Riviera Thomas Hardy - Burgundy, the River Rhone & Provence – Avignon>Lyon – Day 4 - Viviers

 

Day 4 – Sunday 14 September 2025 - Viviers

 

1,000 year old olive tree at Lavender Museum

The excursions left at 08:00, both would go to see the Ardèche Gorges and natural bridge, one would visit the La Grotte de La Madeleine and the other a Lavender Museum.

The website description of the Madeleine Grotto says ‘Please note that this option involves a demanding trek with 250 steps down and then back up, so it’s best suited for those who are physically prepared for the hike.’ So we chose the Lavender Museum option. However the Cruise Director said in the Port talk that there were only 170 steps and the daily itinerary said ‘inside the Grotto are 170 steps, in stages, with a handrail (very do-able!).’

Dan & Krisie took the Madeleine Grotto option but Krisie had a panic attack on the way down and Dan escorted her back to the outside before he went down again. Krisie said the stairs became very steep with narrow steps and there wasn’t enough light for her to see the steps. DP said when he went down he took that flight of steps backward because of their narrow steepness. Those that did go all the way said there were many more than 170 steps.

 We were taken first to the Lavender Museum. This was owned by a family who farmed lavender but the surrounding lavender fields had all been harvested. We were shown a 12 minute film with an English soundtrack and subtitles, then a small collection of historical lavender processing equipment. Then there was free time when we could use the facilities including a place to get drinks, snacks and ice creams with indoor & outdoor seating. And a gift shop.

Natural Bridge, for scale note canoeist on river. Taken from moving coach.

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I didn’t realise that we would only see the natural bridge at the gorge through the coach windows. The coach wasn’t allowed to stop there; it went very slowly so those on the left could take photos, then turned around and came back, slowing down so those on the right could take pictures.

 

Shortly afterwards was a small carpark where we could get out to walk the few metres to a viewing platform high above the river’s bends and specks on the green river which were rented canoes that people navigated down river. Each rental company had their own canoe colours. 

Krisie enjoying her chilled Syrah

 We lastly went to the La Grotte de La Madeleine which has good views aver the gorge and a small outdoor café where we met Dan & Krisie enjoying a glass of chilled Syrah, “from a box” said Dan resignedly. That’s my boy!

We had an excellent guide, and I realised I’d seen him before two years previously  when he guided a Viking ‘gentle walking’ tour of Viviers (see Petes-Pix: Lyon & Provence - Viviers )

I said of him then “Their guide was a short wiry Frenchman, in his late 60s or early 70s….. unlike the guide with our group, he peppered his explanation with jokes and shrewd comments. If you go on this excursion I recommend leaving whatever group you’re in and joining his laughing one.”

His name is Pierre, and we were to see the following evening giving a dancing display on board.

The boat had left Viviers after the excursions set off and we rejoined the boat at Le Pouzin after a 90 minute drive. As soon as we were all onboard the boat set off for Tournon.

The boat cruised all afternoon, arriving in Tournon at 18:45 and rafted to an AMA boat.

The cruise information said we’d then go to a nearby Domaine for a wine tasting but our Cruise Director said the winery, Domaine Pradelle was closed on Sunday and we’d have the tasting on board. Strange, because the owner/winemaker, Alex Pradelle, his father, winery founder Jean-Louis Pradelle  and owner/viticulturist Charlotte Pradelle all came on board to present the tasting. (https://www.cep-pradelle.fr/)

 

Alex, Charlotte & Jean-Louis Pradelle preparing the tasting

Dan  suggested it was cheaper for Riviera to have three people drive to us rather than hiring four coaches to take us all to the winery. I wondered if it was a matter of timing and that cruises starting in Lyon would go to the winery while those starting, like us, in Avignon have the tasting on board. I’d love others who have been on this cruise to comment where their tasting happened. Disappointingly, this was the only tasting on the trip and there were no winery visits

Alex Pradelle had spent time working in California wineries, so he had good English and presented six wines, three white and three 100% Syrah. I brought home a bottle of 2023 Domaine Pradelle St. Joseph (Rhône, Northern Rhône, St. Joseph).

