic of the region, often with shops on the ground floor and apartments above—it may be a historic district, but it is also a living one. As you enter the Old Market Square, you’ll spot a bronze cross marking the spot where the English burned Joan of Arc at the stake. You may explore the Christmas market, which fills the square outside the cathedral, on your own. The scent of cider, crepes and roasting chestnuts drifts through the crisp air as you wander among the stalls, where you’ll find the classic Nativity figures of Provence (called santons) and hundreds of specialty arts and crafts from all over France. Step inside the magnificent cathedral, where soaring columns will lead your eye upward to the graceful arches overhead. Lining one side are statues of the Apostles; you can identify them by the symbols they hold—St. Peter, for instance, carries the keys to heaven—and the 13th-century stained-glass windows, which survived Allied bombing in 1944, gild the interior with a soft glow. Richard the Lionheart’s heart is entombed here, a reminder of how closely Normandy and England’s political fates were entwined for many centuries. Pause to admire the charming Christmas crèche before taking a seat in a pew. You are in for a treat: The cathedral’s St. Evode choir school is extraordinary, and the church’s marvelous acoustics will let you hear this ethereal liturgical music as it is meant to be heard. Teatime at La Couronne Follow in Julia Child’s footsteps to La Couronne—which calls itself the oldest auberge in France—on Rouen’s old market square, and experience one of the joys of Norman cooking: the classic tarte Tatin. La Couronne is the place where the renowned chef had her very first meal in France, an epicurean experience that changed the course of her life by inspiring a great passion for French cuisine and culinary traditions. Generations Excursion: Venture inside a giant clock Rouen’s Great Clock was set into an arch over the street around 1520. On one side you can see the single hand that shows the hours (there is no minute hand); on the other side the works are designed to show phases of the moon and other astronomical phenomenon. This clock face is 500 years old but the original clock is actually a century older than the Renaissance archway. Travelers of all ages can climb the stairs of the clock tower—all four floors of it—to see the original clock mechanism (it ran without stopping, through war after war, from the 14th century until 1928, when it finally needed to be repaired): it’s one floor above the clock face. The youngest travelers get to experience an Alice in Wonderland-themed tour—but here Alice is lost in time rather than Wonderland, and characters that kids know from Alice movies and books control time. It’s a fun way to learn about the passage of time in a tower that has seen centuries of it. Teens and tweens explore the inner workings of the clock–the cogs, pulleys and dials that have turned the hand of the clocks for five million hours—and explore the adjacent bell tower. The clock was originally located in the tower; it moved to the arch during the Renaissance. It contains the first city bells allowed to ring the hours (before that, only churches were allowed to have bells in Rouen) and the living quarters for the clock “governor,” who was responsible for making sure the clock stayed in good working order. At the top of the tower, you can get a good look at the cathedral’s spectacular spires. This excursion is only available on sailings that belong to the Generations program.

In these chambers and antechambers, parlors and boudoirs, you’ll find lush silk draperies, exquisite marquetry tables, gilded beds, Aubusson carpets and porcelain ornaments that reveal the elegance of the 18th-century nobility’s lifestyle, as well as the extravagance that helped fuel the rage leading to the revolution. Climb the great staircase and enter the jaw-dropping Hall of Mirrors, where the absolute ruler of France held court for the ambassadors of Siam, Persia and the Ottoman Empire, as well as all the great seigneurs of France. Ladies intrigued behind their fans, plots were hatched and careers were made and destroyed beneath the sparkling chandeliers here. Following lunch, visit Marie Antoinette’s Petit Trianon, the charming house and garden—originally built for Louis XV’s mistress Madame de Pompadour—where the queen escaped the formality of court life and relaxed with her closest friends. Take some time to admire the vast formal gardens, which the Sun King loved and on which he lavished fortunes. With its Grand Canal, hundreds of fountains, manicured parterres and thousands of trees, it remains one of the world’s great gardens. Generations Excursion: Play in Versailles’ royal gardens Louis XV was just five years old when he became the king of France. He lived here in Versailles, playing in the splendid gardens his great-grandfather, Louis XIV, created. What was it like, being a little boy and the absolute ruler of a great nation at the same time? Everything in these lavish grounds was designed to emphasize the grandeur and importance of the king. The sculptures, fountains, pools and hedges all have symbolic importance. You might have more fun here as you explore the gardens and learn about the rigid rules that governed court life than the princes and princesses who once lived here. Louis XIV’s favorite garden designer, Andre Le Notre, spent 11 years creating the Grand Canal, a mile-long sheet of water where naval battles were reenacted in miniature. You can dip an oar into the canal with a rented rowboat or bicycle around the grounds—there are miles and miles of tree-lined paths to ride along. This excursion is only available on sailings that belong to the Generations program.

