Vantage Culinary French Waterways Review, October 23, 2014

[GregnChris]

We recently returned from the Vantage Culinary French Waterways river cruise. Our trip started on October 23, and it ran up-river from Avignon to Chalon-sur-Saone (Dijon). This is my review of the trip

 

Overall impression: Excellent trip. The ship was in excellent condition, as it is not yet 3 years old. The crew, while mostly Romanian, all spoke English well and were very cheerful and pleasant. It seemed like a happy ship. The food was outstanding. I am amazed at the high quality of food they produce in their little kitchen area. The wine flowed freely at dinner. The included tours were well thought out and the guides all seemed to know their areas. The optional tours were reasonably priced and good values. All in all, it was a very enjoyable trip. Oh yes, we also had excellent weather. Better than we had any right to expect for this time of year. Only two days with any rain, and that was mostly when we were on the bus. I recommend this trip to anyone that enjoys good food and wine and absorbing some French culture.

 

I won’t bore you with the specific dinner menus. But it was delicious. Because this was a culinary cruise, we were served local foods and wines at each meal. On two nights, outside Chef’s were brought in to prepare special dinners. Dinner each night was 5 courses, starting with an Appetizer, then a choice of soup or a “Hot Appetizer”, then the Main Course (choice of a Meat, Fish or Vegetarian), a cheese selection was available for those that wanted it, and a choice of Desserts and coffee. They served local wines, both red and white, with dinner, and they refilled your glass multiple times. As we moved up river, the wines changed from Cote du Rhone to Chateauneuf du Pape, then to Burgundy.

 

Day by Day comments will follow

[GregnChris]

Here are my Day by Day comments.

 

Day 1, Thursday, Oct 23: Our trip started with our 2:00pm KLM flight from San Francisco to Amsterdam, arriving in the morning of the next day.

 

Day 2, Friday, Oct 24: We landed in Amsterdam about 9:30am and caught our noon Air France flight to Marseille without a hitch. In Marseille airport we collected our bags, cleared Passport and Customs controls and were met at the customs exit by a Vantage representative. It was a short walk to the bus for the transfer to the ship.

 

We were scheduled to board the ship in Tarascon, but due to high winds the day before, it had remained docked in Avignon, just below the famous Pont du Avignon, and right outside of the city walls. Wow! The change was no big deal, as we were scheduled to cruise up to Avignon that evening anyway, and it meant we could wander around Avignon before dinner. The Vantage crew handled our luggage and delivered it to our stateroom shortly after boarding.

 

Our B1 class stateroom was all that we expected. We opened the curtains of French balcony and there were the walls of the city, just a few hundred feet away. After unpacking, we wandered around Avignon until dinner time.

 

Day 3, Saturday, Oct 25: Breakfast was usually available from 6:00am until 9:30am. At 10:00am they offered a choice between two walking tours for the morning. One was the “Secrets of Avignon” and the other was “the Pope’s Palace”. We took the Secrets tour and got a good overview of the city. The guide was knowledgeable and the QuietVox units worked well. We had lunch back on-board and then visited the Pope’s Palace on our own. The entry was included for Vantage passengers. After dinner, the entertainment was a Gypsy group (female singer/dancer and two guitarists) that played for about an hour in the Lounge. They got everyone up dancing!

[GregnChris]

Day 4, Sunday, Oct 26: The ship remained in Avignon for another day. After breakfast, our included tour for the morning was a bus excursion to the Pont du Gard, about 30 minutes away. We left about 9:00am and returned to the ship about 12:30pm. Two options for the Pont were offered; an easy walk to view the bridge and visit the museum, and a more strenuous tour that climbed to the top of the bridge and walked across in the now dry water channel. We chose the more strenuous tour. It was lots of fun, and the steps were not all that bad. Walking through the old water channel was interesting. Lime had built up on the inside of the channel, and was several inches thick. Also, if you are tall, you have to duck to clear the roof. This was a very enjoyable excursion.

 

After lunch on the ship, we took the Optional (aka, extra cost) excursion to Les Baux de Provence and St. Paul de Mausole Hospital in St. Remy. Les Baux is an old, walled city on top of a limestone ledge. It is quite pretty, but as with most places like this, also very touristy. At least they were not T-shirt shops! Since it was a beautiful Sunday afternoon, there were lots of local French folks in town, enjoying the day. On the way back, we visited the hospital where Vincent van Gogh lived for a time. While the place was interesting, there really isn’t much to do or see there. Just outside of the hospital are two roman monuments, which were interesting.

