For our first post-pandemic return to Europe, Julie and I took the simple approach: a seamless Viking River Cruise that included air with transfers.
Greeted in Marseille by an easily identifiable Viking chauffeur, we arrived aboard Viking Delling about 15 minutes before dinner.
A huge meal of truly delicious French cuisine accompanied by free-flowing local wines kicked off our Rhone River cruise perfectly.
While airports and flights are usually the most stressful parts of travel, you should always make the most of your time. I enjoy movies, making it more like a day at the cinema. Besides several full length movies, I watched the first two episodes of Julia, an HBO Max TV series about the renowned American with a distinctive voice who introduced French recipes to the American public in a way that made preparing the dishes easy for housewives.
In a similar way, a river cruise makes France easily accessible and comfortable to the average American, even if, like me, "vous parlez peu ou pas Français."
Before the cruise, I watched Délicieux, a French movie with English subtitles. While I did not glean any new vocabulary, the movie encouraged anticipation for French cuisine.
Cruising in Provence, where dining and wines are not simply meals but a way of life to be savored and then discussed, it certainly is easy to enjoy great meals without ever leaving the ship.
Delling's kitchen staff served the best Beef Bourguignon I have ever tasted. The chef used several fresh seasonings including nutmeg, whereas at home we tend to rely on a limited number of dried seasonings from jars, some of which we've owned for months (and if we had not moved recently, I would say years).
Lunch had fewer rich dishes but were always delicious. The first course soups were inevitably stars in their own right. It was nice to have lunches ordered from menus rather than buffet style as on some river cruises.
For breakfast, we would have our morning coffee and order breakfast in the Aquavit Terrace, located at the front of the ship. Julia Child would be proud of how light, fluffy and savory those French omelets were prepared every day, fresh to order.
The food and wine remained top notch throughout our trip, so Viking Delling always lured us back for our meals, even after arriving to Lyon, a culinary destination renowned for having more Michelin-starred restaurants than any city in the world, including metropolises many times its size.
We had the Silver Spirits Beverage Package, so basically an open bar throughout the cruise, though frankly the included wine with dinner proved more than enough.
A few times we were cajoled into ordering specific vintages that others at our table were sipping. One example was Aix, a gray wine (a light Rosé Wine) from Provence. As I say, all of the wines, including the nightly standard offerings, tasted very good to us.
The standard Gin Martini served at a welcome aboard party proved to be excellent, so I ordered those a couple of other times before dinner. Silver Spirits includes well-known name brands that some lines might consider "top shelf," even when not specifically designated by the guest. If you want to expand your drink options with better wines and cocktails, then the Silver Spirits package is worth the modest price.
However, keep in mind that Viking also allows you to bring wines back with you from ports to share in the lounge or at dinner with no corkage fees. I should also note that regular menu drink prices are modest in general, plus reiterate that regularly refilled wine and beer glasses with lunch and dinner are probably more than most people would normally drink.
What else do you need besides delicious meals and wines? Friendly, interesting dining companions make a great meal and entire vacation better.
We felt that our staff and fellow guests were wonderful. The first evening Northern Californians Mike and Linda joined us for dinner. Their names were certainly easy to remember because of our longtime friends of the same names. We had such a wonderful time together any time we met up, we might have easily slipped into spending the whole week as inseparable traveling companions, but on vacation, we all enjoy the freedom to do what we want on our own schedules. They had booked an optional shore excursion to a winery and then another tour later in the itinerary to hunt for truffles, while we stayed with standard excursions. Without assigned tables for dining, we found ourselves seated with other great travelers, each sharing their own unique backstories and viewpoints.
This is a good point to mention that on Viking, you should consider occasionally adding an all-day or afternoon excursion to supplement the usual morning tours, because only in one port were there two included excursions in the same day. However, I will also add that we were pretty tired by the time we sat down for our gourmet lunch each day, and afternoon naps on the top deck can be quite nice in sunny Provence.
In retrospect, we also should have included a pre-cruise land stay in Cote d'Azur or someplace in Provence close to Marseille's airport, like Aix En Provence or Avignon. The reason is not so much that we felt shorted on the vacation experience or had terrible jetlag but to make the most of the flights, which no matter how you slice it feel long with one or more stops in each direction. Even if it is "free air," it still costs valuable time, so we always want to make the most of it.
It's easier than you may think to find yourself embracing that "je ne sais quoi" of Provence.
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