Compagnie Francaise des Crocieres, the new French cruise line, has chosen the Damen Brest shipyard in France to carry out the refurbishment and technical upgrades of their first ship, Renaissance.

The 1993 built former Maasdam of Holland America Line will be repainted and both public areas and cabins will be upgrades.

The ship will be fitted with a ballast water treatment system and the present open loop scrubber system will be replaced by closed loop technology, which will eliminate any pollution to the sea from exhaust gas cleaning.

The ship is expected to arrive at Brest on 7 October and technical tests will be carried out during the voyage from the port of Aigio via Malta that started on 28 September, the Marseille based company said in a statement.

The Damen Group has shipyards in several countries and it is headquartered in the Netherlands.