Leaving Paris

The Wifi on the ship has been down, so this is the first opportunity I've gotten to post since we left.  So here is a summary of our trip so far.
Mom, Ilyse, Gail and I "rendezvoused" in Newark on Monday.  The first order of business, after admiring each other's outfits, was to play "We are family" on the CD player I purchased for the trip.  Yes--- our Gail is 60 tour has an accompanying soundtrack!
Ilyse had 2 poems for Gail this first day.  The first revealed our theme, which is Creativity.  We will celebrate all types of Creativity during our time together.  This poem was actually sung to the tune of "Personality".
After dinner in the airport Gail received her first gift, a Transatlantic Flight Kit (TFK for short) filled with things to make the flight more pleasant, including socks, snacks, lip balm, and sleep mask.
Later Ilyse gave us a mini French lesson.  The last phrase for Gail only was "Avez-vous un cadeau pour moi", meaning "Do you have a gift for me?" which will be used frequently throughout this trip.  When she had pronounced it correctly we gave her a gift of a journal to keep while on our trip.

Our ship is Avalon's Creativity.  (I had a hellava time convincing them to rename the ship in honor of our theme!)  Today we introduced a new concept (along with another wonderful poem from Ilyse)- Accessory of the Day.  The first Accessory of the Day was a small silver pouch that Gail can where in lieu of a handbag for touring.
After unpacking, we went to Sainte Chappelle to hear a concert.  Vivaldi's Four Seasons and Pacelbel Canon performed by fabulous violinists would have been exciting enough.  But when we you add in the exquisite sight of the stained glass of Sainte Chappelle, it really makes for a peak experience.

Back on board, we had 2 overnights in Paris.  Unfortunately, Mom was sick and couldn't join us yesterday as we explored.  Ilyse treated us to another poem on The Creative Muse, our creative inspiration for the day.  It was about the unique creative expression of the three sisters, with particular homage to Our Creative Muse, our mother, who has nurtured and inspired us to seek out our individual niche and talents in life.
We spent the morning at the Musee d'Orsay.  Most of our time was on the top floor, home to fabulous Impressionist paintings.  This was a foreshadowing of some of the sites we will visit over the next few days.
There was an exhibit on Misia, who was a muse to many painters, dancers, musicians which we found particularly interesting and appropriate. At lunch we gave Gail her Accessory of the Day which was a bracelet.  Gail has also been treating us to daily gifts.  In true Abrams fashion, they are presented in different wrapping for each of us and a poem. In the afternoon, we did some shopping, but remarkably for the Abrams girls, we didn't buy anything.

At night we called in a doctor to look at Mom.  Fortunately after resting all day, she did feel somewhat better but was still unable to go to dinner with us.

This morning we are on our way to Conflans where we will walk in the footsteps of Van Gogh.