We are looking for a great river cruise company, with the trip starting in Paris, then they usually take the train to the Provence area and head South. We are in our 70's and not physically able to do a RS tour, but follow him religiously! What company have you been on for this trip and would recommend?
I don't understand. The cruise starts in Paris and ends where? Train to Provence from where, the end of the cruise? Please fill me in.
We're taking a Viking river cruise in 2026. We plan to stay in Paris for approximately a week, then take the train to Lyon, which is where the cruise starts. It ends 7 days later in Avignon. We then plan to spend a few days in that part of Provence (exact town as yet undetermined) and then take the train to Nice. We'll use Nice as our home base to explore Southern Provence and the Riviera.
Thanks MSW329! That's what I wanted to know about. I will check Viking and Uniworld. If you have tour info for around Avignon, please let me know. We won't have a car and we also want to stay longer.
Hi Debbie,
To help craft an itinerary in Provence, I can highly recommend Imagine Tours (also is the RS guidebook). They are found here:
https://imagine-tours.net/welcome/
They offer local private guides with vehicle, so you can control the pace and destinations.
I did a Viking River cruise from Avignon to Lyon last summer. You can go in either direction. Viking offers both pre- and post- extensions so it would be easy to start in Paris. If you book an extension through Viking besides some sightseeing it usually includes transportation- for example from the airport to hotel and hotel to embarkation port (I’m guessing it would be by train from Paris to Lyon). I had been to Paris several times before so I chose a pre-cruise extension in Aix-en-Provence (wonderful) then sailed North. Their itinerary has two nights in Lyon which I really liked. It was a nice trip, I enjoyed it very much. I have since sailed with them on the Rhine, another great itinerary.
We just got back from a Rhone/Saone river cruise on Amawaterways. It was tremendous! We started in Paris on our own then flew to Nice to start the AMA pre-cruise tour for 3 days (tours of Nice, Monaco, Monte Carlo, and Aix-provance), then Ama took us to Arles to board the ship. We cruised up the Rhone to the Saone and ended up near Dijon. All excursions are included and there is a choice of 3-5 excursions a day, including a "gentle" walking tour version of each excursion. I highly recommend the Amawaterways river cruise.