I've cobbled this review largely from emails I sent home during the cruise, so it may read a bit disjointed at times but I thought there's enough there to give our view of the various places we visited and aspects of life onboard.
Well, this has been a fantastic cruise. We started in Guernsey, which we anticipated would be a fairly small and dull place. How wrong we were. The island is quite sizeable but St Peter Port is also very walkable. It is a most scenic place - quite hilly and lots of narrow streets which meander around curves; snaking between some absolutely lovely houses and shops. With elevation you naturally get wonderful views. We did the No 91 bus, which circumnavigates the island. What a treat! Tax havens pay! There are many substantial houses with beautiful gardens and also many smaller cottages; narrow, winding roads with hedgerows; tiny villages and some of the most wonderful craggy coastline. Thank goodness for digital cameras. Fortunately about 15 Europeans got off at the airport, albeit that they'd missed the stop they actually wanted, and so we were seated for the last hour of the trip. This was probably the best 2 pounds we have spent so far. We tried to see Victor Hugo's house (where he allegedly finished Les Mis) but after a meandering walk up a demanding hill, we were told we could get in at 2.00pm. We weren't coming up a second time. On the way down we found an elevated spot with panoramic views - wonderful. Although we intended heading to the fort/castle, we turned left, instead of right, on the way down and found ourselves in the pedestrian shopping area; and as you girls know, shopping always trumps WWII history. We were docked right in town and this was a wonderful day; around 19c, which is just ideal for wandering around.
Moved on to Nantes, which involved the best part of 4-5 hours into the estuary and Loire River. We docked about 20 minutes bus trip from the Cathedral, which turned out to be the perfect place to be dropped off. When visiting the majestic cathedral, which had the most wonderful symmetry in its high columns, we were treated to a bit of practice by the organist. What acoustics and volume. When the organist finished, the sustained reverberation of the final chord was just exhilarating.
Standard veranda cabin. Location fine (although being starboard we seemed to be docked on the wrong side a lot - luck of the draw). Air conditioning was not effective but this was true throughout much of the ship in hotter weather.