Cruisin' Up the River

By Judson Gooding/Paris

There are many places in Europe where tour buses should not go. Unfortunately there are far fewer where they cannot go. One such rare route is the full, looping length of the river Seine as it winds its way through central Paris toward the English Channel. This is the waterway of kings and conquerors, of ruined abbeys, gothic trees, half-timbered farmhouses and pastoral symphonies on either bank. Until this summer, visitors who wished to savor the creamy countryside of Normandy had to cope with traffic and train schedules. But now, if they wish, they can finally take to the water and its welcome privacies. The M.S. Normandie, the first sleep-aboard luxury cruise ship to shuttle the Seine, made its maiden voyage from Honfleur to Paris this month, arriving to fireworks and Gershwin and a flotilla of welcoming rivercraft.

The trip has been a century in the making. For years the upper reaches of the river could not be navigated by such cruise ships, subject as the area was to floods and low water. The water level has at last been controlled by a network of locks, dams and reservoirs. The Normandie, 300 ft. long and weighing 1,375 tons, was especially built for the voyage. With 53 double staterooms, lounge, bar, restaurant, sun deck and sauna, it carried 106 passengers, 20 crew members and pounds of monkfish, duck, pork and other essentials, replenished along the way.

The ship glides along at 13 m.p.h. during the day and ties up at night, so that passengers may eat and sleep in peace without missing any of the scenery. Guests are well advised to pack carefully: shoes with nonslip soles, much film, a copy of Madame Bovary, binoculars and five fewer pounds than their ideal weight. This is, after all, the province of dense cheeses, Calvados, orchards and plump, happy cows munching the grassy slopes and thinking buttery thoughts.

It takes seven days to complete its journey, which leaves plenty of time for passengers to disembark along the way and explore more closely the river's treasures. The monks of St. Wandrille may offer a tour of their abbey, an anthology of architecture that includes not only medieval ruins but also a 15th century barn moved onto the abbey grounds a few years ago from a nearby village. In another crook of the river is the Abbaye de Jumieges; William the Conqueror made a point of appearing for its consecration in 1067.

Upriver is Rouen, capital of Upper Normandy, where Flaubert was reared, Joan of Arc burned and Monet inspired. The great Gothic cathedral of Notre Dame miraculously survived the wartime bombings, but all the city's old bridges and many buildings were destroyed. Farther south and east the Normandie slips beneath the cliffs high above Les Andelys, where Richard the Lion-Hearted's Chateau Gaillard stands watch over the valleys below. Perhaps the most haunting of all the stops is Monet's retreat at Giverny, where the painter lived for 43 years until his death in 1926. In his calendar, June belongs to the rhododendrons and wisteria, but come summer each color will have its season, as the rambling roses bloom in August and dahlias erupt in the fall.

The six-night Seine cruises, which cost about $1,000, will depart alternately from Honfleur and Paris each week until fall. If the reactions of the first voyagers are any indication, the journey was worth the wait. "The trip has been far more than I expected," said Art Russell, a retired mechanical engineer from Vero Beach, Fla. "You see things from the boat that, from the road, are hidden." Agreed passenger Hamilton Perkins Jr.: "We've made 35 trips to Europe, and this was the best ever. It's the most beautiful countryside I've ever seen." Those wishing to follow in their wake will have to be patient. The ship is almost fully booked for the 1989 season.