 

Day 5, Monday, Oct. 27: The boat sailed from Avignon at 10:00am on its way to the Chateauneuf du Pape dock, arriving about 1:00pm. That dock is out in the middle of nowhere, but close to the vineyards. We were met by buses and given a tour through the vineyards and on to a wine and chocolate tasting, arriving back on the boat about 5:00pm. Once everyone was back onboard, the boat continued on to Vivier to dock for the night (about 11:30pm).

 

Day 6, Tuesday, Oct. 28: We started the day with a walking tour of Viviers, including an organ recital in St. Vincent Cathedral. After the tour some folks played Petanque, and we all sampled Pastis. About 1:00pm the boat sailed for Tournon. The afternoon was at leisure as we sailed up river. The Chef gave tours of the kitchen to those interested. We arrived in Tournon about 9:30pm.

[GregnChris]

Day 7, Wednesday, Oct. 29: The boat made an early departure from Tournon (about 5:00am) and sailed upstream towards Vienne, arriving about 1:00pm. Vantage offered a choice between an easy and an energetic walking tour. We skipped the tours to meet a French friend and spend the day and dinner with her. The ship had its Captain’s Gala Dinner that night, but we missed it.

 

Day 8, Thursday, Oct. 30: The boat departed Vienne about 4:30am, but we slept right through it. We arrived in Lyon about 8:00am, followed by a panoramic bus tour of the city, including stops at Les Halles Paul Bocuse, and Fourviere Basilica. The traffic in Lyon was heavy, and such a change after our drives in the smaller roads of rural France. Vantage offered an optional (extra cost) tour to Perouges, which we took. It was another walled city, but quite different from Les Baux de Provence. We sampled some wine and a pizza like pastry. We got back to the ship about 6:30pm. Dinner this evening was served ashore at a local restaurant, Chez les Gones, in the area above Les Halles. This was the most disappointing meal of the trip. Not bad, just not up to the other meals we were served.

 

Day 9, Friday, Oct. 31: The ship departed Lyon about 3:00am and arrived in Macon about 11:00am. We slept through the departure without any problems, arising about 8:00am for breakfast, to discover thick fog on the river. At Macon we were met by our buses and taken to a local restaurant for lunch. It was in an old pottery building which is now a hotel. The lunch was good and the location beautiful. After lunch we visited the Cluny Abbey and then had a wine and cheese tasting in a local cave. After dinner aboard ship, the crew put on a show to entertain us.

 

Day 10, Saturday, Nov. 1: We had early buses (8:30am) to drive through the Beaujolais vineyards, and on to a visit the George Duboeuf Hameau du Vin, followed by lunch at their restaurant. This was an interesting stop. They have collected many of the old tools and items from used to produce wine in the region. They also explain how wine is made. After the museum tour, we had a nice lunch in the museum restaurant. During lunch, a group of “Knights of Wine” performed an “old ceremony”, inducting 4 lucky members of our ship into their ranks. It was all done in ancient dialect that not even the locals could understand. We returned to the ship about 4:00pm and had some time to walk around Macon.

 

Day 11, Sunday, Nov. 2: The ship departed Macon about 6:00am. As we cruised up the river, the Captain gave brief “tours” of the Wheelhouse. We arrived at Chalon sur Saone about noon, and ate lunch aboard ship. After lunch (1:30pm) we left on the buses for Beaune and a tour of the Hotel-Dieu. This was well worth the visit. We got back to the ship about 6:00pm. Dinner was prepared by a guest Chef.

 

Day 12, Monday, Nov. 3: Luggage was outside our cabin by 6:00am, and we disembarked the ship about 7:30am. We were bused to Dijon for a brief walking tour of the city center. After that we were taken to the TGV train station to catch our train to Paris. Box lunches were provided for the train trip. We were met at Gare de Lyon-Paris by buses and the groups were separated into those that were flying home the next day, and those that booked the Paris extension. As we were staying an extra 5 days in Paris, on our own, we were put in with the “flying home tomorrow” group. We were given a very nice panoramic bus tour of Paris, then dropped at the Pullman CDG Airport Hotel. Vantage had already checked us in, and we just picked up our keys and went to the room.

 

At this point, our trip deviated from the Vantage tour, so I won’t go into details here.

