Day 1 - Thursday - Sep 26, 2024
| Longyearbyen, Norway |
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Depart: 18:00:00 |
Longyearbyen is the capital of the Norwegian Svalbard archipelago, located on Svalbard's main island, and is the northernmost territorial capital on the planet. With winter temperatures dropping to below 40C, the landscapes of this mining town are simply breathtaking. The glaciers, the mountains stretching as far as the eye can see, and the untouched nature make you feel like you're in completely unexplored territory.
Day 2 - Friday - Sep 27, 2024
The largest island in the Svalbard archipelago, its name meaning "pointed mountains" in German, Spitsbergen is the last piece of land before the Arctic ice floe. Aboard your ship, you will sail along the extremely spectacular coastline of this icy land. Between millennial glaciers and rugged mountains, you will discover a jagged coastline, hollowed-out by fjords. A unique setting, the refuge of a particularly rich avifauna, offering you the possibility of taking fabulous photographs from the deck of your ship.
Day 3 - Saturday - Sep 28, 2024
Enjoy the absolutely unique experience of sailing to the heart of the ice floe, this vast expanse of virgin, immaculate ice. The landscapes are constantly changing, shifting from a smooth, flat wilderness to a chaos of ice, then to channels of open water. Your ship will sail along these naturally open channels and through the areas where the frozen layer is thinnest, offering you the chance to experience magic maritime moments in the midst of drifting sea ice. It will also often be an opportunity to see a particular kind of fauna, totally dependent on the ice floe.
Day 4 - Sunday - Sep 29, 2024
Day 5 - Monday - Sep 30, 2024
Day 6 - Tuesday - Oct 1, 2024
Day 7 - Wednesday - Oct 2, 2024
Navigating through the sea ice
Day 8 - Thursday - Oct 3, 2024
Defined by a 90 North latitude, the Geographic North Pole lies on the Earth's rotational axis, at the intersection of all meridians. Plunged into darkness for six months of the year, then lit by the sun for the following six months, this mythical site, permanently covered in ice and remote from any land, has fascinated generations of explorers. So far, only a very few people have ever reached it: an exploit which is now accessible to you aboard Le Commandant Charcot.
Day 9 - Friday - Oct 4, 2024
Enjoy the absolutely unique experience of sailing to the heart of the ice floe, this vast expanse of virgin, immaculate ice. The landscapes are constantly changing, shifting from a smooth, flat wilderness to a chaos of ice, then to channels of open water. Your ship will sail along these naturally open channels and through the areas where the frozen layer is thinnest, offering you the chance to experience magic maritime moments in the midst of drifting sea ice. It will also often be an opportunity to see a particular kind of fauna, totally dependent on the ice floe.
Day 10 - Saturday - Oct 5, 2024
Navigating through the sea ice
Day 11 - Sunday - Oct 6, 2024
Spend exceptional moments sailing onboard Le Commandant Charcot, the world's first luxury polar exploration vessel and the first PC2-class polar cruise ship capable of sailing into the very heart of the ice, on seas and oceans that the frozen conditions render inaccessible to ordinary ships. Le Commandant Charcot is fitted with oceanographic and scientific equipment selected by a committee of experts. Take advantage of the on-board lectures and opportunities for discussion with these specialists to learn more about the poles. Participate in furthering scientific research and let us discover together what these fascinating destinations have yet to reveal to us.
Day 12 - Monday - Oct 7, 2024
Day 13 - Tuesday - Oct 8, 2024
| Ittoqqortoormiit Region, Greenland, Denmark, Denmark |
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On the east coast of Greenland, in the Ittoqqortoormiit region that is covered with snow and ice for nine months of the year, you will have the rare opportunity of immersing yourself in the heart of an isolated territory and exploring the beauty of its infinite polar whiteness. The high alpine mountains punctuate the sky and gradually reveal their dark rock edges beneath a coat of snow. Located at the entrance to the longest system of fjords in the world, sits the village of Ittoqqortoormiit, one of the northernmost inhabited places on the east coast. Its name means 'great house' in Greenlandic and it is home to the last hunters of the polar region, whose ancestral way of life you will encounter. As soon as the thickness of the ice floe allows it, the hunters set out on the trail of walruses, seals, narwhals, musk oxen, and polar bears, traveling by traditional dog sleds. On these expanses of immaculate snow, the silence is broken only by the sounds of the dogs, the grating of a sled coming back from a run, or of footsteps on the ice. You will discover Inuit traditions through privileged and festive moments on the ice floe and in the village.
Day 14 - Wednesday - Oct 9, 2024
| Ittoqqortoormiit Region, Greenland, Denmark, Denmark |
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Covering an area of 5,290 square miles, Scoresby Sound is the largest and deepest fjord system in the world. Named after the explorer and whale hunter William Scoresby, who mapped the region in 1822, it opens onto the Greenland Sea to the north of the Blosseville Coast. This wild, desert region offers untouched panoramas of infinite beauty, with high snow-capped peaks rising tall alongside icebergs immersed in clear, blue-tinged waters. Discovering these stunning places in the wake of great explorers like Captain Charcot, who was deeply attached to the land of the Inuit, inspires a profound reverence.
Day 15 - Thursday - Oct 10, 2024
| Blosseville Coast, Greenland |
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Onboard your ship, follow in the footsteps of Jules Poret de Blosseville, a French explorer and sailor. In 1833, he set off to explore this isolated and unexplored part of eastern Greenland onboard La Lilloise, an adventure with a fatal outcome. The uninhabited territory that bears his name lies to the south of Scoresby Sound. Surrounded by ice, icebergs, and pack ice - thin or thick, flat or pronounced - as far as the eye can see, Blosseville Coast is a wild and distant place to which very few people have access. Exploring it means a slow immersion into the heart of a frozen, almost unreal desert, where the variations in light transform one's perception of the landscape. In the kingdom of the polar bears, Le Commandant Charcot, a silent ship open to the exterior, will offer exceptional moments observing Arctic wildlife, through a series of encounters.
Day 16 - Friday - Oct 11, 2024
Spend exceptional moments sailing onboard Le Commandant Charcot, the world's first luxury polar exploration vessel and the first PC2-class polar cruise ship capable of sailing into the very heart of the ice, on seas and oceans that the frozen conditions render inaccessible to ordinary ships. Le Commandant Charcot is fitted with oceanographic and scientific equipment selected by a committee of experts. Take advantage of the on-board lectures and opportunities for discussion with these specialists to learn more about the poles. Participate in furthering scientific research and let us discover together what these fascinating destinations have yet to reveal to us.
Day 17 - Saturday - Oct 12, 2024
Iceland's capital stretches along the edge of a vast bay in the west of the country. Perlan, the "Pearl of Reykjavik", a museum located on Oskjuhlid hill, offers a panoramic view of the lush green landscapes. A little further, one can easily spot the signpost showing the way to the evangelical Hallgrimskirkja church, and to the historical centre where one can stroll along the Skolavordustigur and the Laugavegur, two lively streets with charming small shops. For some relaxation just outside of the city, visitors have the opportunity to visit the Reykjanes peninsula and its famous thermal lagoons of the Blue Lagoon.
