Everything Viking France: Normandy, Paris, Provence

[TerryLipford]

17 hours ago, Peregrina651 said:

Fabulous. Thank you, Jeff. I always love it when it is show and tell.  

 

Here is a question for everybody else. Did you all dock in Tarascon? Viking likes to change things up. Or maybe it is the river master who does it. 

When we did the Avignon to Lyon Viking Cruise in 2015, the ship tied up in Tarascon and we were taken by bus to Arles. Wasn't a lengthy bus ride, and Arles is an interesting place to walk-about.

[Peregrina651]

Planning on driving in France?  I found this website interesting: https://about-france.com/driving.htm#Fuel_prices

[dolllover]

Has anyone done the optional tour "In the Footsteps of Van Gogh?" Pretty pricey but it's an all day tour including lunch.

Glad to see the 2019 tours are up on the website. 

 

 

[OneSixtyToOne]

13 hours ago, dolllover said:

Has anyone done the optional tour "In the Footsteps of Van Gogh?" Pretty pricey but it's an all day tour including lunch.

Glad to see the 2019 tours are up on the website. 

 

 

 

We took this tour in 2016. We enjoyed it a lot. The tour guide was excellent. To get the most out of it you need to be familiar with some of Van Gogh's works and his life, as it takes you to the places he painted and where he died. The town is marked with signage depicting his works at the vantage he painted it, such as the Church at Auvers and The Wheatfield with Crows. You also visit his grave site where he is buried alongside his brother Theo. The day we went it rained most of the day, but just when we arrived at the grave, the sun finally came out. It was a magical moment as the grave site is strewn with sunflowers that visitors have left.

 

As far as logistics are concerned, everyone aboard does the included Monet's Garden tour in the morning. Since you break for lunch at a picturesque old mill and continue on the Van Gogh portion, you will have the same tour guide, bus and group of people for the entire day. This means your group should be much smaller for the Monet tour. 

 

Our coach arrived first at Monet's Garden and our tour guide hurried us in at the opening to the garden pond area so we were the only ones present for picture taking. About 15 minutes later the place was packed with tourists. Our guide really did a great job getting the most our time there. She was an art historian and passionate about Monet and Van Gogh and really brought the experience alive.

 

That being said you really need have an interest in the artist to enjoy this tour. It's not for everyone.

Edited December 13, 2018 by OneSixtyToOne

[OneSixtyToOne]

Edited December 13, 2018 by OneSixtyToOne

[dolllover]

32 minutes ago, OneSixtyToOne said:

 

We took this tour in 2016. We enjoyed it a lot. The tour guide was excellent. To get the most out of it you need to be familiar with some of Van Gogh's works and his life, as it takes you to the places he painted and where he died. The town is marked with signage depicting his works at the vantage he painted it, such as the Church at Auvers and The Wheatfield with Crows. You also visit his grave site where he is buried alongside his brother Theo. The day we went it rained most of the day, but just when we arrived at the grave, the sun finally came out. It was a magical moment as the grave site is strewn with sunflowers that visitors have left.

 

As far as logistics are concerned, everyone aboard does the included Monet's Garden tour in the morning. Since you break for lunch at a picturesque old mill and continue on the Van Gogh portion, you will have the same tour guide, bus and group of people for the entire day. This means your group should be much smaller for the Monet tour. 

 

Our coach arrived first at Monet's Garden and our tour guide hurried us in at the opening to the garden pond area so we were the only ones present for picture taking. About 15 minutes later the place was packed with tourists. Our guide really did a great job getting the most our time there. She was an art historian and passionate about Monet and Van Gogh and really brought the experience alive.

 

That being said you really need have an interest in the artist to enjoy this tour. It's not for everyone.

Thank you! That was very helpful.

[acwmom]

Here's a picture of the church mentioned above, along with his painting. We weren't familiar with his individual works or his life, and still found the tour to be very interesting. (We did this as a half-day tour with Uniworld, but my guess is the guides are pretty similar across lines)

 

Robin

[Peregrina651]

15 hours ago, dolllover said:

Has anyone done the optional tour "In the Footsteps of Van Gogh?" Pretty pricey but it's an all day tour including lunch.

Glad to see the 2019 tours are up on the website. 