Beef Sirloin Steak

We had a reservation for dinner in the Brasserie. I ordered the ‘Beef Striploin Steak’ which looked good on the plate but was so tough the knife struggled to cut it and I gave up and left half.

There  was a  General Knowledge & Music quiz in the lounge afterwards but although we didn’t disgrace ourselves, we weren’t close to the top.

Mooring location-Tournon-sur-Rhone: https://what3words.com/stem.wakes.suitcase

Riviera Thomas Hardy - Burgundy, the River Rhone & Provence – Avignon>Lyon – Day 3 - Arles

 

Day 3 – Saturday 13 September 2025 - Arles

Van Gogh was a patient here when it was a hospital The courtyard in the middle has been replanted as shown in his paintings.

We were rafted outside Phoenix Arabelle. As this is a Scylla boat to the same design we could walk through its reception to get to the land. We did that at 09:00 for a walking tour of Arles. There was a choice of two, one with an emphasis on Roman history which we took, the other with an emphasis on Vincent van Gogh which Dan & Krisie took.

Our guide was a fast walker who didn’t look around to see if her group was with her. Dan & Krisie’s guide spotted  a pickpocket gang who’d robbed a previous group. He pointed at them and shouted out “pickpockets” and “shame on you” and called out to other guides “there are the pickpockets”. They were four young women, one was wearing dark glasses and baseball cap, one had her hair concealing her face, and one was wearing a face mask.

We couldn’t go in the Amphitheatre. At the previous night’s port talk the Cruise Director said that the closure “was sprung” on her, but it was closed to the public for the scheduled annual of bull fight festival, and posters had the date and tickets had been on sale.

For lunch I had Crisp Corn & Cauliflower Fritters - and jolly tasty too.

Dan at Pont du Gard - photo by Krisie

At 13:30 was a coach excursion to the Roman Aqueduct Pont du Gard 1h10m away. I had really wanted to go, but it was by now raining heavily and it was forecast to get worse with thunderstorms. I didn’t want to have to walk 20 minutes over wet stones in the rain to the aqueduct so we decided not to go. But Dan & Krisie were made of sterner stuff. I lent Krisie my waterproof and the room umbrella.

As soon as the coaches left the boat said up-river back to Avignon where the Pont du Gard excursion would board and the boat set off for Viviers.

Dan & Krisie returned soaked but glad they’d gone. Krisie even managed to conquer her fear of heights and walk across the Pont.

Peter, Joan, Dan & Krisie at dinner - photo by Krisie

 Location: On the Rhone cruising to Viviers.

Riviera Thomas Hardy - Burgundy, the River Rhone & Provence – Avignon>Lyon – Day 2 - Avignon

 

Day  2 – Friday 12 September 2025 - Avignon

 

Avignon City Wall, we entered Avignon here by a small door in the wall to right of photo.

There was a choice of Avignon excursions that morning, one included a visit to the Pope’s Palace, the other had instead a Petite Train tour. We opted for the latter while Dan and Krisie went to the Pope’s Palace.

Joan & Peter on Petite Train - photo by Kisie

The Petite Train departed from in front of the Pope’s Palace. There was a line of people waiting to get on, but Riviera had booked the rear two carriages and we boarded straight away. The road train toured Avignon’s narrow streets, often delayed by unloading lorries. A recorded soundtrack could be heard by inserting the jack of Riviera’s listening device headphone and selecting the language.

Afterwards the guide led us to Pont de Avignon (above), the broken stone bridge that is the subject of a famous French song. There is a lift up to the bridge.

Then back for lunch. Nothing was organised for the afternoon. We went on a walk along the river bank and were rewarded with the aftermath of a shunt involving an articulated lorry and two cars that blocked both lanes of one carriageway. No-one was injured, and I couldn’t see any damage but there was a lot of waving of arms and angry hooting from cars trapped behind them.

