“April in Paris”is a common enticing invitation. April in Provence hopefully will be as enticing as that is where we are headed today.  It all began with a call in 2023 from long-time Wisconsin friends (John and Jane Seifert, who live in Florida these days) asking if we would be interested in a river cruise in Europe sometime in 2024. Not one to pass up an opportunity to travel with friends I quickly agreed, and when asked what might I suggest I suggested a river cruise in southern France, an area we had not explored before. When I found a cruise that also offered a three day extension to Barcelona, Spain, John and Jane quickly agreed as they have never been to Barcelona, which is one of those magical cities in Europe.  Although we have been to Barcelona several times this trip would offer us the opportunity to visit the beautiful Benedictine Monastery at Montserrat, located in the mountains outside of Barcelona, something we have never managed to do while in Barcelona. And I added an extra day so we can visit the country of Andorra, located about three hours from Barcelona. Doing so will add country #104 to my list of UN countries visited.

We enjoy river cruising, having done most of the rivers in Europe as well as rivers in Egypt, China and the US in the past twenty years. This river cruise will be our 11th. We like them because the ships are smaller (~130-150 passengers) and you sail through idyllic vistas,  stopping in small towns and villages along the way. When in port excursions are made to nearby points of interest. It is a more laid back mode of travel and is very different than cruising on ocean vessels, which seem to be getting larger and larger over time.

This trip (Colors of Provence) will be with AmaWaterways on the Rhône River in southern France. We have sailed with AmaWaterways before. Surprisingly our previous trip with them was with John and Jane in April, 2007, when we explored Holland and its tulip fields. You can see the specifics of this trip on:

https://www.amawaterways.com/destination/europe-river-cruises/2024/colors-of-provence

Our itinerary for this trip.

We fly today from Seattle to Lyon, via Frankfurt. It turns out this was much cheaper than flying into Paris and taking a train to Lyon where we will board our ship. We are doing our usual itinerary: fly in a day early so we can readjust our time zone clock and hopefully avoid any issues with travel interruptions. We will meet John and Jane at our Lyon hotel and do a bit of sightseeing before boarding our ship on Thursday, April 11. You are welcome to follow us on our latest venture.