The view I never expected on a river cruise through France on Scenic Gem

It was this traveller’s first time on a river cruise but there was one thing that topped the personal butler, world-class dining and the bottomless minibar.

Scenic Gem in Caudebec-en-Caux, France. Picture: Scenic

If the fortunes of the de Montmorency family were still flourishing, the grounds of their fairytale-style château at Chantilly, 55 km north of Paris, would doubtless contain a helipad, and a jet ski buzzing around the moat. But being good 18th-century French aristocrats they had the then celeb equivalents, including mini-palace-sized stables for their hunting horses.

This article was originally published in 2018. Ships and itineraries are subject to change, please check with the provider to access the most up to date information regarding this trip.

Inside the château, the opulence continues with grand and gilt reception rooms giving way to a jaw-dropping succession of dining rooms, drawing rooms, music rooms and a two-storey library, all overlooking formal parterre gardens designed by André Le Nôtre, who created the Versailles Palace gardens for Louis XIV.

But this being France, there are inevitable reminders of history and fate. Tucked away amongst the Raphaels and Botticellis and Veroneses in Chantilly’s vast picture galleries (it has the largest collection of art in France outside of the Louvre) is a 1782 painting of an idyllic-looking gathering on the château lawns. Seven years later, during the French Revolution, an angry mob marched on the property and sacked it. A few steps further on is a portrait of a de Montmorency family friend, Queen Marie Antoinette. We all know what happened there.

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Scenic Gem Royal One Bedroom Suite. Picture: Scenic

THE MAGIC BEGINS

Château de Chantilly is just one of the many marvels that seems to float dreamlike into view on a Normandy and Gems of the Seine round-trip cruise on MV Scenic Gem from Paris. The river ship’s 11-day voyage – 340km as the crow flies, although the Seine wanders quite a bit further – takes it to the medieval port of Honfleur on the English Channel and upriver again. My own trip was a six-day familiarisation cruise provided by Australian-owned Scenic Cruises for journalists and travel agents from as far away as Ecuador and of course, Australia.

I use words like float and dream to describe my journey because that is exactly how it felt. Stepping into Scenic Gem’s reception foyer amidships was like entering a smart boutique hotel, albeit one that wafts you effortlessly from one picture-postcard destination to the next. And as a newcomer to river cruising I was delighted to find there were no waves or swells and very often no sensation of motion. My elegant 21sq m Deluxe Balcony stateroom on Diamond Deck, the top accommodation level on the 110m, four-level, 64-stateroom, 128-guest and 44-crew vessel, was an oasis of calm, with plenty of room for a comfortable bed, a desk area, an ensuite bathroom complete with L’Occitane toiletries and a wall of wardrobes and storage that included a well-stocked drinks fridge (Scenic Cruises are all-inclusive and the minibar was topped up every day).

And since Scenic is a luxury cruise company I had a charming young personal butler from Romania called Ovidiu (“Call me Ovi”) who ensured that everything stayed shipshape and my freshly laundered and crisply ironed clothes were always ready in the wardrobe for the evening or next day. The highlight of the stateroom for me was its balcony with floor-to-ceiling windows where I often found myself gazing at the riverscape gliding by. It gave my journey a slightly surreal quality, out of which visits to baroque palaces and Claude Monet’s lushly beautiful garden at Giverny and an evening classical concert at the 12th-century fortress of La Roche-Guyon seemed to materialise like magic.

A private butler keeps you looking smart while onboard. Picture: Scenic

DINING LIKE A KING AND QUEEN

On a ship, I learned, there are seatings for meals, and the breakfasts in Scenic Gem’s Crystal Lounge have no less than three between 6.30am and 10am as well as a casual cafe-style option downstairs. And if you are too lazy for all that, you can dine in your stateroom. Breakfasts are generous affairs with hot and cold buffets and a popular omelet station. There is even a Nespresso machine. Lunches are usually buffets and dinners are á la carte, and the ship’s talented chefs also provide superb French fine-dining events named L’Amour and La Rive during each voyage.

