Recollections: The Sea and me (part 3 of 3)

This will be the third and last part of my posts on the sea (please see last two posts.) In my last post I finished by saying that I thought that when I retired it was time to go on a sea voyage. So when I retired in January 2008 I started in earnest to look at cruise deals. I found one on the Golden Princess going from San Pedro, California, to what they called the “Mexican Riviera.” This was for a week with stops in Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan and Cabo San Lucas. We went and my husband loved the cruise even though he had many reservations initially.

Aboard the Golden Princess in April 2008 - Click on picture to enlarge

Very often we would be on deck and were the only ones there. You can really tailor a cruise to your taste – be with other people, be active, walk or read alone. We did not have to constantly open and close suitcases, look for a restaurant or worry about transportation. Everything was provided. My husband was ready for another cruise pretty quickly. Since this first cruise in April 2008 we have been on seven more. And hopefully there will be more cruises in the months or years ahead as I am always on a lookout for a good deal. It turns out that budget wise it is more economical to go cruising.

Vintage postcard entitled “Sailing” - 1906

When the ship stops in a port we can either go on a small excursion or more often just walk around by ourselves. I study the ports in advance so we can decide what we would like to do and see.

Looking at our ship from a distance

In November 2008 there was a much reduced “special” offered by Cunard for an eleven-day cruise to the Caribbean on the Queen Mary 2 (I think because it was right after Thanksgiving.) We drove to Fort Lauderdale in Florida on Thanksgiving Day and stayed overnight in a hotel which had a special internet rate. On board the QM2 reading on deck or in the library, which is in the bow, looking ahead to the sea with just a couple of people around, is one of the most peaceful and profound experience bookworms like us can have. The interior décor of the QM2 is quite luxurious resembling the Victorian age, with art works galore. The cuisine was superb. I liked the afternoon tea in the Queens Room with tables laid with white tablecloths, silver service and china. Sometime I’ll get my photos together and write a post on this great ship.

Aboard the Queen Mary 2 - click on collage to enlarge, then click on each picture

The QM2 stopped in Curaçao, Netherland Antilles, and the islands of Grenada, Barbados, St Lucia, St Kitts, St Thomas in the US Virgin Islands and also 3 days at sea – which for me were a real treat. I spent many weeks researching each port and found some local excursions, more reasonable than what was offered by the QM2. For example I had read that Brimstone Hill Fortress National Park in St. Kitts is a UNESCO World Heritage Site with the best preserved historical fortifications in the Americas. I booked a trip there with a small local tour company. We were 6 people. Once at the fort we were left alone and told to meet back in 3 hours. The place was quasi deserted – no tourists. The tourists were shopping, on long excursions or buying assorted souvenirs far away from us. It was heavenly. My husband went to the top of the fort and I just walked around, all alone taking pictures. This was a day never to be forgotten. I’ll write a post on this someday. The sense of peace, of history all around me was extraordinary.

Brimstone Hill Fortress, St Kitts (built between 1690 and 1790) - click on collage then click again on each photo

Apart from the cruises we still manage little trips, like one to St Pierre et Miquelon, the not well-known French islands in North America, off the coast of Newfoundland (see my first post on this trip here where my heading picture is of the ferry.) We also took an old riverboat on the Savannah River last September and, on a trip to New York City, the ferry to Staten Island.

Staten Island Ferry in New York City and riverboat on Savannah River, Georgia

At the end of May 2009 we went to Alaska, first traveling on land and then back to Vancouver, Canada by sea on the ship the Island Princess. This was such a beautiful voyage. I wrote three posts about it so far (the first one is here on Anchorage, then here on Mount McKinley and the last one here on Denali National Park and will write several more. The Princess cruise line had sent me a special rate in early January 2009 which included the round trip by air to Alaska from Seattle, then 3 days in a lodge, going to Denali National Park, returning to the port by train then seven days down the coast. I could not have organized this trip for less, actually it would have cost quite a lot more.

on board the Island Princess in Alaska, June 2009

Coincidentally as I was looking at my pictures for this post, I found a photo that showed that while we were on the Island Princess we had passed the Norwegian Sun – the very ship we took last month to go to Central America.

Passing by the Norwegian Sun in Alaska, June 2009

During my research in early 2009 I had found out that the Norwegian Cruise Line had sold their “classic” (read “older”) ship "the Majesty" to Greece. This ship was making his last cruise out of Philadelphia in September. AirTran airlines had a special sale for flights from Atlanta to Philadelphia for about $118 each. This was an eleven-day cruise starting in September 2009 going to New England and the Maritimes of Canada. The ship stopped in St John, New Brunswick, in Sydney, Cape Breton Island, in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in Portland, Maine plus 4 days at sea. The scenery was superb. Again, should I have organized such a trip on my own we would not have been able to afford it.

