As the ship was going to be docked in Rouen and stay for two days, we had organised an overnight trip to Paris. There were two objectives – do a dinner tour on a double decker bus that we had booked and do some clothes shopping.

We stayed at the Intercontinental Hotel just off the Champs Elysees. The hotel was small and staff very attentive. We had a room with a terrace with the idea that we would sit out and enjoy the atmosphere but sadly it was either rainy or too cold when we wanted to use it.

The room had very high ceilings and there was a very large mural on the ceiling.

We booked an evening activity called Bustronome – a gastronomic dinner on board a double decker bus that tours around the sights of Paris while you are dining. see https://www.bustronome.com/en/paris/

The kitchen was downstairs and the upper deck was restaurant seating with a glass roof allowing a good view as we drove around.

The experience was truly gastronomic and we were able to get a very quick once over lightly of the main Paris highlights.

The descriptions on the menu do not do the dishes justice – the meal was an amazing titillation of our taste buds.

The strawberry desert had a runny strawberry syrup centre which oozed out when I cut into it. Unfortunately my cut for the photo wasn’t deep enough to fully expose it. Some customers didn’t want their desert – their loss because it was amazing!

The next morning we decided to go full calorie and just have a sample of things from a boulangerie that was across the road from the hotel. Stuffed with apple, currants and sultanas and chocolate, they were amazing.

Some photos of our drive around, taken through the bus windows.

We did a walk around on the second day and stumbled across a local market which was fascinating and quite extensive.