From Lyon to Avignon, explore the vineyards, experience incredible food and interesting tours. Your voyage includes all the following:
7 nights on board the 5-star MS William Shakespeare
7 visits & tours
All meals
Complimentary on-board tea & coffee
Complimentary on-board Wi-Fi
Expert cruise director and concierge
All port charges & taxes
Carrying just 140 passengers and 35 crew members, you'll experience comfortable elegance onboard the MS William Shakespeare. All meals are included and a drinks package is available on request. Watch the hills of Provence from your cabin or get a 360 degree view from the sun deck while you enjoy the soaking pool with a glass of wine.
Seven nights on board in your choice of luxury cabin or suite.
Seven visits and tours, including Lyon, Arles, Avignon and Vienne; a wine tasting in Beaune, and excursions to the Ardèche Gorges, Popes’ Palace and the Pont du Gard
From Lyon to the Mediterranean, you'll experience the history of the region while enjoying local wines and food.
Arrive in Lyon, where your five-star floating hotel is moored in the picturesque historic center. The dedicated English-speaking crew will welcome you on board and help you to your cabin.
After settling in to your spacious and tastefully furnished accommodation, there’s time to familiarize yourself with this beautiful ship. Enjoy a delicious dinner onboard and get to know your traveling companions or get out and explore Lyon in the evening.
After our first delicious breakfast, we have a leisurely start enjoying a guided tour of Lyon, one of France’s most fascinating cities. In 43 BC the Romans founded the city, which subsequently grew in importance; Emperor Claudius, the conqueror of Britain, was born here. There are many Roman remains to see, but it was the production of silk that brought Lyon to prominence during the Middle Ages, and throughout the city, you can see signs of the wealth that poured in – Renaissance buildings, imposing churches and Europe’s largest pedestrian square, Place Bellecour, with a statue of Louis XIV as its focus.
The Old Town, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is crammed with antique shops and intriguing traboules – narrow covered passageways enabling silk merchants to transport their wares to the river without getting wet – that today are a joy to amble through. As well as its glorious architecture, Lyon is generally acknowledged as France’s (and to locals the world’s) gastronomic capital.
While you enjoy your first lunch, the ship quietly slips its mooring. Cruising upstream, we catch the first glimpses of the vine-clad slopes of the hazy green Beaujolais hills as we approach one of the world’s most revered red-wine-producing regions. On our left, we see the picturesque villages of Morgon, Fleury, Juliénas, Chénas and many more, while on the right you may be lucky enough to catch a glimpse of snow-capped Mont Blanc – Western Europe’s highest mountain.
Today we arrive in Chalon, the gateway to Burgundy and home of Nicéphore Niépce, the inventor of photography. On this morning’s tour, we see some of the pretty yet surprisingly small villages that produce some of the world’s most sublime wines – Meursault, Volnay, Pommard, Gevrey-Chambertin and many more.
Nearby is medieval Beaune, Burgundy’s wine capital, which is wonderful to wander around.
Of course you can’t visit Burgundy without sampling its amazing wines, so we visit the cellars of a leading traditional winemaker for a tour and tasting before returning to the ship for lunch.
Overnight the ship has cruised almost imperceptibly downstream and we enjoy breakfast in Vienne before our guided tour. Vienne is a treasure trove of historic remains, including the stunning Roman Temple of Augustus and Livia, one of only two edifices of this type in the whole of the country.
From the ship, a little train will take you to the top of the city, the Mont Pipet hill, a beautiful view onto the Rhône. As the train weaves through the charming, narrow streets of the old town, soak up the history of this fascinating place.
During lunch onboard, we cruise a picturesque section of the Rhône as the river squeezes and twists past Condrieu, Saint-Rambert-d’Albon and Saint- Vallier, with wooded cliffs rising high on both sides. Later we moor in the pretty provincial town of Tournon, with its imposing castle and tree-lined avenues on one side of the river with steep vine-covered hillsides on the other.
As we cruise downstream, you’ll catch glimpses of the Alps and, as we approach Valence, the landscape gradually becomes less green with more ochres and magentas, the houses have sloping terracotta roofs typical of the Mediterranean and the air carries heady aromas of pine and cypress.
After lunch, we explore one of France’s most outstanding landscapes – the Ardèche Gorges, whose scale is a fitting reminder of Mother Nature’s awesome power. Sheer limestone cliffs plunge almost 1,000 feet to the river’s blue waters, which elegantly snake their way through stupendous rock formations, culminating in a huge natural arch, the Pont d’Arc. After exploring, we return to the gentler slopes of the Rhône Valley, where our ship is moored in charming Viviers, a medieval town clustered around its 12th-century cathedral.
You awake under the azure skies of deepest Provence and amid the warm stone colors of Arles. A key stronghold on the Roman road to Spain, it was one of the empire’s richest possessions.
The disturbed but great genius of an artist Van Gogh lived in Arles for just over a year, from February 1888. It was his most prolific period and, inspired by Arles and the light and beauty of the Provençal countryside, he produced around 300 works, including The Night Café, The Sower and, of course, Sunflowers.
After lunch, we visit the amazing Pont du Gard Roman aqueduct, one of the wonders of the ancient world. No amount of fame can diminish the first sight of this 2,000-year-old structure.
The situation is lovely too, with pine- and cypress-covered hills adding to the harmonious setting. Rejoining the ship, we cruise along the Rhône and, during dinner, pass the imposing 15th-century castle at Tarascon standing guard on the river bank
The light catching the red roofs of Avignon’s majestic skyline is a sight to behold over breakfast, after which we embark on a guided tour of one of the most extraordinary and intriguing cities in France.
Most important is the stunning Popes’ Palace, made up of two buildings that together form the largest Gothic palace in the world. With turrets, towers, parapets, and other fortifications, its exterior resembles a mighty fortress. But to truly embrace the feel of papal Avignon, imagine yourself here during the Middle Ages amid the Palace’s rich furnishings and extravagant decoration, with cardinals, princes, and ambassadors milling about its candle-lit halls and corridors, while in the streets below countless pilgrims eagerly anticipate benediction. This was Avignon’s brief golden age when it was truly the center of Christendom.
After lunch you’re free to explore as you wish, perhaps visiting the nearby Petit Palais, the former home of the archbishops of Avignon, to cast a critical eye over the remarkable collection of over 300 paintings and sculptures from the Middle Ages and Renaissance, including works by Botticelli and Carpaccio. Or take a stroll on the iconic Pont d’Avignon, which, dramatically, ends halfway across the river, made famous by the melody we all recall from our first French lessons.
It’s our final afternoon so you may wish to do some shopping, or just find a quiet café in a shady Provençal square to watch the world go by. Perhaps though, return to the luxurious surroundings of our ship, finding a quiet spot to contemplate the many wondrous places you’ve seen and experienced over a quiet cup of tea!
This evening we enjoy the sumptuous Captain’s Dinner, with the chef serving specialties of the regions you’ve visited during your voyage of discovery.
After breakfast this morning, the crew bids you farewell before you disembark the ship, with time to look back on great memories from a superb trip.
Some members of our group will return to the airport to head home while others may want to extend their vacation with an optional custom add-on in Europe.