Everything Viking France: Normandy, Paris, Provence

[verodoodle]

2 hours ago, Peregrina651 said:

Our last day😥

 

Sunny and hot (which in my book means more than 70).🤯  Pollen count has been high and has not helped the upper respiratory issues. Bring your favorite remedies!

 

We rode into town with the included tour and parted ways with them at Notre Dame--after the best potty stop of the whole trip. 80 cents euro gets you one the cleanest public toilets you have ever seen. On the Place de la Concorde,  near the obelisk. Back on the bus a half hour later. Then a zig-zag drive past the Louvre and the Opera house and the Hotel del Ville, before getting off the bus and doing the rest of the day on our own. We toured the inside of Notre Dame, made sure to get at least a view of the gargoyles and the flying buttress before stopping for lunch at a little cafe right across the street from San Chappelle. After lunch, went into San Chapelle, famous for its stain glass windows. Especially on a sunny day, it will knock your socks off. 

 

Then we started walking along the river heading towards the Eiffel Tower. We didn't get that far. The temp and the pollen did us in. We wanted to find a cafe where we could quaff a cold one; no luck. 

 

We are on the 6am bus to the airport, so, time to say good night! 

 

Safe travels, and thank you for your insight to Frances finest.  We leave on it from Avignon in 22 days.  Our first river cruise, and you have answered most of our questions, and/or showed us where to find them.  

Thanks, 

Gail & Dave 😊

[deec]

Safe travels home Peregrina!

[Peregrina651]

23 hours ago, MURPHY27 said:

 

Did the included tour go to the bridge in Avignon (St Bénézet)?  When there years ago, some were dancing and singing “Sur  le Pont d'Avignon”.  

 

You do not visit it. If you want to walk out on the bridge, you have to it on your own.  There is a charge for it, which includes a very well done narrative that brings the bridge history to life. 

 

IMO, the bridge really does not lend itself to group tours. The space is awkward. 

[Peregrina651]

17 hours ago, deec said:

Safe travels home Peregrina!

 

Thanks, deec. It has been an uneventful day and we are in the limo heading home.  

 

We had a great time and  are looking forward to our next adventure, just as soon as we figure it out. 

[MURPHY27]

30 minutes ago, Peregrina651 said:

 

Thanks, deec. It has been an uneventful day and we are in the limo heading home.  

 

We had a great time and  are looking forward to our next adventure, just as soon as we figure it out. 

 

Welcome home.  Its been an enjoyable week thanks to your posts!

[CharTrav]

Gia’s you made it home safely!

[Host Jazzbeau]

9 hours ago, Peregrina651 said:

 

You do not visit it. If you want to walk out on the bridge, you have to it on your own.  There is a charge for it, which includes a very well done narrative that brings the bridge history to life. 

 

IMO, the bridge really does not lend itself to group tours. The space is awkward.

 

When we were in Avignon in 2015, the Senior rate for the bridge was €4.  I don't remember a narrative, but I do remember DW singing and dancing appropriately – and the view back to the city from the 'end' of the bridge is very nice.

Edited April 3, 2019 by Host Jazzbeau

[philw1776]

On 3/30/2019 at 8:34 PM, deec said:

I have been away from the board for a few weeks and WOW what I missed...lots of questions for our mid October cruise.  thanks to Peregrina for the live blog...awesome information!

 

As an American will I be satisfied with doing the Commonwealth tour?  I would like to see the tapestry (especially after Viking Ocean cruise introduction on the staircase )?

 

Ronni....can you please post your great Paris rental?  We are traveling with another couple so may be too small.  Murphy 27 ...who did you use for your driver to lePecq and how was fountainbleau?

 

Was Uber easy to use in Paris?  and to LePecq...still figuring that out.

All 3 generations of us Americans will be doing the Commonwealth Tour 15 July to see the Tapestry because of our Viking Ocean stairway lecture and because the granddaughters are studying it in high school.  I'll let you know if US Customs authorities revoke our passports.
Curious to know if we should expect anything uniquely interesting Sunday 14 July Bastile Day in Rouen.

 

[Peregrina651]

4 hours ago, philw1776 said:

All 3 generations of us Americans will be doing the Commonwealth Tour 15 July to see the Tapestry because of our Viking Ocean stairway lecture and because the granddaughters are studying it in high school.  I'll let you know if US Customs authorities revoke our passports.
Curious to know if we should expect anything uniquely interesting Sunday 14 July Bastile Day in Rouen.

 

 

 

http://en.normandie-tourisme.fr/calendar-of-events/july-604-2.html

[Cairn Mom]

 

On 4/1/2019 at 4:38 PM, peabody304 said:

 

What time is your flight, if you don't mind me asking. Our flights out are at 10:30; I'm just trying to get an idea of how early we might leave the ship.

