1. Summary: After reading & watching the Viking advertisements and paying top dollar, we were disappointed; we paid for gold, but the Vikings delivered only bronze. We did see a lot of Paris and we did see a lot of other parts of northern France. However, the itinerary could have easily been adjusted to give more time in Paris, Versailles, and Normandy and less time in little villages/towns that were carbon copies of the other little villages/towns that we saw on the previous day. The food was mostly "ho-hum" average, with a few really great meals and a few total epicurean disasters. They filled our glasses with wine at every opportunity during lunch and dinner, and champagne was available at breakfast if we felt the need. On a scale of 1 (Poor) to 10 (Fabulous) we rated the trip at "6" and most of the other passengers that we talked with on the cruise were in agreement. The overall issue that drove us crazy was the schizophrenic nature of the cruise: one night we would get a truly great meal at dinner, but the next night was just awful; one day we would enjoy a very interesting and well planned guided tour but the next day we were left to wander a small town with yet another gothic church and not much else. If you're a zealous history buff, you may find everything to be exceptionally interesting, but how many gothic churches and former palaces can you visit in one week? France is littered with them. We would have preferred to have had more time at Normandy, the Louvre, and Versailles.

Recommendations: Bring comfortable walking shoes and a hat, you will need them. If you plan to take this trip, please remember to put the camera or iPhone down once in a while and actually LOOK at the scenery, paintings, sculptures and other attractions with your own eyes. It's very easy to only see France through the 2-inch screen on the back of your camera and miss out on actually BEING there. We saw countless tourists solidly glued to their cameras throughout the tours, desperately trying to get the perfect picture of something or other, or hell-bent on getting a selfie with the Mona Lisa. I confess that I fell into that "give me photo or give me death" category more than once. Also, consider skipping lunch to spend more time in the venues; you can grab some quick ice cream or chocolate crepes or even eat at a cafe without having to take the bus back to the boat.

Disclaimer: This was our first trip to Paris and/or France and our first vacation on a Viking River Cruise or any river cruise for that matter. We have previously taken two European vacations to Italy (Rome, Florence, Capri, Pompeii, Venice, Sorrento, and Assisi). We have been on 4 or 5 Royal Caribbean cruises (to the Caribbean) over the last 20 years, plus a Royal Caribbean cruise to Alaska and a cruise around the Hawaiian Islands. Also note that this trip took place in August; that's the month where most people in France head to the beaches and a whole lot of businesses are closed, especially the smaller "mom and pop" stores. Note: the French get at least 5 weeks of vacation each year, and they love to use it. The good news was that the traffic was dramatically reduced because everybody was out of town, and since we spent a lot of time sitting on buses, that time really added up. Also note that we were booked on the "Rinda", the larger boat that can't dock in downtown Paris, so they docked Rinda in Le Pecq which is a small town about 15 miles west of Paris. The Viking people like to refer to Le Pecq as "a suburb of Paris" but that's like calling Baltimore a suburb of Washington DC. They constantly told us that it only took 20 minutes to drive from Le Pecq to Paris, but the helicopter must have been in the shop while we were there since the trip was consistently 55 to 60 minutes one way every time we got on the bus; the red lights and construction zones didn't go on holiday. Read more