[stretchcruz]

Thank you for taking the time to post your review. It's always nice to read about all of the different lines

[Tom47]

Thanks for the review.

 

Tom

[whatnot]

Really enjoyed your review. Have not sailed Vantage but it looked like they did a great job with your cruise. Have done the south of France by car but not by river cruise. It is a lovely area. I love Pont du Gard. It is such a wonderful remnant of the Roman Empire's engineering skills. And I just love the small towns and their wonderful markets. You went to most of the major highlights of the area. You are getting me excited about possibly going back again to this area and doing it by river cruise.

[Hydrokitty]

Really enjoyed your review. Have not sailed Vantage but it looked like they did a great job with your cruise. Have done the south of France by car but not by river cruise. It is a lovely area. I love Pont du Gard. It is such a wonderful remnant of the Roman Empire's engineering skills. And I just love the small towns and their wonderful markets. You went to most of the major highlights of the area. You are getting me excited about possibly going back again to this area and doing it by river cruise.

 

Thanks for a lovely review. I've done a lot of Vantage trips, but did France for 3 weeks with Trafalgar, which was also wonderful. We visited many of the same places, so your review brought back some wonderful memories. Now you have me thinking of adding this tour to my bucket list!!

Edited November 18, 2014 by Hydrokitty

[EKML]

Great review. Glad you had a good time. We were on the cruise right after you, going downstream. Unfortunately, our weather was the exact opposite of yours-only a couple of days of sunshine, the other days rainy. The rain caused some flooding, and the high water made it impossible to travel downstream below Macon. That meant bus trips after that, and our sightseeing was limited because of the bus travel time. Some parts of our itinerary were eliminated, and we ended up spending our last two nights in a hotel in Avignon. We cruised for a total of one day!

 

Not much the crew could do, and our Cruise Director was great in trying to make the best of things. We just tried to enjoy our non-cruise (bus rides and walking in the rain), knowing that we had to live with the bad weather, and were still able to have a good time. Vantage did offer a small discount on a future trip. Think we'll try something else for our next vacation, and hope for better weather.

[GregnChris]

Great review. Glad you had a good time. We were on the cruise right after you, going downstream. Unfortunately, our weather was the exact opposite of yours-only a couple of days of sunshine, the other days rainy. . .

 

I am very sorry to hear about your bad weather. We were in Paris for 5 days after the cruise and heard that there was flooding in the southern region. We wondered if the reverse trip was affected. Sorry to hear it had such a dramatic effect on your cruise.

 

It sounds like you kept a positive attitude and got what you could from the experience. Here is hoping that you get glorious weather on your next trip to make up for it.

 

Greg

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

Thanks for the info ..

[lipoppop]

Thank you Greg, my interest has been activated. Now I have to activate the BW and the pocketbook.

Vantage does a similar itinerary for the whole sailing season. Was your cruise the same itinerary albeit more devoted to the culinary arts?

You said you were doing Paris on your own and you traveled with the post cruise trip group there. Did Vantage take you there or did you arrange your own transportation?

[GregnChris]

The itinerary is the same for the regular cruise and the culinary cruise. But they take extra effort for the food and bring guest chefs on-board for the culinary cruise.

 

We had friends on the same cruise that booked the Vantage extension to Paris. After the train ride to Paris, Vantage took them by bus on a Panorama tour of Paris and dropped them off at their hotel, Le Meridian Etoile.

 

The standard cruise, without extension, includes a rail transfer to Paris, a bus panorama tour of Paris, and an overnight at an airport hotel. Because of contract terms, Vantage was not able to book us into the Etoile for the one night, so we decided to stay at the airport the first night (it was paid for as part of the cruise). The next morning we purchased Paris subway passes, took the RER train into Paris and checked into the Le Meridian Etoile for the next 5 nights. We are Starwood members and stayed there on points.

 

I expect if I had asked, we could have been on the bus that went to the Etoile for the first night, instead of the airport. But we didn't try.

 

Greg

 

 

 

Thank you Greg, my interest has been activated. Now I have to activate the BW and the pocketbook.

Vantage does a similar itinerary for the whole sailing season. Was your cruise the same itinerary albeit more devoted to the culinary arts?

You said you were doing Paris on your own and you traveled with the post cruise trip group there. Did Vantage take you there or did you arrange your own transportation?

[lipoppop]

Thank you for the response.