Featured Excursion: Exclusive “Do as the Locals Do” walking tour of the Île de la Cité and Latin Quarter Generations Excursion: Ride the great Ferris wheel This excursion is only available on sailings that belong to the Generations program. Exclusive “Do as the Locals Do” walking tour of the Île de la Cité and Latin Quarter Take the Metro, just as the locals do, to the Île de la Cité and the great cathedral, Notre Dame. Henry IV said that Paris was worth a Mass when he converted to Catholicism—and he made that conversion of official here, in the center of Paris. In fact, Notre Dame is of officially the center of France; facing its main entrance is Kilometer Zero, the location from which distances in France (including those of the French national highways) are traditionally measured. A local expert in the history and architecture of this magnificent cathedral is your guide as you explore both the inside and outside. Begun in the 12th-century and finished about 200 years later, Notre Dame is considered one of the finest examples of French Gothic architecture in Europe. After you’ve admired Notre Dame’s stained glass, flying buttresses and idiosyncratic gargoyles—not to mention the huge Christmas tree and beautiful Nativity scene—you’ll cross the Seine to the Left Bank and the Latin Quarter. Wander through the narrow streets where for centuries artists, writers, philosophers and the Sorbonne’s students have lived and worked, argued politics, painted, sipped absinthe and lived the bohemian lifestyle for which the district is famous. Matisse, Picasso, Rimbaud and Sartre, as well as American writers Hemingway and Fitzgerald, are just a few of the notables who made this district home. Climb the Montagne Sainte-Geneviève to the Panthéon, a mausoleum containing the remains of numerous distinguished French citizens. Nearby is the Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève, which is often full of students from La Sorbonne and other nearby universities. Take some time to meander through the area’s little squares, perusing the shop windows and perhaps warming up with a drink at a typical café. Generations Excursion: Ride the great Ferris wheel Here’s a day of seasonal treats! The Grande Roue—the great wheel—is only erected at Christmastime in Paris. It stands on the Champs Elysées, a huge circular punctuation mark for the Christmas market there, and it offers fantastic views of the city’s landmarks. The Christmas market takes its cues from the oldest markets in France—those in Alsace—so you have a chance to taste some of the traditional treats of that region: yummy cookies known as bredele, and perhaps a crepe or waffle. This excursion is only available on sailings that belong to the Generations program.

