We have embarked on a river cruise to Normandy, France, sailing round-trip from Paris on the Seine. From the moment we set foot on the Uniworld SS Joie de Vivre, we knew we’d made the right decision. The ship is beautifully appointed with French décor and the food and beverage service embraces the best of locally sourced wines and foods. The staff is wonderful – calm, organized, competent, and thorough.

For the next few posts, I will share a little info about our ports of call and some pictures of this wonderfully picturesque, part of the world.

First Stop: La Roche-Guyon

We woke up to a foggy morning, with a chill in the air, and a swan floating around outside our cabin. A very short walk led us to the Château de La Roche-Guyon and its imposing position over the Seine. Classified as a Historic Monument, the keep and castle were built and added to for ten centuries. From the Middle Ages through the 18th century, various building styles and materials have created the impressive structure seen today. At this point, family has returned and since the pandemic, the current Duke and his young family have inhabited the second floor of the Château.  

Rows of pear and apple trees are augmented by flower and vegetable gardens providing a deceptively tranquil setting for what would become a center of the Nazi occupation of France during World War II. This area of France was occupied more than any other, and the castle was taken over as a command center – housing none other than the Desert Fox, General Rommel, for six months. 

Built right into the area’s chalk cliffs, the Château’s unique bunkers were expanded and used as a vital Nazi operations center, and housed facilities for radio broadcasts spewing propaganda. We needed to use the flashlights on our cellphones as we entered the dark, cold bunkers.  They are always 52 degrees, and if you touched a wall, you would be coated with chalk dust. I found it very claustrophobic. Currently, the castle features an exhibition about the Monument Men (now of movie fame) who rescued stolen artworks the Germans hid in salt caves.

We climbed steep stairs to the largest dovecote I’ve ever seen. Thankfully now empty, with over 1,000 cubbyholes, it could hold more than 2,000 doves (or pigeons). Once a sign of affluence, the birds were used for food, feathers, and even the sale of their droppings (imagine that job).

The day had become sunny and we were back on the river.

The famous Esther tapestries (two of which are shown above) were made for the Château by the same artisans used for Versailles. In private hands for years, the French government bought them from designer Karl Lagerfeld and returned them to their original home. The expansive room they call home was used by Rommel as his imposing office.

The original fortified Castle Keep at the top of the chalk cliff.