We had a 9:30 AM flight from Marseille airport. For those ending in Lyon, that airport is closer to where the ship is docked. When we arrived, it only took us 30 minutes to get from that airport to the ship.

[Cairn Mom]

Hope your feeling better Peregrina. The pollen was really bad in Avignon too. You’re right, people should bring allergy meds. March worked well for us. Coming from the Northeast US, we don’t mind temps in the 50s and 60s for this sort of trip. It was good touring weather. 

[Peregrina651]

Back to peabody304's question about what time you leave the ship. Rule of thumb is that Viking will give you at least two to three hours at the airport prior to departure. They also try to send the buses full, so some people will wait longer than others at the airports. For a 10:19 flight from CDG, we left the ship in LePecq at 6 am and were at the airport by 7am. Be prepared for a lot of walking at CDG. Viking drops pax at Terminal 2F and then a Viking agent walks you to 2E and makes sure that you get to the correct ticketing counter. Since we were not checking any baggage, we used the kiosks to retrieve our boarding passes and then proceeded though security (we lucked out and got through very quickly).  Note, if you are shopping in any of the stores past security, you will need to show your boarding pass--even to just buy a bottle of water.

 

For Avignon to Marseille airport the travel time is also an hour.

 

 

[MURPHY27]

On 4/1/2019 at 4:38 PM, peabody304 said:

 

What time is your flight, if you don't mind me asking. Our flights out are at 10:30; I'm just trying to get an idea of how early we might leave the ship.

 

Viking strives to get you to the airport 3 hrs before international travel (with time to spare).  So I wouldnt be surprised if you leave the ship around 6:30

[Peregrina651]

On 3/16/2019 at 11:27 PM, Peregrina651 said:

The drive from the airport to our hotel was a piece of cake. GPS instructions were clear. Car is equipped with GPS A pleasant surprise.  Enterprise set it on English for us before we left the parking lot. More about car rental when I get back to real keyboard. 

 

So far our lodgings are fabulous. A B&B. But we are skipping the breakfast part. Driving inside the old walled city is an experience. Fortunately we chose the hotel on the street that enters the gate. More on cars and hotel when I learn more. 

 

In spite of delays in Denver, we met up at Marseille airport as planned and as scheduled. So far we have checked out one bar --meh-- and one restaurant--delicious. MWIGH--more when I get home!

 

  

 

Here is what I have to say about renting a car in the south of France.

 

I can only speak about Enterprise because that is the company we used--and we were very pleased with the ease of pick-up and drop-off. After the paper work was completed, we were escorted to our vehicle. Yes, you read me correctly, I did say escorted. The agent did a walk around the vehicle with us; she set the GPS on English for us and helped us enter our first destination. She spent a good 10 minutes with us and did not leave us until she was sure she had answered all of questions.  (BTW, drop off in Avignon was not quite as good because the agent looked at some dirt on the car and tried to tell us that it was a scratch, until my sister wet her finger and removed the dirt. He changed his mind about the scratch).

 

Now here are my caveats about renting a car in the south of France--and I did not do the driving. Enterprise for the most part does not have automatics available; can't speak for the other companies. After watching my sister drive us along some pretty narrow roads, here are my thoughts: if you can't already competently drive a stick shift with the same ease you drive an automatic, don't even consider a car rental. If you have reserved an automatic and they give you a manual, walk away. The back roads and tiny towns of southern France are not the place to be learning how to drive a stick. The last place you want to be stalling out is on a rotary/roundabout/traffic circle--and we went through dozens of them. The last place you want to be thinking about shifting gears and not the oncoming traffic is on the narrow back-roads. 

 

For those that do rent a car,

• the rule on the roundabouts is that you yield to the cars already in the roundabout. The rules differ from state to state in the US, so it is important to know this bit of information.
• Also, I shared a link for Driving in France. Read it.
• Memorize the picture with the various signs that you will see over the toll booths so that you know which lane you need to be in (otherwise, the tollbooths were fairly straight forward).
• Memorize the road signs, especially the DO NOT ENTER sign. INTERDIT means don't.  I don't care what your GPS says, if you see a do not enter sign, don't--and that did happen to us a couple of time. Good thing we had multiple navigators in the car using multiple devices to get us around.

 

For the record, I was able to navigate with off-line Google maps with the phone in airplane mode and location on. It gave me directions and I could search the map without internet. Another tip, from my sister, set the GPS to the parking garage near your destination and not the destination itself.

[CharTrav]

On 4/4/2019 at 10:17 AM, Peregrina651 said:

Note, if you are shopping in any of the stores past security, you will need to show your boarding pass--even to just buy a bottle of water.

 

 

Good point but not unique to CDG, is the case at ANY airport in Europe.  I would hazard a guess that this is the case for ANY Duty-Free shop in any airport.  They want proof you're flying international and thus eligible for duty free.  I had to produce my boarding pass when I was flying out of Brussels 2 yrs ago -- and all I was buying was some boxes of Ricola lozenges!

