France has been on my bucket list for quite some time. As there are a lot of places on my bucket list, my first trip to France may also be my last so I want to be sure I see as much as I can. My friend are planning to go in 2018 (either April or later in the year - Sept/Oct) and what I would like is a complete north to south river cruise so we don't have to stay 2-3 days in one hotel, pack everything up, go to a new hotel and unpack, etc. It may be that we have to take two separate cruises, one for the north (Normandy to Paris) and one to the southeast or south central or southwest. Do you have knowledge of 11-14 days cruises that would encompass a good part of the country, or whether some companies combine two separate 7 days cruises that accomplish the same thing but would only require unpacking and repacking one time (from one ship to the other)? Besides Normandy, the other must-sees would include time in Paris (Eiffel Tower). I'm not sure if we would rather the southern leg include the eastern part of the country (Lyon/Nice/Marseilles), the central (Lyon/Avignon/Provence), or the west (Bordeaux/Bayonne) so any input on that would be welcome. I've also noticed in my limited research that some of the river cruises have bike tours in some of the small towns as part of their itinerary. Now that I know this exists, it's a must. I guess another option would be start in the south, cruise north to Paris, stay in Paris 2 days then take a Paris-Normandy cruise. Thanks in advance for any help.
Posted by
Ontario, Canada
4850 posts
The best resource for you is likely the Cruise Critic website. They have a whole forum devoted to river cruising. It will also have links to the various river cruuse lines, so you can explore their itineraries.
Posted by
Corvallis OR
7029 posts
Check out this website that covers all river cruises in France. I'm not sure if any companies offer back to back cruises combining the north (Seine) and the south (Saone and Rhone), with a stay in Paris in between. You may have to plan two separate cruises to see what you want to see - maybe on the same cruise line (possibly with a discount for multiple cruises) and maybe on different lines. It will take some research on your part of each of the cruise lines. The map on the link I provided will give you an idea of where the three rivers are and what cities you can easily see on river cruises. To see places other than these, you may need to do some 'on your own' touring - very easily done using the wonderful train system in France.
Posted by
Seattle, WA, USA
784 posts
When you check the cost of river cruises, you may want to check into a rental car option. I think you could see a lot more, and hotel hopping can be avoided by using vacation rentals as a base for day trips. We did a week in Provence, one in Languedoc-Roussillon, and a third in the Dordogne - each a days drive from each other. We rented houses in each region through VRBO or Homeaway. Get a good guidebook for France and map and use them to figure out which regions appeal to you the most. You could do Normandy, Brittany, and the Loire; or Champagne, Burgundy, and Alsace. Or, a week in Paris, then 2 other regions. I'm assuming three weeks, but of course, you are limited by your own time frame. By the way, I have toured all of these regions either by B&B/hotel hopping or by home-basing.
Posted by
Dallas
42 posts
I noticed that the suggested 'map of river cruises in France' does not include the one that friends of mine took in Bordeaux
https://www.amawaterways.com/destination/europe-river-cruises/2017/taste-of-bordeaux
Nor are the cruises on the Loire River (the location of so many chateaux) shown on that map.
http://www.croisieuroperivercruises.com/cruises/loire-cruises-france
In 2013 I cruised the Rhine on Viking between Nuremberg and Cochem and since then I've taken 3 tours in France as well as side trips to Berlin, Amsterdam and London. I did enjoy the river cruise but it was frustrating to be in that sterile cocoon. It is a very tight schedule of to the bus, to the site of the day and then back to the ship for departure. On most days the only Europeans I interacted with were the ship's hospitality staff.
Posted by
Rural Georgia
2111 posts
When you check the cost of river cruises, you may want to check into a rental car option. I think you could see a lot more, and hotel hopping can be avoided by using vacation rentals as a base for day trips.
I did enjoy the river cruise but it was frustrating to be in that sterile cocoon. It is a very tight schedule of to the bus, to the site of the day and then back to the ship for departure. On most days the only Europeans I interacted with were the ship's hospitality staff.
If you think this will be your only shot at France, I do not recommend a river cruise because of the concerns raised by Carolyn and Greg. We were invited to go on a Viking River Cruise by some longtime friends. It was a celebration and we accepted their invitation. While we did have a good time, I too was frustrated.
We took a trip on our own to Tuscany six months prior to the cruise. We rented a car and stayed at an agriturismo. The river cruise costs three times as much as our Tuscany trip. I didn't like the rigid schedule of the river cruise. In our Tuscany trip, there were several times we changed our itinerary on a whim to explore something recommended to us or to linger longer in a wonderful spot. We met and interacted with the locals, including grocery shopping and finding charming restaurant owners who visited with us at our table. On the cruise, we had zero interaction with the local citizens, other than the store clerks where we bought souvenirs.
On our 10 day trip to Scotland, we rented a car and changed B&B's every 2 or 3 days. If you pack correctly, it should take you 15 minutes to unpack at your new accommodation. Again, one of the charms of that trip was visiting with our hosts. One had a dairy farm and we got to see their 17 newborn calves. Another had an Aga stove and we spent the evening helping our hosts make crab salad from crabs caught that morning. At another we got to visit a pregnant Clydesdale mare who was one week overdue. On the river cruise, we got to listen to cheesy lounge music and dine with strangers.
Posted by
Fresno, CA, USA
7 posts
Viking is an excellent line and they have an assortment of choices, including this 15 day selection that may fit your needs: Viking
https://www.vikingrivercruises.com/cruise-destinations/europe/frances-finest/2018-paris-avignon/index.html
Posted by
Rural Georgia
2111 posts
Viking is an excellent line and they have an assortment of choices, including this 15 day selection that may fit your needs
I suggest that the OP look carefully at the itinerary of this trip if they consider it. There's a ship change so that will partially negate trying to avoid moving from one accommodation to the other. Also, the ship is docked at Le Pecq and every trip into Paris will be 45 minutes to an hour each way on a bus. It also looks like there's one or maybe two days of daylight cruising, the rest of the time the ship is either a docked floating hotel or traveling at night from one place to another.
I also noticed that many of the days marked with excursions list B,L,D. This means they scoot you out the door in the morning and get you back to the ship for lunch. It made me think of the day we visited the Black Forest on our Viking Rhine Cruise. It was over an hour each way to the site we visited. There were four buses that hauled the entire ship to the site. Since they felt the need to get us back for lunch, we only had 45 minutes at the site once we got there.
Finally, it looks like the cheapest room is $4,000 per person. With airfare and extended days either before or after or both, this could easily climb to a $10,000 - $12,000 trip, or roughly 3 times as much as our upcoming 9 day trip to London and Paris.