Mooring location-Avignon: https://what3words.com/ranted.warrior.jeep

At 18:00 the ship sailed down river to Arles arriving there about 21:30

At 18:30 we were all gathered in the lounge for the ‘Mandatory Safety Briefing’. This amounted to showing the video that was available on the in-room TV. We were too far from the lounge TV screens to see or hear the video so it was bit of a waste of time.

Mooring location-Arles: https://what3words.com/bronze.plotting.dads

Riviera Thomas Hardy - Burgundy, the River Rhone & Provence – Avignon>Lyon – Day 1

This was our 20th river cruise since 2012 but our first with Riviera; we’ve cruised with Viking 15 times, three with Scenic and once on a narrow boat along England’s canals and rivers when Covid prevented us travelling abroad. We’ve cruised the Rhone twice with Viking, from Lyon to Avignon in 2015 and the other direction in 2023.

The reason for choosing Riviera was simple: price.

Pre Cruise

My pre-cruise experience with Riviera wasn’t good and I regretted booking with them. First they didn’t reply to my request for the URL of their USA site, which I wanted for my American cruising chums, then they sent an email to say they’d replaced the advertised wine tasting in Beaune, that I was looking forward to, with a visit to Hôtel Dieu-Hospices de Beaune, which I’ve visited multiple times.

They didn’t phone back with a price when I requested an upgrade to business class on the air-travel and when I phoned again they told me they’d called, got no reply and left a message on my voicemail. I checked the number they’d called was correct. It was my landline which doesn’t have voicemail or an answering machine.

After I paid for the upgrade they refused to give the booking reference so I couldn’t pre-book seating. (In July Viking gave me the air booking reference to a cruise in May 2026 so I booked seating more than nine months in advance.

Shortly before the cruise they emailed to say I had to use their site to pick excursions where there was a choice of two on each of three days. As there were four people on my booking a choice was for all. However Joan & I wanted different excursions from Dan & Krisie. Again time was wasted on emails and phone calls. Their website isn’t capable of handing such choices. As it turned out the office didn’t communicate anyone’s preferences to the boat and every cabin had to select choices on-board.

Two weeks to the day before the cruise started I got an email with a link to a PDF and on-line ‘flip book’

Happily the on-board experience changed my opinion of Riviera’s offering, but their office is a shambles.

The boat – MS Thomas Hardy

MS Thomas Hardy is owned by Scylla AG and crewed by Scylla employees. The only two Riviera staff on board are the Cruise Director and Cruise Concierge.

The main restaurant and lounge at the ship’s front are on a deck between the accommodation floors, so the lift goes to five floors. Odd numbers are accommodation floors, 2 is the restaurant, 4 is the lounge.

We had a port side cabin (odd numbered) near front on middle deck (deck 3). Most times the boat moored with its starboard side to bank, so port side cabins get  river views (except on the few times we rafted). River boats usually moor with bow pointing up-river (to protect the propellers from things that might float down-river), the port side cabins will get more river views when moored in either cruise direction. 

There were 147 passengers. The boat’s capacity is 169, so there were 22 people fewer than there could have been thus the boat was 87% full. Most of the passengers were from the UK, but there were 10 from the Irish Republic, and a few from Canada and USA.

One could book the cruise only, or with travel by plane or Eurostar with travel to/from the boat. We booked flights from/to London Heathrow and paid a supplement to travel in Business Class.

Fare did not include on-board gratuities; the suggested amount was €8-12 per person per day for the crew, and a separate optional gratuity to the Riviera Cruise Director and Cruise Concierge. These can be paid with credit cards or by cash in a supplied envelope. Only Euros were accepted for the crew; the Cruise Director said she’d be pleased with any currency.

Included for 2025 European river cruises is the ‘Superior Drinks Package’.  This meant unlimited free house wine, beers and soft drinks at lunch and from 18:00-24:00 these, plus spirits, mixers, sherry, port, brandy and cocktail & mocktail of the day. Drinks outside these times are charged. In 2026 the package covers 10:00-24:00. The red and white wines we had with meals changed daily and were of good quality.