Edited April 5, 2019 by CharTrav

[Peregrina651]

1 hour ago, CharTrav said:

Good point but not unique to CDG, is the case at ANY airport in Europe.  I would hazard a guess that this is the case for ANY Duty-Free shop in any airport.  They want proof you're flying international and thus eligible for duty free.  I had to produce my boarding pass when I was flying out of Brussels 2 yrs ago -- and all I was buying was some boxes of Ricola lozenges!

 

I am just rolling my eyeballs over the whole thing. Probably prevents employees from shopping in the stores.

[Respbj]

5 hours ago, Peregrina651 said:

 

Here is what I have to say about renting a car in the south of France.

 

I can only speak about Enterprise because that is the company we used--and we were very pleased with the ease of pick-up and drop-off. After the paper work was completed, we were escorted to our vehicle. Yes, you read me correctly, I did say escorted. The agent did a walk around the vehicle with us; she set the GPS on English for us and helped us enter our first destination. She spent a good 10 minutes with us and did not leave us until she was sure she had answered all of questions.  (BTW, drop off in Avignon was not quite as good because the agent looked at some dirt on the car and tried to tell us that it was a scratch, until my sister wet her finger and removed the dirt. He changed his mind about the scratch).

 

Now here are my caveats about renting a car in the south of France--and I did not do the driving. Enterprise for the most part does not have automatics available; can't speak for the other companies. After watching my sister drive us along some pretty narrow roads, here are my thoughts: if you can't already competently drive a stick shift with the same ease you drive an automatic, don't even consider a car rental. If you have reserved an automatic and they give you a manual, walk away. The back roads and tiny towns of southern France are not the place to be learning how to drive a stick. The last place you want to be stalling out is on a rotary/roundabout/traffic circle--and we went through dozens of them. The last place you want to be thinking about shifting gears and not the oncoming traffic is on the narrow back-roads. 

 

For those that do rent a car,

• the rule on the roundabouts is that you yield to the cars already in the roundabout. The rules differ from state to state in the US, so it is important to know this bit of information.
• Also, I shared a link for Driving in France. Read it.
• Memorize the picture with the various signs that you will see over the toll booths so that you know which lane you need to be in (otherwise, the tollbooths were fairly straight forward).
• Memorize the road signs, especially the DO NOT ENTER sign. INTERDIT means don't.  I don't care what your GPS says, if you see a do not enter sign, don't--and that did happen to us a couple of time. Good thing we had multiple navigators in the car using multiple devices to get us around.

 

For the record, I was able to navigate with off-line Google maps with the phone in airplane mode and location on. It gave me directions and I could search the map without internet. Another tip, from my sister, set the GPS to the parking garage near your destination and not the destination itself.

We rented out of Aix and returned to Marseille and it was horrible at the airport so they just gave us an upgraded car and no help at all, here are keys go (now this was back in 2009 so no GPS or NAT-SAT as they call it in the car) ok so we drove all over Provence for a week returned to Marseille train station as going on to Nice and the person wanted to charge us 2,000euro for the wheels being messed up (some small scratch that was probably already there) and since this was a upgrated car it was more.  Well lots of yelling (Yes I was on the verge of being called an Ugly American) till finally the manager came over and called the Aix lot and they agreed no one checked the car with us at all so we didn't pay the charge but almost missed our train as our 4 other friends were waiting for us, we ran for the train.  But after that when in Europe always check the car with an agent not like here in the states with Hertz if there is a small scratch they don't care. We had a problem last year in England after asking for GPS and our UK friends calling to confirm the GPS was going to be in the car, we get there and no GPS in the small car we rented, had to rent and pay the difference for a bigger car with GPS.  My UK friends were horrified but lesson learned, in Europe it's different.  This year before our Frances Finest cruise we will be in the Lake District of UK renting from Hertz with GPS included in our automatic (we pay the difference as we have used stick shift in Europe but in UK/Ireland we go with automatic as everything is on the other side, too confusing). 

It's been a pleasure hearing about your trip, this is the first time in Europe in summer, as we usually do shoulder seasons, and Christmas market time.  This is our 5th river and 3 ocean with Viking, love their ships and crew. 

[Host Jazzbeau]

When we are renting a car in Europe, I bring my TomTom GPS with me.  I buy the map for the country before leaving the US – cheapest version available, since I don't need any future updates.  I much prefer the familiar interface and the fact that the navigator can program 'favorites' at home or in the hotel and also use it while the car is moving.  The one problem we had was that the US cable's cigarette-lighter plug didn't fit the car in London [a Maserati, so who knows which country standard it was following or just Italian dimension tolerances, as that same plug had worked in France and Spain on other trips] – luckily I also had a USB cable for the GPS and there was a USB port on the dashboard = problem solved!