Aboard the Majesty in Canada, September 2009

Earlier when we had returned from our trip to Alaska I saw a great offer on the Web (for US citizens only.) We were going to France in the fall anyway and the MSC, an Italian cruise line, was offering a seven-day cruise on the Mediterranean. You could choose the port of departure. We took a train from Paris to Marseille in late October 2009 and boarded the Splendida two days later (so we could enjoy Marseille a bit.) The ship stopped in Barcelona, Spain, in Tunis, Tunisia, in Messina, Sicily, in Rome and Genoa, Italy before returning to Marseille. The ship was brand new having been "baptized" in July 2009. It was a very large ship but we were often quite alone. Many children were on the ship but one could not tell they were even there.

Aboard the Splendida off the cost of North Africa and postcard of the ship, November 2009

In January of 2010 our blogging friend from Norway, RennyBa, invited us to a “Blog Gathering.” We had enough frequent flyer miles on Delta to have one free round-trip fare and I found another one on sale on Air France (the same flight.) Being so early in the year I was able to book what is called "the most beautiful voyage" along the Norwegian Coast on the Hurtigruten Line. Their ship the Lofoten is also considered “classic” with no cinema, swimming pool and other luxuries but it is comfortable. The scenery is what is important. So last August 2010 we went on board the Lofoten in Kirkenes, a northern town close to Russia and north of the Arctic Circle (my first post on this voyage is here.) We stopped in dozen of little picturesque Norwegian ports loading, unloading merchandise and passengers. The Lofoten is not a cruise ship; it is a small cargo ship with passengers. There were about 6 US citizens only on board.

Aboard the Lofoten in Norway, August 2010 - click to enlarge pictures

Our seventh cruise ended less than a month ago. We drove to Cape Canaveral in Florida and boarded the Norwegian Sun, which we had seen on our Alaska trip last year. This was a seven-day voyage stopping in the island of Cozumel, Mexico, in Belize, in Guatemala, in Key West plus a couple of days at sea. To give you an idea this cruise, for a stateroom with view, was about $585 each, plus taxes of course, but that was less than $85 each a day for room, all meals, transportation, activities and entertainment. I search pretty hard for deals and usually find them on the Net at great discounts.

The Norwegian Sun, Cozumel Island, 15 November 2010

I am not sure where we will go next – I guess where there is a good offer and an interesting itinerary. I enjoy watching the sea but I also like to listen to the other passengers, sometimes. There was not a room really dedicated for reading on the Norwegian Sun so we went in one of the lounges where we could have a good view of the waves. Then a group of pious seniors from Indiana came in the lounge. They were a church group and started to talk about their religion on a loud speaker. My husband told me this is called “witnessing.” (This is something we did not hear on European cruise ships.) The Norwegian Sun had a large amount of passengers from Germany so much so that all the announcements were made first in English, then in German. Some of the German passengers asked a senior man from Texas sitting nearby why there were so many religious zealots in the US. We were not sure where the conversation would lead so we later moved to another part of the ship. It is rare that we cannot find a secluded area on a ship.

At sea on a deserted deck of the Norwegian Sun,14 November 2010

To conclude I’ll say that in a way I have had a privileged life. I do not mean financially, but I was able to do many of the things I cared about passionately, like being close to the sea and traveling. My mother told me when I was little that if there was something I really wished for I could always make it come true, and I did. So that this post won’t be too long again, as I write my posts in the future I’ll explain how I managed to go to … let me see now…51 countries and visited some of them many times each.

Painting by Alberto Beniscelli, Italian, 1870-1952

This is not boasting. I worked hard and had my priorities, which were my family, my profession then my interests. Here is an example – once a friend of mine working in the tourist industry asked me if I would be willing to do a job for her as a tour guide of sort, after work. It was to guide a group of French surgeons and doctors to the best Atlanta restaurants. They were here for a week attending a conference seminar. She said that they spoke very little English and wished to go to the top 5 Atlanta restaurants. I needed to select the restaurants, wear tasteful and elegant clothes, translate the menus, eat with them of course while talking about Atlanta’s history, and would be paid $100 per evening, then go home after the meals. ($100 in 1990 is about $200 now per GDP calculations.) So I did and it was much fun – intelligent conversation and good food! I had already a round trip ticket to Paris to see my mother. Delta working with Singapore Airlines was offering at the time a trip from Paris to Singapore with 2 free stops for $450. So I grabbed the offer and after visiting my mother went to Singapore and stopped in Jakarta, Indonesia (with a side trip to the island of Bali) and Bangkok, Thailand. Voila une méthode.

