This morning we went on the included Viking tour of the historic LeMarais district. It was not the typical large bus tour with brief stops but was a 2 hour walking tour full of history. Very enjoyable. They would have brought us back to the hotel but we and another couple decided to stay downtown since it was just too nice a day. The other couple was going to meet friends for lunch. We took an hour and a half walk past Notre Dame, the Louvre and along the Seine b...

When we got thru customs, Viking had a kiosk set up to welcome their customers. We introduced ourselves and they immediately called over our driver to take us to the hotel. We had expected some kind of a shuttle van. It was just us, the driver and a huge Mercedes sedan to the hotel. We got to the hotel about 1:30 and after checking in and resting for a while, we headed out to explore the area. The 1st stop was at a sidewalk cafe for some coffee (Bonnie) and a gla...

We got a very good deal on airfare through Viking but it only could be used if we went from one of their "gateway" cities, which in our case was San Francisco. We picked up a rental car the day before in Carson City. We originally had a great flight booked which was a non stop from San Francisco to Paris, leaving at 4:00PM on July 30 and getting into Paris at 11:35AM on July 31 (today). Then there was a strike of flight crew workers at Air France. Viking, fearing...