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We quickly learned that Arles is pronounced without the “s”. It is famous because Van Gogh moved to Arles in February 1888 where he lived for about 14 months and created some of his now famous paintings. He also lived in nearby St Remy de Provence when he was in an asylum.  And we soon learned Arles also has several marvelous Roman ruins.

We again selected a two hour walking tour of Arles, leaving at the decent hour of 9AM. We soon found ourselves viewing a 1st century CE Roman amphitheater that is still in use today. What is held in it is called a “Camargue bullfight (known as la course Camarguaise)” . The goal of the Camargue matador, or raseteur, is to pluck a ribbon from between the bull’s horns. The bull always survives and hopefully so does the matador! We also walked to several locations that had been immortalized by Van Gogh in some of his famous paintings.

After lunch we took an optional four hour tour to visit two small towns:  Les Baux and St. Remy de Provence. As we approached the entrance of Les Baux, Yvonne said “we have been here before” to which I initially said “no way”, but as we walked further into the mountain top town I had to quickly admit we, indeed, had been there. Thinking back we visited this area as part of a Regent cruise in 2022 and obviously this delightful town was on the tour from the ship. It is a beautiful mountain village with spectacular views and delightful shops so a “revisit” was certainly welcome.

The visit to St. Remy was not as much fun as it was a larger city lacking the charm of Les Baux. It is famous because Van Gogh painted over 150 canvases while living one year at the St. Paul asylum, including the famous “Starry Night”. We all agreed we would have liked more time in Les Baux and less time in St. Remy.

One last cocktail hour with Roberto entertaining us with his singing and piano playing, followed by our “last supper” on the ship, then by repacking our suitcases as we will be leaving the ship in the morning. The Rhône River cruise is about to end!

Last night we were told that around 3 AM we would be going through the biggest lock (Bollene) of the cruise with a 75 foot drop, so if you wanted to experience it you should set your clock! Needless to say we did not!

We awoke at our regular time to yet another bright and sunny day. We have been very lucky so far as the weather has been marvelous except for wind the last few days. It is called a “mistral” wind which occurs this time of the year in this region of France. It has been quite breezy! A bit about Avignon. The current population is 90,330 with about 13,000 living within the old walls of the city. It is most remembered as being the headquarters of the Roman Catholic Church (rather than Rome) from 1309-1376

We all chose the walking tour of of Avignon which included the main attraction in this area- the Papal Palace! We could see it from the ship as it was only a short walking distance away.

Time out for a bit of religious history about the Papal Palace. It all started with King Phillip IV of France (1285-1314) who got into a fight with Pope Boniface VIII over wanting to tax and exert control over the Catholic Church. He even captured and held hostage the Pope in Rome. This action ultimately led to the selection of a French Pope,  Clement V,  and movement of the papacy from Rome to Avignon in 1309 until 1377. Six different popes ruled the church from here during that period. In fact, even after the papacy moved back to Rome there was a period of time, known as the “Great Schism of the West, 1378-1417” when there were competing popes in both locations.

There are actually two palaces here-the old palace (the Palais Vieux ), built by Benedict XII from 1335-1342, and Palais Neuf (New Palace) which was added under the rule of Clement VI from 1342-1352. In total the palace occupies 11,000 sq. meters (118,000 sq ft)! It is immense! After seeing it one can easily say “It was good to be a Pope”!

We were back to the ship in time for a quick lunch and then on to the the afternoon tour to visit the highest and most well-preserved remaining Roman aqueduct in the world- Pont du Gard. (We chose it over another tour option to visit a local truffle farm). For me it turned out to be an OMG sight! It was built by the Romans sometime between 40-60 CE to carry water some 50 km from the mountains to the now modern city of Nimes. What shocked me was its size and the fact that is built with a gradient of 1 inch per square 1,200 feet. It was an unbelievable engineering challenge! It likely remained in use for 4-6 centuries. At its highest point the arch stands 49 meter (160 ft) high. It is marvelous! I simply stood in awe at its beauty.

We returned in time for our mandatory disembarkation lecture and evening farewell champagne cocktail hour where the Captain and Senior Staff introduced the rest of the support team who made our journey as pleasant as it was and wished us “A Bientot (See you soon)” before our gala farewell dinner.

The ship set sail for our last stop, Arles, promptly at 5:45 PM with an expected arrival time of 9PM. Distances here are not very long.

