A night on the Seine

We were so lucky to receive a gift from our dear friend Sophie - a night in a luxurious boat on the Seine, including a dinner and a cruise.  We left to Paris last Sunday afternoon, happy we've postponed it from the weekend before, when it was raining strings (to use the French expression - and I could understand why, it looked like strings coming from the sky as it was pouring).  It was the first warm weather in a long time and a blue sky, which I definitely treasure more than when living in SA.
We had to be at the boat at 6pm.  We've decided rather than changing metros along the way, we'll take the metro from Gare de l'Est to Gare Austerlitz from where we'll take a short walk crossing the Seine.
Walking across the Seine we could see our boat close to Bercy and across the road the beautiful tower of Gare de Lyon.

Above: the building going across the road with its pillars in the Seine is Bercy, where the financial ministry of France is based. Below the pillars are motorboats, taking the minister to the Elysees, for meetings (quicker by boat than by road...)

Below: Gare de Lyon in the background (dress code for the boat - no jeans, an occassion to dress up a bit)

Above: we were a bit early, but they've welcomed us onto the deck

Below: one of the many beautiful bridges crossing the Seine in Paris (unfortunately we don't have a high tec camera for good night photos)

Below: the hôtel de ville

The bridge where people attach locks to it (you can see some shining on the photo) - apparently if you attach the lock to the bridge your love will last forever (I fear the bridge might not last for ever under the for ever increasing weight, some of those locks are enormous)

no explanation required:

Le Conciergerie: one of the most ancient buildings in Paris, the first royal residence in Paris and jail during the French Revolution:

 The building with its peculiar green structure, opposite the mooring place of the boat (where we were anchored for the night):

The next morning was an even more beautiful day (by 10 I was in a t-shirt, absorbing as much Vit D as possible) - my intention was to work in the mediatheque of the Alliance Française, but I forgot they only open at 11.  As the Luxembourg gardens are not far from there, I headed to the gardens, thinking I'll go there by 11 until I have to take my train back to Reims at 1. But it was such a beautiful morning, I've spent the whole morning doing my work on one of the many chairs arranged around the fountain

 Then the afternoon back in Reims, it was monthly shopping and a few more photo's of the vineyards.  I'll include them (as the colours change so quickly), as well as the ones I took only 2 weeks before the ones of yesterday's posting, when we were having friends from SA, Vernon and Sandra, staying with us. The vineyards were just starting to change colour.
2 days before:

2.5 weeks before: