Le Havre, France...

After a delay with docking with we were off the ship to meet our Guide Igor. Todays’ adventure was a tour to Paris. Without traffic backups It was more than a two-hour drive from Le Havre to Paris. After arriving into Paris, we met up with a taxi and switched vehicles. Once in Paris our first drive-by was the Arc of Triumph and the Champs Élysées, then a closeup view of Eiffel Tower. We asked to stop further back from the Eiffel Tower to get a better photo. That’s when things started to come apart when he refused, just wasn’t possible!!! The Eiffel Tower was built in 1889 by Gustav Eiffel to celebrate the French Revolution and an engineering accomplishment. The tower is still owned by the Eiffel Corporation and the tallest building in Paris. The Eiffel Tower is arguably the most enduring symbol of France. We circled around the Louvre and made a stop at Notre Dame Cathedral. The cathedral is not operational and still undergoing renovations from the devastating fire of April 2019. The next drive-by was the Panteon of Paris and the Sorbonne University. We returned to the Louvre area had our lunch in an outdoor cafe across from the Louvre. Following lunch, we did a quick walk around the Louvre’s exterior grounds. Because our tour did not meet the expectations we were given upon booking, we requested the driver to cut our touring short and return us to Le Havre.  For me it was horrible, just riding around in a vehicle with poor visibility for photography, with very few legitimate photo stops was a complete waste of time.  I took a total of 10 photos in Paris with my Nikon Mirrorless camera.  Normally, it would be at least 400-500.   Our trip was a panoramic drive-by tour and definitely not what we had planned. Our guide was the classic stereotype Parisian. Before we even started our day touring in Paris he was on his arrogant horse when we asked about the stops for photos. He told us he had no control over the traffic in Paris, he was tired, and we were putting added pressure on him for the photo stop. It must be noted these were stops were previously agreed upon in our pre arrival correspondence…The biggest axe to fall was when he said I quit and said he would leave us in Paris and we could make our way back to the ship on our own. Further, he told us we were lucky we had booked so far in advance as his prices had doubled for this tour. After this meltdown, we received a very cool reception from our guide. With the fear of God in us that we would be stranded in Paris we kept our mouths shut and played his game. His behavior was appalling and certainly not in line with any previous tours or guides we have had over the years with this company. Let’s say it was not our best day touring… My photos for the day are just terrible but, it’s all I have.  The weather was beautiful, and the lunch was tasty. Looking so forward to our day tomorrow in Dover England.