Lyon & Provence - London to Avignon

 

DAY 1 Tuesday 15 August - London>Avignon

Check-in was quick and flight from Heathrow to Marseille was on time. It was an afternoon flight and I’d calculated that with the extra hour time difference that we’d reach the boat at the start of dinner at 19:00. We’d checked in two identical cases and one was the third or fourth to come out on to the carousel at Marseille. We waited for the other case till the carousel powered off and the lighted sign showing our flight number was extinguished. A lot of people were missing their bags, and a long line was forming at the missing bag desk.

When we exited Arrivals we were greeted by the Viking rep who led us to some tables she’d commandeered at a café and we sat with the others till all remaining Viking passengers had reported missing bags and exited Arrival.

It’s just over an hour’s drive from Marseille airport to Avignon where the boat was moored. We got to the ship at about 20:20 and went straight to the restaurant for dinner.

After dinner Joan rinsed  her clothes in the bathroom.

This was our 13th river cruise since 2012 and the 12th with Viking. We’d originally booked the Great Lakes cruise from Duluth, Minnesota to Toronto, Ontario but after seeing it on Viking TV realised it was too active for us. We’d have lost our deposit by cancelling but a phone call to Viking told me that we could transfer to another cruise for an admin fee of £100 each. Asked which cruise we wanted I plumped for the Rhone, and since we’d cruised downriver in 2015 I chose up-river from Avignon to Lyon. Not losing the deposit was such a relief I didn’t realise till later that the cabin they’d suggested wasn’t a Veranda Stateroom but a Veranda Suite.

The Veranda Suite has a bedroom with a French Balcony and a living room with a Veranda. So now this was the fourth type of Viking Longship cabin we’d stayed in.

Surprisingly it had less personal storage. The other cabins had two sets of three drawers under the desk, plus two drawers in the wardrobe: the Veranda Suite had just the two in its wardrobe. Also there was a lack of power points. The living room had a 220 (Europlug socket) and 110 (USA flat pin socket) at the desk, but the 220 was used to charge the Quietvox. There was one 220 by the bed. The USB socket didn’t charge devices quickly, if at all. I’d brought a Europlug with four USB sockets and used the bedside 220 socket. Thus we could charge two Kindles and two phones.

But there was a bottle of Champagne Jacquart Mosaique Brut NV in a cooler with two flutes, and the fridge was filled with soft drinks and two 250ml bottles of white wine and on top were another two 250ml bottles of red wine and wine glasses. These were refilled daily, but since we only drink wine now, and the Silver Spirits Beverage package was included we didn’t make much use of them. Since we could have glass of Champagne anytime the bottle of Jacquart came home with us and will be drunk in memory of this cruise.

Daily shoeshine and free laundry was included, and the wardrobe had towelling robes and sandals. This cruise, as is usual currently, included free Silver Spirits package and gratuities.

The boat was Viking Delling, the same boat we’d cruised down the Rhone in 2015. Four Viking boats cruise up and down the route, crossing at Tournon where both sets of passengers go on the steam train ride.