Painting by Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky, Russian (Armenian originally named Aivazian) 1817-1900

Now we finance our trips with our Social Security and as long as we can depend on it, we’ll be able to travel. However I have been quite worried after listening to what the government is doing lately. I wrote to my representatives to tell them about my worries. The present cuts in payroll taxes will undermine the Social Security Trust Fund, please read about it in the AARP article here and in the National Committee to Preserve Social Security here. This is quite serious.

Clouds over the Sea, also by Ivan Aivazovsky, same as above

Now that we are retired my husband and I jump and go when we find great travel offers. We are getting on in age and we never know what the future holds. I always feel that we make our own decisions by our choices; we have control of our thoughts, our acts and consequently are masters of our lives, at least in the western world. When something does not work out, we must forget the problems and try something else to achieve the goals and get satisfaction. We just need to be true to ourselves. Why wait and have regrets? Before I left Paris I worked in a music publishing company that distributed the songs of Edith Piaf, the well known singer. I saw her several times singing “Je ne regrette rien.” (I regret nothing. ) My preferred lyrics might not contain the same words, but I don’t regret anything either.

Edith Piaf singing "Non, je ne regrette rien." circa 1960 and Marion Cotillard in the movie "La Vie en Rose" (on Piaf's life.)

Note: picture on top of this post is a beach on Cozumel Island, Mexico taken 15 November 2010

Recollections: The Sea and me (part 2 of 3)

This is a continuation of my post of 4 December, 2010,when I talked about my fascination for the sea and how it started. I had decided that I would have a career on the sea. I sent a letter to the French Navy, while in high school, asking how I could best prepare myself academically to join the Navy. Their response was that I could not join for service on ship, only as a nurse in a Navy hospital, on land. I was totally devastated.

Old French Navy Poster (Join the Navy)

My father said that I should finish my studies successfully and get married. My mother said that I should save my money and travel by sea or air by myself and that I did not need the Navy. This is what I did. When I had saved enough for a passage to the USA, I left for New York on a ship. I had obtained a “green card” so I could work to afford any future trip and to return home to Paris.

Postcard of the T/S Hanseatic, the ship I took to go to New York in 1961

I’ll talk more about my coming to the USA in a future post since this one is more about the sea. I lived in San Francisco for many years where I could be near the sea. I went back to France several times and often would first stop in London then take the ferry to France. I also would go to Mers-les-Bains in Normandy with my parents for a few days.

In 1967 I was married, in San Francisco, but whenever I had a chance I would still go to the sea. Below is a ferry to cross to Catalina Island from Los Angeles, California.

photo of ferry to Catalina Island, California, with my old camera

When we moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, I would visit my French friend in New York and somehow get close to the water and look at ships.

Vintage postcard of New York harbor with ferry and ship, circa 1911

The ship touring Manhattan Island was not a long voyage, but it was still being on board a ship.

Click on picture to enlarge

When my father passed away in 1974 I tried to visit my mother at least once every other year. I would also try to go on little side trips, and often these included being close to the sea, like visiting my Armenian cousins in Egypt.

On the Nile, near Luxor, Egypt

During the summers with our little daughters we would spend some time by the sea, either in Savannah, on one of the Golden Isles of Georgia or in Florida.

On an south Atlantic Ocean beach, circa 1975

When my mother started to be ill, I would go and visit her twice a year, in the spring and the fall. Sometimes I had extra compensation time from work and would be able to also go to Paris for several days during the Christmas vacation. As a side trip once I visited my Dubai friends in December and I asked them to take me close to the sea.

By a boat in Dubai, December 1988 or 89

In the mid 1990s my husband, daughter and I went on the ferry crossing the St Lawrence River from Rivière du Loup to St. Siméon, Québec, in Canada. It was not a large ship, but it was still being on water. Later we also took the ferries going to Vancouver Island in British Columbia, from Vancouver and also from Seattle (we went to Victoria 3 different times.)

Ferry crossing the St Lawrence River (photo courtesy Great Lakes and Seaway Shipping) and my (bad) picture of the clipper ferry in Seattle going to Vancouver Island.