Exclusive reception at Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte Louis XIV first encountered the work of Louis Le Vau, Charles Le Brun and Andre Le Notre at Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte, the palatial estate created by his finance minister, Nicolas Fouquet. He admired it greatly—so greatly that after he had Fouquet imprisoned, he took what he liked from the estate and recruited the architect, the painter and the landscape designer to turn Versailles, his modest hunting lodge, into the spectacular palace it is now. Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte has been exquisitely restored, and, at this time of year, it is transformed into a fairyland: Roaring fires blaze in marble replaces; lavishly decorated Christmas trees add festive color to the stately rooms—every salon looks fit to receive the Sun King once again. Tour the splendid rooms and then gather in the grand salon, with its magnificent Christmas tree, for an exclusive reception. Paris “Illuminations” tour Paris calls upon her most talented lighting designers to create spectacular holiday illuminations throughout the city in an event called “Paris Lights up Paris.” This evening, you’ll take a scenic drive past some of the capital’s most festive displays. Traveling along the Right Bank, you will pass a number of the 37 bridges that dress up the Seine in a dazzling array, from the oldest, the Pont Neuf, decorated with grotesque figures, to the most stunning, the single-arched Pont Alexandre III, with its elegantly sculpted art nouveau nymphs, winged horses and lamps. After turning around the pink granite obelisk and the gilded fountains at Place de la Concorde, the famously fashionable Rue de Rivoli will come into view. Then you’ll see the two most famous theaters in Paris at each end of the majestic Boulevard de l’Opéra: the Comédie-Française (French National Theater), where the French classical repertoire is performed, at the south end, and, at the north, the Palais Garnier, which hosts the National Opera and Ballet companies. The sophisticated Place Vendôme is distinguished by the bronze-wrapped Vendôme Column, topped by a statue of Napoleon as a Roman emperor, and by posh designer salons, five-star hotels and fine jewelers. Tonight the enchanted square will unveil illuminations of shimmering crystal effects that match the precious bejeweled ornaments displayed in the shop windows. Your illumination tour will come to an end at the Place du Trocadéro, where you’ll have a view of the city’s signature landmark, the Eiffel Tower, and its delightful, dynamic light show.

Walking discovery tour to the Paris Opera and Boulevard Haussmann Step inside one of the city’s most lavish institutions, the Opéra de Paris Garnier, also known as Palais Garnier. And indeed it is a palace, a palace dedicated to the performing arts. Work on this extravagant opera house began in 1865 and continued for 15 trouble-filled years, which included the discovery of an underground lake beneath the construction site. (It’s still there, incidentally—connected to an enormous cistern where carp swim and rescue divers train.) Despite the many difficulties, the result is dazzling: With chandeliers hanging from the mosaic ceiling, red-velvet wall coverings and draperies, gold leaf, cherubs and marble friezes, it is a glorious tribute to Second Empire sumptuousness. It is named, fittingly, for the man who designed this “Versailles for everyone,” Charles Garnier, an unknown architect who won a competition to build a new opera house. Your next stops are equally colorful. Le Printemps and Les Galeries Lafayette, two splendid department stores on Boulevard Haussmann, not far from the opera house, celebrate the season with spectacular window displays. Often created by top fashion designers, the displays—charming, over-the-top, whimsical and amazing—attract large, appreciative crowds. Drift from window to window, admiring them, and then spend some time shopping in the area. Exclusive guided “Let’s Go” Left Bank bicycle ride The Seine’s quays may be protected by UNESCO for their cultural importance and significance in the development of Paris, but they are also the scene of a host of fun outdoor activities: games for kids and grown-ups, a climbing wall, a running track, yoga classes—and an inviting bike path. Join a local guide to pedal along the Left Bank, crossing the bridges that link historic Île de la Cite and Île Saint-Louis and getting a close look at the heart of the city’s origins. Bike to the Esplanade des Invalides (Napoleon’s tomb is one of the monuments here) and along the Quay d’Orsay to the Champs de Mars, one of Paris’s largest green spaces . . . which just happens to have one of the best views of the Eiffel Tower in the city. It’s a fun way to take part in the life of the city while also getting some exercise. Generations Excursion: Hunt for treasures at the Louvre You’ll need a camera for today’s adventure, which starts under the Louvre Museum’s glass pyramid. There you’ll join up with a team and receive your map of the museum (it’s huge) highlighted with a list of treasures—artworks that fit the theme of beauty and the beast—to find. You’re going to have just two hours to locate as many as possible and snap photos of your team in front of the designated beauty or beast. The clues can be sneaky, so you’ll need skill, strategy, teamwork and maybe a little luck to win. Ready, set, go! This excursion is only available on sailings that belong to the Generations program. This evening, a special Captain’s Farewell Reception and Gala Dinner will be prepared for you.