We stayed in Tournon overnight and this morning’s tour that attracted all four of us was a 9:30-12:00  steam train ride along the Doux River. The train is known as “Train de l’Ardèche” or Le Mastrou. The train line, which uses Mallet articulated locomotives, ran from 1891 until 1968 when it was later made into a private tourist attraction. The 1.5 hour trip runs along the Doux River and through the canyons surrounding it. The cars and engines are from a by-gone era. It turned out to be a delightful way to spend the morning.

The afternoon was spent “eating” – first with an ice cream buffet followed by a cooking lesson on making crepes. And, as expected, both were heavily attended!

The ship set sail at 1:30 as we finished lunch. Later that afternoon there was a presentation for those of us who would be taking the post cruise extension to Barcelona. John and Jane had never been to Barcelona and although we have been there three times there were still several things we have not seen so I was eager to go there again. It turns out about 60 people are going. We will travel by train from Nimes, France to Barcelona where we will spend three nights, with tours scheduled for two days.

There was the usual cocktail hour followed by dinner.

After dinner this evening there was an optional Ghost Walk in the small (population of 3700) 18th century village of Viviers, where we had arrived about 8:30PM. Of course we were intrigued and had to go! It turned out to be a fun experience, made somewhat spooky by the darkness of the village we walked through. The ghost story was loosely based on the history of some of the early occupants of the village.

After we re-boarded the ship around 10:30PM we immediately left for our next destination, the famous city of Avignon.

We are still in Lyon but will be exploring the Beaujolais region, known as the “Pays d’Or – the land of golden stones”, named for the color of  limestone used for its homes and castles this morning. Later we set sail on the Rhone River, heading south.

The breakfast buffet on board is excellent-lots of choices, the fruit is fresh and sweet, the bacon is always crispy and they put a small pot of hot coffee on each table. It is a good way to start the day.

The only tour offered today was a visit to a winery in the Beaujolais area which is located a few kilometers from Lyon. Yvonne chose to not go because she had an opportunity to get a massage on board the ship later this morning. Hint: We have learned that if you want to use the spa services your ship might offer you must book them as soon as you board the ship in order to get a time that does not conflict with other ship activities. I have my massage scheduled for later this afternoon when we set sail and there are no other conflicting activities.  Another pleasant surprise was that AmaWaterways schedules their tours to leave at a decent hour. Today we were slated to leave at 9:30AM  with a return by 12:30, just in time for lunch!

The countryside is lovely- green rolling hills, idyllic small villages, and many small vineyards, which surprised me as we are used to the very large vineyards we see in the US. The other surprising thing was that the vines are very short (1-2 feet) high, compared to the 3-4 foot height we see in the US.

We set set sail from Lyon at 12:45PM. There was a presentation on silk painting and printing by a local producer. which, obviously, was of great interest to the women on board. Others simply sat in the lounge or up on the sun deck to watch the world go by. Before long we sent through the first of the many locks we would encounter on this trip.

Yvonne raved about her back and shoulder massage and after I had my whole-body, 60 minute massage this afternoon, I would have to agree. The masseuse was a young lady, born and trained in Bulgaria. I am not an expert on massages but I have to say it was the best of the 4 or 5 massages I have had. And at a price of $80 it seemed a bargain to me.

We arrived at our port (Vienne)  for the evening around 4 PM where we would spend the night. As we were docked right in the heart of the town  I went for a short walk before the evening cocktail hour.

The evening routine was the same. The “Sip and Sail” cocktail hour is held from 6-7 when the free drink of the day and wine and beer are offered to the guests.  We are then entertained by the resident piano player, Roberto. Around 6:45 our cruise manager, Helen, would brief us on the activities for the next day and the dining room opened at 7 PM for the “open seating” dinner. There were several “booths” for parties of four available and we soon found these were a favorite of ours.

Entertainment after dinner tonight was provided by a local lady who sang many French tunes.

Thus ended another “hard day at the office”!

Commonly cruises leave the day you board the ship. This cruise started with the ship spending the night in Lyon. We awoke to a beautiful sunny day with a projected temperature of 70 degrees later in the day.

River cruises commonly include free excursions; we only had to select which one wanted to go on. AmaWaterways wisely has offered similar sightseeing tours that were geared to your energy level-a regular level, an active level and a late starter level. Today’s sightseeing tour focused on the sights in Lyon. There was an alternative tour that focused on touring the local market (Les Halles) in the city and the last option was a bike tour using the dozen or so bikes that the ship carries on its voyages.