 

 

 

😭😭☹️  Not being offered on our sailing (March 19 FF, March 26 Normandy) ☹️😭😭

 

In other words, if this tour is high on your must do list, don't plan on going at this time of the year.

[dolllover]

1 minute ago, Peregrina651 said:

 

😭😭☹️  Not being offered on our sailing (March 19 FF, March 26 Normandy) ☹️😭😭

 

In other words, if this tour is high on your must do list, don't plan on going at this time of the year.

 I'm so sorry to hear that! We're doing the Rhone cruise in October 2019 and it's offered now on the website. The problem is it includes a painting class which is fine for me but not DH. 

[dolllover]

58 minutes ago, acwmom said:

Here's a picture of the church mentioned above, along with his painting. We weren't familiar with his individual works or his life, and still found the tour to be very interesting. (We did this as a half-day tour with Uniworld, but my guess is the guides are pretty similar across lines)

 

Robin

Wow! I'm a big Van Gogh fan so this tour is up my alley. 

[acwmom]

The picture I posted and the one of his grave are both in Auvers-sur-Oise, a suburb of Paris. We did our excursion on the Paris-Normandy route, stopping in Conflans. It looks like the Rhone excursion is to different sites. Peregrina, if you have extra time in Paris, it shouldn't be too hard to get to Auvers-sur-Oise. We went in late March. A little chilly and drizzly, which was perfect:-)

 

Robin

[Peregrina651]

24 minutes ago, dolllover said:

 I'm so sorry to hear that! We're doing the Rhone cruise in October 2019 and it's offered now on the website. The problem is it includes a painting class which is fine for me but not DH. 

 

Okay. I was wrong!!!! OneSixtytoOne's post confused me completely because it talks about doing Monet's Garden in the morning and the Van Gogh in the afternoon, when in truth they are offered on two different rivers, the former is Normandy and the later is on the Rhone. So of course there wasn't a Van Gogh tour being offered when I checked on tours the day we are in Giverny;  there is however a Van Gogh tour offered when the are in Arles.

 

31 minutes ago, Peregrina651 said:

 

😭😭☹️  Not being offered on our sailing (March 19 FF, March 26 Normandy) ☹️😭😭

 

In other words, if this tour is high on your must do list, don't plan on going at this time of the year.

 

I take back what I said, the Van Gogh tour will be offered in Arles on the March 19 sailing.

[OneSixtyToOne]

Sorry about the confusion. We were on the Paris and Normandy Tour. Apparently they offer a similar named optional tour on two different river cruises.

[Peregrina651]

3 hours ago, OneSixtyToOne said:

Sorry about the confusion. We were on the Paris and Normandy Tour. Apparently they offer a similar named optional tour on two different river cruises.

 

Actually, I vote that we blame it on either Viking for having two tours with similar names or Van Gogh for having ties to so many different places.

 

I think also we now realize that when we talk about the Van Gogh tours, we are going to have to identify them by town.

[San Diego Ronni]

My friend, Linda Lewis, and I are booked on France's Finest beginning March 26, 2019.  We are both widows (earlier this year for me) and are looking forward to this trip.  We are booked on both ships' included excursions, but are considering some others and are also interested to know if anyone has planned excursions on their own.  I have been so busy with "things" since my husband's death in May that I haven't been able to devote the amount of time to research for this trip as I did in the many other cruises my husband and I went on together, so any info is appreciated!  Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all....

[OneSixtyToOne]

12 minutes ago, San Diego Ronni said:

My friend, Linda Lewis, and I are booked on France's Finest beginning March 26, 2019.  We are both widows (earlier this year for me) and are looking forward to this trip.  We are booked on both ships' included excursions, but are considering some others and are also interested to know if anyone has planned excursions on their own.  I have been so busy with "things" since my husband's death in May that I haven't been able to devote the amount of time to research for this trip as I did in the many other cruises my husband and I went on together, so any info is appreciated!  Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all....

 

I see on your previous post that you will also be in London. I highly recommend London Walks:

http://www.walks.com/ 

[Peregrina651]

Ronni, we (DH, DS, BIL and I) are sticking with the tours offered by the ship. In some places we are doing optional tours and in some places just the included. The rest of the time we will be getting around on our own, especially in Paris. We are already planning a sundown visit to the Eiffel Tower on changeover day--because watch the city turn from daylight to the pinky glow of sodium vapor lights is kind of cool, especially when accompanied by a cup of hot chocolate.

