ALSACE AND LORRAINE

Cruise to the heart of Alsace-Lorraine, where French and German culture entwine to create one of France’s most bewitching regions. Visit Colmar and Strasbourg, enjoy wine tasting, and have a look at crystal-making. Spend time in picturesque villages and around a gourmet dining table.

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LORRAINE ITINERARIES
Cruise to the heart of Alsace-Lorraine, where French and German culture entwine to create one of France’s most bewitching regions. Visit Colmar and Strasbourg, enjoy wine tasting, and have a look at crystal-making. Spend time in picturesque villages and around a gourmet dining table.

About Transfers----3 of our boats have a meeting point outside of Paris. They are the Litote, Lorraine, and Libellule. You have to option of purchasing our First Class Paris Transfer which includes baggage handling from Paris to the boat, or meet the group at the bargeside meeting point. Unless you will be in the barge side town for sightseeing before or after the cruise, the offered optional transfers, on those 3 boats with barge side meeting point away from Paris, are very reasonable and so convenient. You are taken from Paris to the boat in First Class and your luggage is taken care of all the way..

MEETING POINT
Gare De L'est - At 1:30pm Place du 11 Novembre 1918
(Under the awning, where the statue of Strasbourg is located )

CRUISE HIGHLIGHTS

SATURDAY
For those who have chosen our optional "Paris Transfer", meet in the lobby of Hotel Regina, 192, Rue de Rivoli, Paris 75001 (Telephone 01 42 60 31 10) at 9:30 a.m to transfer with us from Paris via first-class train service. For those doing their own transfers you will meet the group at the Strasbourg train station by the city bus stop left of the station exit at 2:30 p.m. (1430). From there you will be transferred to The Lorraine, moored in the village of Krafft. Sip an aperitif as we welcome you on board and introduce you to the crew. (Meanwhile, your luggage is quietly taken to your cabin.) Enjoy your first gourmet dinner on board this evening.

SUNDAY
Boofzheim / Krafft - After breakfast we cruise the peaceful Canal du Rhône au Rhin, a beautiful waterway that has seen little use since the building of the Grand Canal d"Alsace in the 1950's. Then we take the air conditioned coach to Colmar, renowned for its magnificent medieval and Renaissance buildings, 13th-century collegiate church, and the waterside Little Venice district. Enjoy a guided tour and free time to explore. Stop at the Unterlinden Museum, famous for its Renaissance art and home to the “Issenheim Altarpiece.” Return to the barge through the famous "Route Des Vins" a small road running at the base of the foothills of the Vosges Mountains, parallel to the Rhine and through the famous vineyards of Alsace. Pause in picturesque Medieval Riquewihr for a tasting of local vintages before returning to Lorraine, moored in Strasbourg.

MONDAY
We cast off early and cruise over breakfast and through the morning toward Strasbourg. During lunch we enter the heart of Strasbourg and pass through the commercial docks before leaving the city to the north. We pass the ultra modern buildings of the European Parliament. Here we will disembark for an afternoon guided walking tour of the principal sights of Strasbourg. The unique beauty of picturesque “petite France” riverside district is magnificent. The remarkable cathedral of Notre Dame, whose construction spread over five centuries from the Romanesque choir to the flamboyant gothic spire, is a highlight. Afterwards there is free time to explore this capital of Alsace, perhaps visit one of the museums, take advantage of the excellent shopping or just stroll through the cobbled streets of timbered houses before returning to the Lorraine at her mooring close by in the village of Waltenheim sur Zorn.

TUESDAY
This morning we begin cruising after breakfast passing several typical Alsatian villages including Hochfelden, where ancient documents prove there was a brewery as early as 870 A.D. This day provides us with excellent opportunities for walking and cycling (perhaps diverting to a bierstub to appreciate the product of a local brewery). After lunch we moor in attractive, bustling Saverne, with excellent views of an imposing 18th-century red château. A visit to the ruined 11th-century château of Haut-Barr offers magnificent views of the Plain of Alsace. Later, a delightful afternoon cruise brings us to the picturesque small town of Lutzelbourg.

WEDNESDAY
After breakfast we make a short drive to visit a unique crystal factory to see the most famous products of this area. Beautiful pieces of crystal are still individually blown and fashioned by hand. Back on board, cruise into Lorraine, where the canal follows the steep-sided valley of the River Zorn to the famous inclined plane of Arzwiller. Here, a counterbalanced barge lift hauls us up nearly 150 feet to the Marne to Rhine Canal. We then cruise through a cutting and two tunnels under the peak of the Vosges Mountains before mooring at a quiet spot near the village of Hess.

THURSDAY
Niderviller / Gondrexange - We begin a morning along the summit pound, the highest section, of the Marne to Rhine canal. This section of some thirty kilometres with no locks passes through the regional park of Lorraine, a nature reserve with numerous lakes and vast areas of woodland. The canal then begins its descent towards the plain of Lorraine through a series of locks, the first of which was built in the nineteen-fifties to replace a flight of seven of the original early nineteenth century locks and has a drop of nearly fifty feet. This afternoon we will take the coach for a drive to Sarrebourg and visit the chapel of the Cordelieres where we can see the stained glass window created by Marc Chagall. We return to Lorraine for our farewell gala dinner.

FRIDAY
Leave the Lorraine after breakfast and coach transfer to the train station in Nancy for the return to Paris. Our services end at Gare De L'Est in Paris for those on the transfers.

The above is for westbound cruises. On alternate weeks the eastbound itinerary has a meeting place of the Nancy railroad station by the exit at 1 p.m. (1300) The return will be from Strasbourg on Friday.

People who choose the optional Paris transfers meet in Paris at the same place and same time for either direction. .

Note: This is a sample itinerary: it is subject to modification in the case of unforeseen circumstances such as canal closures.

 

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