This was our third Viking.. after the Danube at Christmas (fabulous!) and the Rhine Getaway. We recommend Viking to all friends and family, as the experience is as close to perfect as you can get. From the preplanning and attentive calls when we had questions, to the air travel they handled, it all went smoothly. The trip itself was lovely! We were lucky with great weather the entire week. The ship's staff is outstanding, and Loren did his very best (exceptional) to make every guest feel welcomed and taken care of.. wish I could remember all his jokes.
The Lyon & Provence part of France is refreshingly free of the static we left in the states. Less noisy traffic, billboards, and boom boxes. Even in Lyon (the largest city), we had a great time walking around and enjoying the ambiance. Even the bus rides allowed passengers to catch up on their jet-lag sleeping. Maybe it was just me!
All of the towns were wonderful, with excellent tour guides. Who is going to complain about exceptional wine and sumptuous chocolate? We got to see a lot of the countryside, which in France, equals heaven. We averaged 6 miles a day walking on our tours.
Nice French balcony... clean and well-designed.