Rhone Valley

How long is your river cruise and what, if any, stops does it include below Avignon or above Lyon? What day trips does your cruise include? Wine tastings? Roman sites in Orange?

Apart from 3 or 4 days before and after the cruise, do you have additional time in France? Or Europe?

What is your arrival city? And departure city? Do you have a single night or multiple nights in Lyon as part of your cruise?

That info will help folks better answer your Qs.

That said, and with your interests in wine and history in mind, there are other towns in (or near) Provence - as well as Marseilles - that may be more interesting than Avignon at night. Arles and Nimes are two smaller cities with Roman era sights, restaurants and more.

There are many day trips from Avignon that would be interesting. The Luberon to the east (years back, we had a car and were able to visit Fontaine de Vaucluse, Gordes, and Bonnieux by day and dine in Lourmarin.). Near Avignon, there is the Chateauneuf du Pape region. If your cruise does not include an excursion there, then you could look for wineries or wine tours there for tasting (degustation). In France, you very often need to reserve a time for tasting in advance, so you might “surf the net” either for wineries or tours in the region.

Arles and Nimes both work as day trips from Avignon and vice versa. Les Baux de Provence is a very interesting, historically significant site between Arles and Nimes; a Protestant center during 17th C. religious warfare between Catholics and Protestants, plus other historic roots that go back 1000s of years.

Lyon itself deserves at least 2 full days. Again, there is Roman history and ruins. Plus the Centre de la Resistance et Deportation is important to understand WW2 history, why many French chose to set up and support the Vichy regime, and why other French men and women resisted - and to understand what happened to France’s Jewish population. (Before you get to Lyon, visit some French cemeteries and look for graves and memorials of those who died in WW1.)

Lyon’s markets, silk industry history and architecture all deserve time. Apart from the Centre de la Resistance et Deportation, there are more museums in Lyon than we had time to visit; we went to Lugdunum & Beaux Arts, but neither Lumiere nor Confluences. We enjoyed our Saone River cruise in Lyon more than our Seine R. cruise in Paris. The Lyon 48 hour pass (ONLY LYON) that we bought our first morning there last fall was VERY useful.

Between Lyon and Paris, there is the Bourgogne wine region, as well as Dijon. Again, if you have time to go there, you can look for wineries in that region for touring or tastings. October will be after grapes have been picked and crushed. (Last September, we cycled from Dijon to Beaune and beyond with 3 days on bikes, but you won’t have time for that and October weather wouldn’t be reliable to plan that.)

IF you are flying home from Paris, rather than Lyon or Geneva, perhaps you might spend a couple of nights in Dijon (or Beaune?) on your way from Lyon to Paris. Or maybe you spend a few days in Paris. Again, you’ve not mentioned how long the entire trip will be.

In any event, enjoy your trip.

Do Arles and Pont du Gard(intact ancient Roman aqueduct).
You could visit Nice and Monaco as well.

@Fred
How long is your river cruise and what, if any, stops does it include below Avignon or above Lyon? What day trips does your cruise include? Wine tastings? Roman sites in Orange?
Our River cruise is 8 days starting in Avignon and ending in Lyon with stops in Arles, Viviers, Tournon and 2 days in Lyon. It does have excursions to Beaujolais Wine Country, and the Pont de Gard. The Châteauneuf-du-Pape Wine Tasting is the same day and overlaps so we have to decide between the two or do one of those on our own a different day

Apart from 3 or 4 days before and after the cruise, do you have additional time in France? Or Europe?
Not planning on it we were in Paris last spring.

What is your arrival city? And departure city? Do you have a single night or multiple nights in Lyon as part of your cruise?
We arrive at Marseille airport and depart from Lyon, so I guess we could lodge in Marseille in do day trips from there?

Thanks for your help, also Nice and Monaco would be options too.

Aix-en-Provence is quite close to the Marseille airport (short bus trip). I would stay there at the beginning of my trip as it is a lovely, lively university town. If you wish to explore beyond Aix, while staying there, you have several options for day trips. A trip into Marseille for a day would allow you to explore the Vieux Port, Chateau d'If, Notre Dame de la Garde church, have dinner at one of the restaurants in the Vallon des Auffes, and/or visit one of the many museums there.
You could take a day trip to the Camargue Delta to see the flamingos, black bulls and white horses. There are the calanques as well.

To get to Avignon from Aix-en-Provence takes about an hour by bus or 20 minutes by train. Of the three "A"s, I prefer Arles and Aix-en-Provence to Avignon, so I would spend my pre-cruise days in one of those two places. (Also, wine tasting tours can easily be found from Arles and Aix. You don't need to be in Avignon to do that, or to take a tour of the Provencal villages.)
Just my two cents. Amusez-vous bien!