![]() Open seating means I can dine with friends or meet someone new every day while working through a five-course menu that also changes daily with tempting regional choices.ĭining is certainly a highlight with beer and wine plus soft drinks served with lunch and dinner. I am feeling very ‘at home’ and ready for an early dinner in the elegant restaurant with floor-length windows on either side. The resident pianist starts to play and suddenly it is gin o’clock. I skip up the gangway into the ship’s two-deck atrium, welcomed by the ever-friendly crew, and grab a book from the library corner and coffee from the drinks station next to the Viking Lounge where I end up sharing the day’s adventures with fellow travellers. On return to the ship, I spot a Monoprix supermarket opposite Viking Radgrid’s mooring which requires a detour to buy presents to take home – wine, sweets, children’s clothes and a pair of Havaianas flip-flops for nine euros. It’s a satisfying morning, just 12 miles west of central Paris. No matter, ‘Le Shopping’ goes well and there’s time for coffee back at Charles de Gaulle Square where I note, for another time, Saint-Germain-des-Prés station (Paris Metro Line 4). Shame they are not playing ball on my day in town and I learn that while the squad play and train locally most of the top footballers tend to live in the swanky 16 th Arrondissement. ![]() PSG is France’s richest and most successful team with stars including Kylian Mbappe, Lionel Messi and Neymah. On the subject of famous names, I am also secretly looking out for Paris St Germain (PSG) footballers, wives and girlfriends. Do stop for a Debussy cake (hazelnut biscuit, praline mousse, rum-soaked raisins and chocolate icing) named after the composer who was born in the opposite property, no 38, which is now the tourist office. While in the appropriately named Rue au Pain is the patisserie Grandin. The grand building, recently renovated and gleaming in the sunshine, is now home to the National Archaeology Museum with notable displays which include a stunning 27-panel Roman mosaic pavement that was discovered along the banks of the Rhone in 1967.Ĭontinuing my slow lane mission, I cross Charles de Gaulle Square into the old town of St Germain-en-Laye, with narrow winding streets that are pleasingly crammed with small, classy but affordable boutiques. Viking Radgrid, built specifically for the Seine, sails on to Le Pecq, another new mooring for me, and I walk up through tree-lined avenues to Chateau Saint Germain-en-Laye, where the Sun King, Louis XIV, was born. ![]() I stop to chat to a gardener pruning the heritage pear trees and while his English is as poor as my French, we laugh about his work being cut out to look after 700 fruit trees in the vegetable garden that has been organic since 2007 and classified as a ‘ Jardin Remarquable’. On the way back to the ship, I wander through the garden that is laid out in its original 18th century symmetrical design, made up of large squares, each with eight triangles – a classic show of human power over nature. ![]()
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