​On the river cruises, I have been on in Europe; the locks are a fascinating part of the journey.  Water locks were inventing and designed beginning in ancient times by the Egyptians and refined over time by the Chinese, the Italians, and an American engineer.   

Bonjour, So many sites to see so little time….. Paris is a great city to explore art, history, and culture.  The city of Paris consists of 20 districts or "arrondissements." In the eight oldest districts of the city is where many of the statues and monuments are located within the city.   In the western part of the city is where many of the castles of Paris are located.  The 16th district is a residentialarea and one of the most expensive with the cobblestone streets and limestone buildings.  When you look at the streets, you can go back in time to the 19th century and imagine the city back in that time.  ​

The engineer that built the tower was Gustave Eiffel but was ​​was actually designed by one of his employees.  The tower was built for the World’s Fair.  The French complained at first about the tower. Parisians thought it looked like a nail blended in Paris in the middle of a beautiful city.  Paris at that time was a city mostly of limestone buildings and it took many years for the French to accept this metal tower.  

​The real name of Josephine was Marie Josephe Rose Tascher de la Pagerie.  Josephine Bonaparte came from Martinique in the West Indies and had an independent mind.  Her first husband was Alexandre de Beauharnais, and they had two children a son and a daughter. They were separated, and she had to live on her own so, during the French revolution in 1789, Josephine went back to her island of Martinique, to help her family financially.  She moved back to France in 1791 because her husband had a promising military career.  1793 and 1794, known as the years of terror, Josephine’s first husband Alexander Beauharnais was one of the best officers in the French Revolution.  He was considered to have betrayed the ideals of the French Revolution, so he was sent jail.   At that time the wife needs to follow the husband in prison, so Marie Josephe Rose went to jail with her husband.