The menus I souvenired from these included dishes like croustillant de homard et guinée volaille (crispy lobster with guinea fowl) and tranches de toute roast beef (slices of whole roast beef with sauce béarnaise, green asparagus and potatoes) matched with wonderful French wines. And since we were travelling through the land of milk and butter and cream there were plentiful French cheeses such as Le Pavé Ocre, Saint Marcellin and Bleu d’Auvergne. They were very good at lunch with a snifter of Calvados, Normandy’s famous apple brandy.

Fine French dining on board. Picture: Scenic

CRUISING DOWN THE RIVER

At the Museum of the Seine in the lovely riverside town of Caudebec-en-Caux, I learned that 2500 years ago the ancient Greeks were trading Mediterranean wines and olive oil along the river in exchange for British tin, a necessary ingredient in the manufacture of bronze.

A geopolitically important highway ever since, the Seine remains a working river with classic old French river barges puttering up and down. In the early part of the voyage there are patches of riverside industry and bijou holiday homes – Parisians regard Normandy as their summer back yard – but as the ship leaves the sprawl of Paris it passes increasingly beautiful riverside villages and towns, some of them dating back to Roman and Viking times and all sporting a fine French-Gothic church.

On the days, after the morning excursion and lunch, when the ship sailed through the afternoon, life slipped into a very agreeable pattern of socialising in the lounge or napping or just sitting on the sun deck (with a glass of champagne) and watching the world go by. The ship’s portable audio guides offer a commentary on the passing scene and I learned, for example, that the name of a particular village has the suffix “La Jolie” (The Pretty) because it was the residence of a mistress of King Henri IV (1553-1610). Step ashore amongst the cobblestone streets and half-timbered houses and you’re in the deepest picture-book France.

After the town of Vernon the landscape becomes as lush and romantic as you could want, the river winding past thick woodlands and dramatic limestone escarpments surmounted by ruined castles such as Château Gaillard, built by the English king, Richard the Lionheart, in 1189. It feels like a journey into the heart and soul of France.

Cruising past Les Andelys. Picture: Scenic

THE HEARTLAND OF IMPRESSIONIST ART

No one has captured the beauty of Normandy as perfectly as the 19th-century Impressionist and post-Impressionist painters – Monet, Manet, Renoir, Corot, van Gogh – who lived and worked in places all along the river.

Two excursions from Scenic Gem take guests into the countryside and provide an opportunity to see how closely the great artists painted from life.

On the way to Auvers-sur-Oise, the village where Vincent van Gogh ended his troubled life, the coach passes rippling wheat and corn fields that are pure van Gogh. Further down the river at Giverny, Claude Monet painted the water lily murals that are his last great masterpieces and transformed his garden into a living work of art.

If you hanker to see Impressionist art in real-life, Scenic Gem calls for a day at Rouen where the city’s astonishingly good Musée des Beaux-Arts art museum has a big collection of important paintings by Monet, Manet, Sisley, Pissarro and Renoir. You can also bookend your cruise with visits to the great Impressionist collections in the Orangerie, Marmottan and Musée d’Orsay museums in Paris.

Make sure you leave room for dessert. Picture: Scenic

PAY YOUR RESPECTS

While castles like Châteaux Gaillard and La Roche-Guyon are now the epitome of picturesque charm, they are a reminder that blood has been spilt over the Seine Valley since pre-Roman times and right into living memory. A full-day excursion from Scenic Gem takes guests north to the World War I battlefields of the Somme; another tours the landing beaches and war memorials where the Allied forces came ashore on D-Day in 1944. But this being France, there are ever-present signs, from Chantilly to the Normandy coast, that resilience along with history and fate is also part of the magic. In Rouen, the magnificent gothic facade of the Cathedral of Notre-Dame, which Monet painted more than 30 times to study the effects of light, still has the pockmarks left by World War II bullets and shells.

“We leave them there,” said a local I met, “as a memory.”

Six days on Scenic Gem weren’t of course nearly enough to appreciate the fathomless riches of this region of France, or the huge contributions it has made to the art, architecture, literature and cuisine of the world. I did come away though with something just as precious: a glimpse into its heart and soul.

This article was originally published in 2018. Ships and itineraries are subject to change, please check with the provider to access the most up to date information regarding this trip.

The writer was a guest of Scenic Cruises