[Peregrina651]

On 4/2/2019 at 10:47 PM, Host Jazzbeau said:

 

When we were in Avignon in 2015, the Senior rate for the bridge was €4.  I don't remember a narrative, but I do remember DW singing and dancing appropriately – and the view back to the city from the 'end' of the bridge is very nice.

 

An audioguide.

[gers]

We are on a Viking Paris to Normandy trip in June 2019.  Thinking ahead to another trip, and wondering if they have future excursions deals when you are on board. If they do, what advantage do you have by booking then?

[Peregrina651]

On 4/1/2019 at 4:29 PM, Cairn Mom said:

We went near to it but not on it. 

I also want to add that the ship docks in Avignon. It’s a short walk into the walled city. Many people stayed in town after our walking tour. We saw others walking back after lunch.

Just a note about flights. It seems that the majority of the people on this cruise have to leave a 3AM to get to the airport in Marseille in time for their flights. It’s 90 minutes away from Avignon. If you don’t want this to be you then pay the $50 per person and  don’t let Viking book you a flight before 9:30 AM. We are leaving at 6:30AM which is still really early but not ridiculous. 

 

If you let Viking choose your flights then you are stuck with whatever is left after those who have paid the Custom Air fee and chosen their flights. With all that we have paid for these cruises, we should at least be happy with out flights.

[chatdad]

Great thread.  Flying out this coming Monday (praying the weather cooperates a bit more than weather station calling for).  Doing only the Lyon to Avignon cruise as it's our first river cruise (a trial balloon).  Couple of questions:

 

1.  Are cargo pants acceptable for dinner?  I know it's a more relaxed cruise than ocean cruising (which we are very familiar with) or should I pack a pair of slacks?

 

2.  Any recommendation on best place to buy chocolates?  

 

 

[MURPHY27]

47 minutes ago, chatdad said:

Great thread.  Flying out this coming Monday (praying the weather cooperates a bit more than weather station calling for).  Doing only the Lyon to Avignon cruise as it's our first river cruise (a trial balloon).  Couple of questions:

 

1.  Are cargo pants acceptable for dinner?  I know it's a more relaxed cruise than ocean cruising (which we are very familiar with) or should I pack a pair of slacks?

 

2.  Any recommendation on best place to buy chocolates?  

 

 

 

While passengers generally don’t dress up, they do kick it up a small notch at dinner.  So you won’t be denied entering, but you will find dinner attire is collared shirts and slacks and a rare jacket for men who prefer them..  Women wear slacks, some may wear non/baggy jeans, nice blouses/sweaters & you might see an occasional skirt or dress.  But mostly women are in slacks w a scarf or jewelry to dress up the top in the evening.

Hot summer evenings find passengers dress a bit more casual, still collared shirts for men and shirts are very rare.

Edited April 7, 2019 by MURPHY27
Sp

[Cairn Mom]

6 hours ago, MURPHY27 said:

 

While passengers generally don’t dress up, they do kick it up a small notch at dinner.  So you won’t be denied entering, but you will find dinner attire is collared shirts and slacks and a rare jacket for men who prefer them..  Women wear slacks, some may wear non/baggy jeans, nice blouses/sweaters & you might see an occasional skirt or dress.  But mostly women are in slacks w a scarf or jewelry to dress up the top in the evening.

Hot summer evenings find passengers dress a bit more casual, still collared shirts for men and shirts are very rare.

We just returned. In the evening, most men wore pants and collared shirts. Cargo pants and a collared shirt would pass muster. A few nights, DH wore dark jeans and a collared shirt and he had company.  Women didn’t wear blue jeans or exercise clothes  to dinner. They wore mostly black pants/jeans/leggings and a nice top. I actually joked with my husband about the “river cruise uniform” lol. Ladies, I suggest you bring along a sweater or wrap.

When we went on the Rhine Getaway in July 2017, dress was the same. Some ladies wore sundresses but it wasn’t the norm. Nobody wore sneakers to dinner on either cruise. 

[Peregrina651]

8 hours ago, chatdad said:

Great thread.  Flying out this coming Monday (praying the weather cooperates a bit more than weather station calling for).  Doing only the Lyon to Avignon cruise as it's our first river cruise (a trial balloon).  Couple of questions:

 

1.  Are cargo pants acceptable for dinner?  I know it's a more relaxed cruise than ocean cruising (which we are very familiar with) or should I pack a pair of slacks?

 

2.  Any recommendation on best place to buy chocolates?  

 

 

 

As far as dress, I am finding, as you see from the varying descriptions already given, that each cruise has its own vibe--and you won't know what the vibe will be until you board. For the most part, I find that with in the stated dress code, people tend to dress to suit themselves and that you will find everything from jeans to slinky backless little black dresses--and that there are always outliers.