France with Grand Circle

[travelnnana]

I have just posted the scrapbook of my Sept 2005 cruisetour with Grand Circle - called Paris, The Rhone and the Cote D'Azur. It was a wonderful trip. Grand Circle moved both of their larger cruise ships out of France aat the end of the 2005 season - The MS Ravel, which we were on the the one that did the Seine. They purchased 2 50 passenger ships to do the above trip this year - because they are smaller ships they will start farther north and then do the same route.

My scrapbook is on:http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/calcteach1/my_photos

[cathykb]

Thanks for sharing!

 

Cathy

[Carhut]

Thanks for sharing. You did a nice job on your scrapbooks. Think you took that trip last year (2004) though.

[travelnnana]

Thanks for picking up my typo - yes we did it in Sept 2004!

[jdrblue]

Great pictures. Thanks for posting them. We are leaving on the GCT Burgundy & Provence to the Cote d' Azur in late September. We are doing the reverse itinerary Nice to Paris. Your album makes me ready to go today.

 

Did you spend much time cruising the river during the day or were you mainly docked during daylight? Did you take any of the optional tours? Any info would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

Jim

[travelnnana]

I don't remember any optional tours on the cruise itself. We had more time in Paris last year then they have this year. We went to Giverny -we did Versailles on our own - because we wanted to go on a weekend - which is the only time the fountains run - I had the Rick Steves book and it gave easy directions to get there by train on your own. The pre-trip last year was the Loire Valley and we did that. We regret not taking the post-trip in Nice. I'll keep checking this board and answer any questions you have.

Yes, we did a lot of daytime cruising. The best was sailing into Lyon - you will do it in the oppsoite direction.

I'm curious to learn what you think of the 50 passenger ship!

[bah499]

LIZLEWIS

Your pictures are great of the Rhone part of the tour/cruise.

I am going from Lyon to Arles on Peter Deilmann, Oct 8th.

Now that I have seen your photos, I am ready....BAH

[joek]

jdrblue

 

We will be most interested in hearing about your upcoming GCT cruise. We're hoping to do that one in the Spring, in fact, we're waiting for GCT to post the 2006 dates. We're leaving 9/30 for a Westerdam med cruise and would like to tie up the GCT spring cruise.

[jdrblue]

joek

 

I will try to get something posted when we get back. We leave for Nice this Sunday. We have three days in Nice, 7 days cruising the Rhone and 3 days in Paris. Our hotels in Nice and Paris look good on the internet. All of the travel docs and info from GCT have been timely and well done. The flight connections are fine too.

 

We did a 12 day Eastern Med cruise on the Westerdam May '04. The ship was brand new. Ours was a round trip out of Venice. We had a great time.

[joek]

jdrblue

 

Thanks. I hope GCT doesn't change the itinerary. The Russian Waterway cruise was changed from lodging in a hotel in Moscow to staying on the boat. Guess it doesn't matter, I doubt that the hotel would be anywhere near the attractions.

 

Joe

[rbreid]

We just returned from France and the new even smaller, small ship was great.

We loved the whole trip.

 

We also were on the Russia cruise earlier this year. The hotel in Moscow was on a street that had busses going to Red Square and the main "shopping" street whatever that was. People said that it's location was much better than the docking area.

 

Bob

[joek]

Thanks rbreid. Unfortunately GCT changed the stay in Moscow from a hotel to the boat. At least we don't have unpack and repack, and I doubt that we'll be doing much moving about on our own.

[jdrblue]

We just got home from our GCT river cruise in France. We really liked the smaller ship. It is listed as 50 passengers but we only had 44. There were some singles and the program director and hotel manager each had a cabin. Our cabin was much larger than the 150 passenger MS Auria. It was about the size of a mini suite on a big cruise ship. The shower was by far the largest I have ever seen on a cruise ship of any kind. Overall we were very pleased with GCT and the entire trip. There were 19 who did the Nice pre-cruise. The post cruise to Normandy was cancelled because very few had signed up. We only had two full days and three nights in Paris. I wish we had stayed at least one more day in Paris.

 

We had three full days and four nights in Nice. I am glad we had that much time because we really filled our days there.

[joek]

jdrblue

 

Thanks for your report. As I previously posted, we are planning on taking the same cruise in May 06, Paris to Nice, probably on the MS Provence. What ship were you on and what cabin did you have? I'm wondering if there is noise from the lounge or bar. My wife is wondering about clothes (GCT says one bag each). I read that river cruises are not dressy, but we will appreciate any comments.

 

We were in Nice last week on a shore excursion off the Westerdam. It certainly is a vibrant city and we might opt for the post trip extension. I was there for two weeks.....many, many years ago (WW2 R&R), the memories are a lot different than that they will be now.

[jdrblue]

We were on the Chardonnay cabin 12. This is the lower deck with two portholes. We would have liked the upper deck but it was full when we made reservations. As it turned out the weather was so nice we spent a lot of time outside. It was interesting to look out our window and have our eye level at almost water level.

 

We had one morning that we left port very early. Some of the people in the far forward and far aft cabins complained of noise but we didn't hear it. The lounge was generally pretty quite so I don't think noise would be a problem. On the Chardonnay cabins 1, 2 & 3 were accessed through the dining room and lounge area. I wouldn't have liked that. That does not appear to be a problem on the Provence.

 

The dress was very casual. I took a sport coat and never wore it. Some men wore jackets some evenings but it wasn't necessary. I think some river cruises are more dressy than GCT but we liked the casual atmosphere. One bag and a carry on worked fine for us and we did the 4 day pre-cruise.

 

If you are a WWII vet one stop will be of interest. We went to The Rhone American Cemetery near Draguignon http://www.abmc.gov/rh_pict.pdf. A wreath was placed by GCT and we all sang the national anthem. WW II vets were given special recognition. We had 3 in our group.

 

When I get more time I will post our Nice adventures.

[joek]

jdrblue

Thank you for your report. We have booked a GCT cruise, April 17 on the MS Provence. Your advice about dress is appreciated. Living in Florida spoils us, I count long pants as being formal. We've been on 3 GCT tours and look forward to cruising with the small group on their river boats.

 

Joe