 

(In the meantime, since we are on the same sailing, let's chat on the roll call. )

Edited December 24, 2018 by Peregrina651

[dolllover]

DH and I will be going with Viking on the Rhone with the Paris and Nice extension in Oct. Question I have instead of doing the included city tour of Paris would it be possible to hire a guide or just do Versailles on our own for the day since that would give us more time to see Versailles. Open to suggestions since I'm not too excited on doing the city tour having been to Paris already. 

[jrkstl]

Yes, you may skip the included city tour. In our Paris extension, we did half of the tour, then left the group so that we could continue on to Ste Chapelle, etc. 

Simply inform the Viking staff of your intentions. 

FYI - Viking also offers a guided trip to Versailles that you might want to look into. 

 

Jeff

[dolllover]

3 hours ago, jrkstl said:

Yes, you may skip the included city tour. In our Paris extension, we did half of the tour, then left the group so that we could continue on to Ste Chapelle, etc. 

Simply inform the Viking staff of your intentions. 

FYI - Viking also offers a guided trip to Versailles that you might want to look into. 

 

Jeff

 

Thank you Jeff. From a review I read about the Versailles excursion with Viking is that it was really good but too short and since there is so much to see including the gardens I might take a separate tour. Have to figure this out. Thanks for the suggestion on taking the bus tour and leaving early from that.

[Peregrina651]

All Roll Calls for France's Finest, Paris & Normandy, Lyon & Provence:

 

• All Viking Paris Heart of Normandy cruises
• All Viking 2018 Lyon & Provence
• All Viking Paris & Normandy 2018 cruises
• All Viking France's Finest 2018
• ALL 2019 Viking FRANCE'S FINEST
• ALL Viking 2019 Lyon & Provence
• All 2020 Viking Paris & the Heart of Normandy
• France’s Finest May 31, 2019
• Viking Paris to Normandy July 20
• Viking Rinda Sept 2018 Paris to Normandy
• Viking France's Finest Cruise, September 24, 2019
• Viking France's Finest 9/2 -9/16
• Paris & The Heart of Normandy Viking Rinda Aug 1 - 2018
• Viking: Avignon to Lyon: April 14, 2019
• Viking France's Finest || 11-25 July 2018

• Viking: Avignon to Lyon: May 21- May 28, 2019 & Paris 3 day post

   

[Peregrina651]

I was looking for an excuse to bump this back to page 1 and it just fell into my lap-- an addition to the list of helpful links:

 

• Rhone, Rhone, Rhone Your Boat; Lyon & Provence on the Viking Heimdal and Paris Too!
• Viking River Cruises "France's Finest"
• Paris and the Heart of Normandy Captured Our Hearts! Full Trip Report - Viking Rolf
• Viking, Lyon to Avignon, with pre-cruise Paris extension March 2018
• Normandy beaches
• Viking Dailies for Lyon to Avignon (Thank you, jrkstl)
• Viking River France's Finest - Nice extension from Avignon
• Paris transfer question
• Viking Kadlin Paris to Normandy Beaches

• Le Pecq (Viking Port) to Versailles

Also, I guess we should have a reminder here about the Ports of Call forum as another place on Cruise Critic to find helpful information from fellow travelers about the various ports of call.

[Peregrina651]

Updating again:

 

• Rhone, Rhone, Rhone Your Boat; Lyon & Provence on the Viking Heimdal and Paris Too!
• Viking River Cruises "France's Finest"
• Paris and the Heart of Normandy Captured Our Hearts! Full Trip Report - Viking Rolf
• Viking, Lyon to Avignon, with pre-cruise Paris extension March 2018
• Normandy beaches
• Viking Dailies for Lyon to Avignon (Thank you, jrkstl)
• Viking River France's Finest - Nice extension from Avignon
• Paris transfer question
• Viking Kadlin Paris to Normandy Beaches

• Le Pecq (Viking Port) to Versailles

• Need Paris hotel advice 

[Peregrina651]

Time to start a third list, this time for helpful non-Cruise Critic links:

 

• Driving in France

[lackcreativity]

Peregrina,

 

I am looking at the Viking Lyon & Provence river cruise with an extension on the French Riviera as our next cruise (after the two we have booked - so a long way out). I guess it's time to go back and read through all the tidbits here! Thanks for setting this up.