Another time, after visiting my mother in Paris, I took a side trip to Thailand. In the picture below I look “pleased as punch” to be riding in this smooth boat in Bangkok, Thailand.

In Thailand, 1991

Going on a ferry was also a treat. In 1996 on yet another side trip to Africa I took the ferry from Dakar to the Island of Gorée in Sénégal. Below is the picture I snapped from a restaurant, looking toward the ferry.

Photo of the ferry to the island of Gorée in Sénégal (from my old camera)

A few hours from Dakar there were more boats to be seen. The Pink Lake of Retba in Sénégal is shallow and has such a high content of salt that it appears pink.

Pink Lake in Sénégal, Africa (from my old camera)

While in Luang Prabang, Laos, my daughter and I took a small boat on the Mekong River.

Daughter on the Mekong River, Laos (taken with my old camera)

We toured the Tam Ting Caves, which means “Cave of a thousand Buddhas.” It was an extraordinary journey.

View inside the Cave of a thousand Buddhas, Laos (photo courtesy Asia Explorers)

When we visited our other daughter, in Long Beach, California, she invited my husband and I for a Father’s Day Brunch on the Queen Mary, which is birthed right there. It was an elegant meal, with many gourmet dishes.

Father’s Day on the Queen Mary in Long Beach, Ca., 2003

The following year we went back for the Christmas Day brunch and it was also very special. Touring this large ship made me so homesick for a real voyage at sea. I told my husband that when I retired we would take a cruise. He was not very enthusiastic. He feared that it would be too crowded and not much fun. Life is strange sometimes - I thought that I would have a career with the sea, and ironically I worked for 26 years for an aircraft manufacturing company. So indeed when I retired it was time to go on a sea voyage. This is getting long again, so I’ll finish in my next post.

Postcard of the Queen Mary, now birthed in Long Beach, California

The Sea Spirit

I smile o'er the wrinkled blue¬
Lo! the sea is fair,
Smooth as the flow of a maiden's hair;
And the welkin's light shines through
Into mid-sea caverns of beryl hue,
And the little waves laugh and the mermaids sing,
And the sea is a beautiful, sinuous thing!

- Lucy Maud Montgomery, Canadian, 1874-1942


Painting by Alfred Thompson Bricher, American, 1837-1908

Note: Top picture is also by Alfred Thompson Bricher entitled Low Tide

Recollections: The Sea and me (part 1 of 3)

Certain events in life register with you for many years or forever. If an important event happens when you are a child, it certainly makes a lasting impression. As I mentioned in earlier posts, when I was about 6 years old my mother and I took a ship from Marseille, France to Istanbul, Turkey. This voyage lasted about 10 days I think because the ship had to stop, first in Athens, Greece, to make repairs and then it also stopped whenever we were close to a torpedo floating in the sea. This was in late 1946. Below is a picture of my mother and me visiting the Acropolis in Athens while the ship was being repaired.

Mother and me at the Acropolis, Athens, Greece, in late 1946

My mother was very sea sick and stayed in her cabin most of the time. I was free to roam the ship and I did. I made friends with other children, English, American, Greeks and also the staff. They kept an eye on me I think as I was always on deck watching the sea. I was fascinated. It was on old ship, no elevators but metal stairs. An old sailor there, or it could have been a petty officer, gave me a tour of the ship and often brought me in the galley. He told me “tu vois, au grand large, les vagues elles caressent notre bateau” [you see in the open sea the waves they caress our ship] “la mer, c’est comme notre mère, elle nous câline” [the sea, it is like our mother, she pampers us - In French the word for “sea” sounds the same as the word for mother – mer and mère.] “les vagues partent et reviennent sans arrêt , aujourd’hui et demain, autour du monde.” [waves come and go ceaselessly, today and tomorrow, all around the world.] How wonderful I thought that these waves saw the entire world. I decided that when I grew up I would see the world by ship. When we arrived in Istanbul I did not want to leave the ship, but I had to.

Picture taken in Istanbul in the fall of 1946

We stayed in Istanbul 4 or 5 months to take care of my grandmother’s affairs (selling her house, etc.) We did take a ferry to cross the Bosphorus – the strait that connects the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara - to visit the Asian part of Turkey. Then we took the ship back to Marseille. This time both my mother and my grandmother were sick as the Mediterranean Sea was quite rough. I did not take pictures then so I’ll have to rely more on my postcards, vintage or modern.



My love of the sea started with this sea journey to Turkey. In the summer we returned to Marseille to visit my father’s Armenian relatives that had been found again. I was pleased to meet then but also to often go to the sea in Marseille.