We had all chosen the “regular” four hour city tour which involved a bus ride to some of the sights and a short (45 minutes) walking tour in old town, with some free time in old town. We were all proved “Whisperers” which allowed us to hear what the local tour guide was telling us without having to be standing next to her. These are a marvelous addition to making tours more enjoyable. We first rode to the top of the hill surrounding the city to view the city below and see the marvelous Catholic basilica located there.

It was then back down the hill where we walked through the old town area of the city. Like most old towns this one features narrow cobble stone streets, shops and many small restaurants and coffee shops-a delightful place to wander and experience. Surprisingly we learned that Lyon had/has a flourishing silk industry that dates back to the time of King Louis XI (1466). By the 16th century Lyon was the silk capital of Europe and at one time over 14,000 looms were in use.

The highlight in old town was walking through some secret passageways called “Traboules” that have existed here since the days of the French Revolution. They were established as a means of getting from one street to another without having to walk a longer way on the few streets that existed. At one time there were over 400 in the city; today about 50 still remain in use. The Traboules played an important role during WWII as the French resistance movement used them extensively to hide from the Germans.

We were back to our boat by 1 PM, just in time for a sit down lunch before we retired to our rooms to take a nap, read a book, or like me, to sit on the upper deck and work on this blog and watching the river flow by. Life is tough!

A bit of trivia: There are 120 passengers on this cruise and the ship capacity is 156. The ship, built in 2017,  is 443 ft long, with a beam of 38 feet.

There is a cocktail hour every evening at 6 PM with the briefing on what will happen tomorrow. Tonight we signed up for dinner at the Chef’s Table specialty restaurant, offered to each passenger at least once per cruise and featuring a special 7 course tasting menu. We did not know what to expect but it turned out to be a very pleasant meal as the 7 courses were really bite-sized portions, so the meal was not overwhelming.

There was an after dinner French singer who entertained us by singing American blues tunes in the lounge. He accompanied himself on guitar and he was very good with it. For a moment I thought we were back in Chicago or Memphis!

Then it was a bed call for those of us who are not used to staying up to all hours of the night. The ship spends the night here in Lyon and will be here until mid-day tomorrow.

A bright, sunny , brisk ( 47 degrees) morning  greeted us after a good night sleep. We are ready to explore!  Since we cannot board our ship until 3 PM I had suggested a short one hour boat sightseeing ride on the nearby Saone River that flows through the downtown area of Lyon as a quick overview of the city. Our ship will stay in the city overnight and tomorrow we will be given a city tour of Lyon so I did not want to duplicate the activity.

Lyon is surprisingly large. It is the third largest city in France with a population of 522,000. It is noted for its universities with over 200,000 students (the second largest student population in France) and is noted for its software industry with a specific interest in video gaming. In ancient times Lyon was the capital of the Gauls during the Roman Empire era (5th century BCE-5 th century CE). Trivia: we used to use BC and AD to designate time. These days it is more common to use BCE(Before Common Era) and CE(Common Era).

Our hotel location required a cab ride to the city center where the scenic boat ride was located on the Saône (pronounced “Sone” River, which is smaller than the Rhône River where our river cruise will commence. So Lyon is blessed to have two separate rivers which meet near the city center. It was a pleasant one hour, narrated tour to see the city from the prospective of the river.

As the tour ended at 12:15 PM we decided to grab a quick lunch before returning to the hotel, and we found ourselves in an idyllic small restaurant that made crepes on a small side street, thanks to google maps.  It was a classic French bistro that we all enjoyed.

I learned that Lyon did have Uber so I called one up using the app rather than calling for a cab to take us back to our hotel. It was significantly less expensive and I was delighted to find our driver was a young college student who spoke marvelous English so we learned a bit about the city and university life as we returned to the hotel.

Because of my status with Marriott we were allowed to have a late 2:30 PM checkout which simplified our lives. The hotel had arranged for us to be picked up and we were promptly taken to our ship, AMAKristina, docked on the Rhône River near the downtown area. Checkin was quick and efficient and we were soon in our rooms where we unpacked and stored our clothes before setting out to explore our new surroundings. I was surprised at how long and modern the ship is.

At 6PM we gathered in the lounge for the mandatory safety briefing followed by meeting some of the ship’s  staff. Drinks are reasonable priced-my Hendricks gin and tonic was 8 Euros and soft drinks are free. There was a quick briefing about tomorrow’s activities before we were excused to head to the dining room for a 7 PM dinner.

