My wife and I took the 7-night Portraits of Southern France river cruise departing from Chalon-sur-Saone on Oct. 31 on the Viking Neptune. We both had a wonderful time. The itinerary was a primary reason we chose this cruise and the towns and tours all met or exceeded our expectations. The local tour guides were excellent and there was always some free time to explore on our own. The one tour which surprised me the most was in the small medieval town of Viviers. Since we were only there after dark, I took the after-dinner tour through the narrow, cobblestone streets, up to the 12th century cathedral. There was just enough light and the tour guide did a terrific job. All the crew who we dealt with were very professional, helpful and friendly. But the chef, Magdolie(sp?) stands out. Each night before dinner, she would give an enthusiastic, 5-10 minute description of the dinner options which made our mouth water, Even better, the meals met our high expectations. And, in almost all cases, the dishes weren't basic recipes but rather her own presentation. We've been on 10 river and ocean cruises and we can't remember having better dinners than we had on this cruise.

We made our own pre- and post-cruise arrangements, but the embarkation and disembarkation were both simple and easy. One of the crew took our bags to our rental car on disembarkation even though we had not made arrangements with Viking. Our room was a typical good river cruise room with plenty of storage - we didn't even use some of the shelves. We had taken our first river cruise on Viking last year to Holland and Belgium and enjoyed it so much we decided to take this cruise. We were not disappointed.