Day 15 - Monday 8th May

It was an early start today because the main tour was to leave at 8:15am. So we had set the alarm for 6:30am. Suzy had organised for her breakfast to be delivered to the room at 7am.

The weather was still cool but at least it was bright and sunny. The temperature when we woke was 9C and they are forecasting a top of 20C.

Almost everyone was going on the brandy tour. This would involve travelling to the town of Cognac followed by a visit to Remy Martin.

Originally we were both booked to go on the brandy tour but I changed my mind last night. In her briefing last evening, Tania had told us that the trip would involve almost two hours in the bus in each direction and we wouldn't be back until 5pm. This didn't appeal to me.

Instead I went on the walking tour of Bourg from 10am to noon. It seems that quite a few other people had also opted out of the trip to Cognac because, instead of the original 12 people they'd expected, there were more than 20 who came on the walking tour.

As we were leaving on the tour, almost the entire crew were helping with loading supplies onto the ship, They formed a kind of human chain or conveyor belt all the way from the truck on the shore down the gangplank onto the ship and down the stairs to the lower level of the ship. Everyone was handing one box at a time to the next person. This looked like a great team effort.

Ester, our tour guide, escorted us through the town and up the hill. One of the first stops was the wash house. This is a large stone structure with a timber-framed roof.

Inside there are two very large wash basins that local residents once used for washing, rinsing and drying the clothes. It has a natural spring supplying fresh water and drains to the river.

The streets were quaint along the way and the view at the top of the hill was well worth the effort of climbing the hill. She took us to the church and then on to the citadel which is a large impressive building with a courtyard and gardens,

The final destination on the tour was the carriage works museum. Here they displayed a variety of horse-drawn carriages.

At the end of the museum there was a cavalry tunnel that used to lead all the way down to the river. It was cut short in WWII when they built petrol storage tanks under the courtyard.

Almost all of the tour group decided to make their own way back to the ship. It was an ideal way to take in the atmosphere of this pretty town even though it was a public holiday again today. This time it was VE Day celebrating victory in Europe against the Germans in WWII.

At the end of the street, I reached a plaza and park area where they were conducting a ceremony for VE Day. I'd arrived by accident at exactly the right time because the ceremony was just starting.

There was an honour guard, two people carrying military flags, several uniformed men and a man in a suit who read an address to the small crowd of local residents.

A few others from our river cruise had found the ceremony too. I walked around the park taking photos of the ceremony from every angle. There was a reef-laying ceremony , one-minute's silence and the French national anthem.

It was an impressive and moving ceremony. A real bonus experience that I hadn't expected. I'd missed Anzac Day last Tuesday because we were in Paris and so this was a fitting substitute.

One of the flag-bearers was an old man with an impressive collection of medals on his chest.

I found out later that the honour guard was provided by the local voluntary fire brigade. The uniformed people were from the metropolitan police and the man in the suit was the mayor.

After the ceremony, the participants and the audience walked down the street to the town hall where the volunteer fire crew formed a guard of honour for the dignitaries as they entered the town hall.

After the guard of honour dispersed, I walked up to one of the firemen to ask him some questions. He didn't speak English but he found someone in their group who did. He was very helpful in explaining who they were.

On the way back to the ship, I walked past several restaurants that had opened for lunch. Perhaps they were hoping that us tourists would be going there for lunch. I was back at the boat by about 12:15pm and went down to the dining room for lunch at about 12:30pm.

At my table, there were two Australian couples. One couple, Clive and Brenda, told me they had moved from Sydney to Narooma when they'd retired and they now helped out part time with the local volunteer maritime rescue group.

In the afternoon, sailing boats went past our ship. Apparently they regularly have sailing boat races on the river. It was a tranquil scene except for a few jet skis that were having fun on the river.

Suzy got back from her brandy excursion at about 5:30pm. It was a long day but she had enjoyed it - especially the brandy tasting and the lunch.

At 6:15pm, Tania gave us all a talk in the lounge area about the processes for disembarking on Wednesday morning.

It seems to be quite a difficult logistics exercise with people leaving at different times and going to different destinations - some to the airport, railway station or hotels. The earliest departures will be at 3:45am. Tania then gave us her normal talk about tomorrows activities.

Although the cruise doesn't finish until Wednesday, they held the departure dinner tonight so that people leaving early on Wednesday morning won't have a late night tomorrow night.

Before dinner, Milenko introduced all of the staff so we could applaud them and thank them for looking after us on the cruise.

At our table for dinner, the four other people were all from Perth. I had Chateaubriand for my main course. It was delicious.

Suzy was tired and so we didn't stay for the music and dancing after dinner.