We chose this itinerary as we wanted to preface it with 5 nights on our in Paris. We paid the surcharge to have Viking handle the air arrangements. Be sure you check everything! On the return, Viking air desk had us with a 6 hour layover after an 8 hour transatlantic flight! I checked and there was an earlier flight with only a 95 minute layover. I insisted they make the change and they did. And we easily made our connection.

We had a French balcony. The room, although small ( 150sq ft) was well designed. Housekeeping was 2x a day and was wonderful. The ship was not full. I believe there were about 90 guests. It felt like a private yacht. The food was excellent and varied enough. The chef gave a little presentation each evening about the menu. Crew was always around and helpful. The evening entertainment was a lovely pianist. There was one guest lecturer.

Ports: the walking tour on Lyon was excellent. Skip the Beaujolais winery. Basically a bus ride to cave. We enjoyed the all day tour to Ardeche. But It was to include a tour of the lavender farms - but no lavender! The lavender had been harvested the week before. So we toured barren fields and the obligatory souvenir shop. Read more