There were no other activities this evening so we all retired to our rooms to get a good night’s sleep.

We are currently sitting in the Lufthansa Business lounge in Frankfurt waiting for our connecting flight to Lyon, where our river cruise begins. The flight from Seattle was pleasant and unexciting- which is what one hopes when flying! It was 9.5 hours long and we arrived in Frankfurt on time at 9 AM local time. Neither of us slept much as the flight left Seattle at 2PM, not a conducive time to fall asleep, but we are not fatigued at this point. The flight to Lyon is only about one hour long and I imagine we will catnap on the way.

As it turned out the Lyon flight was only 50 minutes so we did not get much of a nap! Sunny and windy when we arrived with a temperature of 57 degrees. The taxi ride from the airport was a bit pricey ($75) but it was in a fancy Mercedes sedan so I cannot complain.  There were fields of yellow plants we saw from the air (still trying to find out what they are), flowers blooming along the roadside and the trees already leafed out.  Spring has definitely arrived in Provence.

We had to laugh as when we checked into our hotel there was another couple at the reception desk who happened to be our travel companions, John and Jane Seifert, who had traveled from Bonita Springs, FL to Paris and then taken the train to Lyon.  Amazing that we arrived exactly at the same time. We all felt we needed a nap and shower before meeting for dinner tonight at the hotel.

The beginning of our Provence visit has gone flawlessly. Hopefully the rest of the trip will follow suit!

“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.

At 5 AM Casco Viejo was quiet and deserted, but our driver dutifully showed up and we had a quick trip to the international airport, where it was pretty busy at this early hour. If you recall I had a problem with our trip to Panama because Copa Airlines had canceled our flight. Today we are scheduled to fly Copa to Chicago with a connecting flight to Seattle, and in the back of my mind I was concerned whether this flight might be canceled. There was also a bit of concern when we checked our luggage as the gate agent was taking a lot of time checking us in, obviously having some issue. She even asked me for our confirmation code. Oh, oh…I thought, here we go again. Luckily she resolved the issue (it had to do with making sure our luggage got transferred to the Chicago flight) and all was well. In fact, she even moved us up to the premium economy section from our previous seats in the back of the plane. We quickly went through security (had to take off our shoes!) and immigration.

I had promised Yvonne we would have some breakfast at the airport before boarding our flight. Sadly we did not find the usual eateries open. However, near our departure gate we did find a snack bar where I was able to grab some coffee and a ham & cheese croissant. As I returned to our gate with the food, I found that we would again have to go through a security check (through the scanner) at the gate (never have seen that ever in all our travels) and liquids would not be allowed, so the coffee had to go! Oh, well, at least the croissant passed safely through the check!

I am also reluctant to fly through Chicago in the winter because of possible weather delays but today was not an issue. In fact it was sunny with not a bit of snow on the ground when we landed-something rare for Chicago at this time of the year. There was enough time between flights to have a decent lunch, making up for the lack of a breakfast in Panama City.

By the way going through US immigration was a breeze. No longer filling out forms, no longer scanning your passport. No longer even getting a printout to hand in. All we did was have our picture taken at a self serve kiosk, wait for a green light and told to proceed. We never did speak to a US customs agent. I am not sure if it is because we hold Nexus cards (sort of like global entry but for use too/from Canada). Entering the US via Chicago was amazing.

The flight to Seattle was on time, the ferry schedule worked in our favor and we returned to our home on Miller Bay safe and sound.

Epilogue

1. The trip was more fun than we expected, as we had been concerned about the language issues given that most of the passengers were Spanish speaking. They are a fun loving group! Language was not an issue onboard the ship.

2.  Our two favorite cruise stops were Cartagena, Columbia and Curaçao. But there is a bit of bias as I like history, culture, and old towns, rather than beaches. Bonaire was the least interesting of the three ABC islands.

3. Panamá City was a very pleasant surprise and worth a visit even if you are not on a cruise. Although we did not visit any of their beach areas I hear they are very good.

4.  Royal Caribbean (Rhapsody of the Sea) was a bit of a disappointment. I agree with other people’s reviews about the food quality on board having gone downhill from earlier years. I do not know if it is only an issue on this ship or is it across the entire fleet. The ship, however, was in good physical shape.

Thought for the day: “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” – Mark Twain