Picture on the Marseille Canebière boulevard, with our new found Armenian cousins – I am wearing dark glasses.

Since we lived in Paris and then in the suburbs I always talked about going back to the sea. Luckily at the time (I don’t know if it is still done) the primary schools of our “département de Seine et Oise” (county) finished the year by taking all the kids for “Une journée à la mer” (a day by the sea.) It would be somewhere in Normandy – usually Dieppe. Very early that morning all the children were brought to the train (steam train) and we would ride to Dieppe. We would go to a local school for lunch, then spend the rest of the day on the beach. It did not matter to us that the beach was not made of sand, but “galets” (smooth stones) we had a great time and came back late, exhausted and sun burnt.

Postcard of the beach at Dieppe and stones on beach, Normandy

When I was 11 years my mother finally said that we could go and spend the month of August on a beach if I planned the trip and selected the town. I had fun researching all the beaches, not too far away. I remember the first beach we went to was called Fort Mahon. Sand dunes were covering the beach, but not much else was happening there. Below is an old picture near Fort Mahon – a bit of a desolate place and a newer picture of the beach which shows it has not changed a lot…. I wish I had had a horse like the girl in the picture.

Beach de Fort Mahon, France (Wikimedia Commons)

We had no TV, no phone, no radio and knew no one. We went to the beach every day and when it was cool, I just would sit watching the waves or walk along the beach. But as long as I was near the sea, I was happy.

Picture of me on the beach in Fort Mahon, 1951.

Then every year after that we went to a beach in August and stayed for the month. Once it was in Saint Malo, in Brittany.

Vintage postcard of St Malo, a fortified town in Brittany

Another time we stayed at the Mont St Michel first for a week, then went to another beach.

Sometimes my mother would go back to stay with my father and a guardian would stay with me. One year we were in Courseulles sur Mer, in Normandie.

Getting ready to catch some shrimp in Courseulles sur Mer, Normandy, 1954

There were still some German blockhaus near the beach and I would go and visit them. The Canadian forces had given the code name of “Juno Beach” to Courseulles for the D Day invasion there in 1944, just ten years earlier. You can find more about Juno Beach here

(click on "Canada in WWII" under the heading Juno Beach Center) and here.

Courseulles sur Mer (Juno Beach) Normandie

I found some more pictures, but with not any date or location. I always wanted to stand near a ship or a boat when photographed.

Then when I was maybe 16 years old my father bought a small house in Mers-les-Bains, a small Normandie town 27 kms from Dieppe (16.7 miles.) I spent many hours reading on the beach, or roaming all around the little town with a bicycle, alone. Here is a picture of a similar house as ours in Mers-les-Bains – and a picture of my mother at the window.




We would drive there quite often as it was not too far from Paris – 95 miles/150 kms or so. But when I was 17 I started going to Italy in summer – the first two summers I traveled with a chaperone to San Benedetto del Tronto, on the Adriatic Sea.

Picture taken at San Benedetto del Tronto, Italy, near a boat (of course) in 1957.

The 3rd and 4th year I travelled to Rimini, also on the Adriatic Sea, with 4 other girl friends. I spoke better Italian then than English.




Concurrently, starting when I was 13 years old, I went to England to improve my English. I joined a school group in December 1953, but on the ship crossing the Channel, I managed to stay alone. The family in England was so very nice. They invited me the following July to accompany them to a beach on the Isle of Wight. I was pleased to go of course as I could take a ferry first to go to England and then another one to the island. The beaches on the Isle of Wight were lovely. Here is a 1950 era postcard showing the ferry to the Isle of Wight.




For several years I went back to England, mostly during the Christmas vacations. I would travel on the ferry taking the longest time to cross the Channel, the 4-hour crossing from Dieppe to Newhaven instead of the 1 ½ hour Calais-Dover. I did not take a picture of the ferry then, but below is a vintage postcard showing a Dieppe ferry boat.



This is getting a bit long, so I’ll finish next week. My mother (my mère) loved a song created by the French singer Charles Trénet, called “La Mer” (the sea.) He composed it in the 40s after a trip along the Mediterranean Sea. Later on lyrics were written in English, unrelated to the French lyrics. Bobby Darin made it a hit in 1959 under the name “Beyond the Sea.”

La mer
Qu'on voit danser le long des golfes clairs
A des reflets d'argent
La mer
Des reflets changeants
Sous la pluie...

Note: Top picture was taken off the coast of Sicily on 11/05/2009 with my Nikon.