The sparkling wine was supposed to be Crémant de Bourgogne, wine made from the same grapes as used in Champagne and made by the same in-bottle fermentation method, but a non-listed Italian Frizzante was served as a matter of course. On the second day of being served this dross we spoke to the restaurant manager who confirmed they had the Crémant; he went to the bar, we heard a cork pop and we were served the correct wine which had a deeper colour and unlimited bubbles, and the offending glasses cleared. The screw-topped Frizzante was labelled for Viva Cruises, which is the line owned by Scylla. We asked for Crémant subsequently, but noticed that others were still being served the pale bubble-less Frizzante.

There’s biscuits and hot drink machine station on the middle deck, and a small gym (free), hairdresser, wellness room offering massages on the lower deck. There are bicycles on the sundeck but these were not mentioned and I never saw them off-loaded or anyone using them. There’s a small splash pool and mini golf putting on the sun deck.

Dining

There are two restaurants. The main one has different daily lunch and dinner menus. It has about eight 2-top tables, many 4-top, and some six seater and larger tables.

The second one at the back of the boat on the upper floor is confusingly referred to by Riviera variously as Riverview, Bistro or Brasserie. Bistro is engraved on its glass door and the lift and signs on board refer to it as Bistro, but the daily schedule and its menu calls it Brasserie.  It serves a more casual lunch and dinner, the lunch and dinner menus are the same each day.

One needs a reservation for the evening. But they’ll seat people if there are spaces free in the evening. It’s not open in the evening of the first night and evening of the gala dinner.

Breakfast has almost everything. Breads, cold meats, cheeses, fruit, yoghurts, cereals, mueslis are on buffets   Hot scrambled eggs, bacon, beans etc are self service. Fried eggs, omelettes, avocado on toast etc can be ordered from waiters.

Lunch in the main restaurant has buffet salads and cold treats, cakes, fruits etc, and a hot menu ordered from waiter. There’s also a hot dish of the day at a station staffed by a chef. This might be pasta, or a leg of lamb.

There is wide choice and the food is generally good. Smaller or larger portions are served on request.

Cabin

We had a Ruby (middle) Deck Suite. Of course, it wasn’t a suite, just a cabin with separate bathroom. It was a French Balcony cabin 17 sq m/183sq ft. I was impressed with the fittings.

Two chairs and a table by the window, Nespresso and cordless kettle with mugs, tea-bags, Nespresso pods, milk and sweeteners in a drawer underneath, and safe and fridge, in the fridge were two wine glasses and two bottles of water. Towelling robes & slippers were in wardrobes and there was an umbrella. There was fridge, safe, a bedside i-Home clock radio alarm & docking station and a flat screen TV, neither of which we switched on.

On the table was a ring binder containing instructions for equipment in the room, plus a glossy folder with coloured street maps and details for each of the towns we stop at along the cruise, plus a fold-out colour map of the Rhone and Saone rivers.

Guests were supposed to have a refillable water bottle, but these hadn’t been delivered to the boat so we had water in plastic disposable bottles.

 Bathroom

I was pleased there was a nightlight. There were face flannels and large and smaller towels for two. The shower had a detachable shower head and a fixed overhead rain shower head. I was pleased there was a grab-rail but I disliked that the liquid soap, shampoo and body lotion were fixed to the wall in refillable bottles.

 Day  1 – Thursday 11 September 2025

We landed at 13.48 French time at Marseilles, and this occasion we got all our cases. Riviera’s representative met us and we were in the coach at 14:40 and on the boat at 16:00.

There was complimentary afternoon tea in the lounge, with cakes and nice scones. Riviera Lord Byron was rafted on the outside but it left at 18:30.

Dinner was served at 19.30 and the Cruise Director gave a welcome talk at 21:00 and told us about the following day, and that we had to go to her desk and choose the excursions we wanted to go on as our choices had not been sent to her.

There was free Wi-Fi but strangely we had to give our phone/tablets to the reception staff to enable access. Apart from everyone wanting to do it, there wasn’t a real problem as it took seconds and the device was in sight, all the same it is most strange.

Mooring location-Avignon: https://what3words.com/ranted.warrior.jeep