Lyon & Provence Cruise on the Viking Delling

3/26/2024 to 4/6/2024

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Page 1 – Embarkation, Ship, Cabin, Entertainment, Activities; Ports of Call: Avignon, Arles
Page 2 – Ports of Call: Avignon, Vivieres
Page 3 - Ports of Call: Tourmon, Lyon - Day 1
Page 4 - Ports of Call: Lyon - Day 2, Paris Extension Day 1 & Day 2
Page 5 - Ports of Call: Paris Extension Day 2 (Continued) & Day 3-4

Day 5 - Tourmon, Scenic Sailing, Vienne

The weather cleared up and we were looking forward to a ride on the Tourmon Steam Train. This was an included tour that started at 9:00 AM. If you passed on the tour, you would stay on the ship for some scenic cruising to an interim stop where the ship would pick up those on this tour. Everyone loaded onto the busses to head to the train station. It was a short ride there.

We had another wonderful guide, Laurence. She told us that the train would depart at 10:00 AM, so we had time to go to the shop and/or look around.

I was anxious to see the steam driven locomotive. This line has two of them. One was built in 1902 and the other that we were taking was built in 1932. Before I got to the front of the train, I went into one of the empty passenger cars to take photos before it filled up.

When I came to the engine, the fireman was shoveling coal into the furnace, so I couldn’t get inside photos.

I went to the front to get some photos of the antique locomotive. It was in great shape.

When I finished those photos, the fireman was gone, and I was able to get photos inside the engine. I was surprised at how large the coal chunks were. Laurence told us that the coal had to come from either Russia or Poland.

When I was returning to the shopping area, I noticed a building that was a museum. I wondered if it was even open since no one was there.

It wasn’t a large museum, but there were interesting things to look at.

The highlight was the blue salon car. It was made for the wealthier passengers and looked quite comfortable.

When I returned to the shop to wait to load up, I told everyone I saw from the ship to make sure to check out the museum. They also didn’t know it was there and thanked me afterwards for the tip. Once on the train Laurence told us more about the ride we were about to experience. As with most of the tours, we were provided with Whispers that allowed her to talk through her device directly to everyone on the tour. She told us about the old bridge we would pass over shortly after leaving the station. It was a nice one.

Shortly after the bridge, we saw water pouring over a dam. The heavy rain we experienced the previous day affected much of France. Plus, there had been heavy rains the days before we arrived in Avignon.

The train windows were dirty which made taking photos through them less desirable. I was able to walk out of the car to the open landing where I could take unobstructed photos. It was much better.

About fifteen minutes into the ride the train stopped. We were there for a while with nothing happening. Laurence told us that the heavy rain caused a large rock to fall on the tracks that they were trying to move. It was apparently too big to move, and we had to return to the station. I was still able to get some nice photos of the area, but we missed out on the best part of the ride.

Rafael came up with a good plan B for us. We could take a half-hour walk through the town of Tourmon before we went to meet the Delling further upriver in Andance. That sounded great, since Tourmon looked like a pretty village.

As we got close to the station, I was able to take a short video of the water pouring over the dam on the way back.

I had to take some more photos of locomotive in the sun.

Laurence told everyone to just take a few minutes and get back on the bus for the short Tourmon walking tour. I wish that she had told us a specific time to be back on the bus, since one couple decided to take 20 minutes to join us. So, we missed seeing Tourmon.

Once back on the Delling we could take photos of the town of Andance before we headed back upriver to our next port, Vienne.

The scenic cruising was rather pleasant with the rolling hills covered in vineyards. We were cruising through wine country.

When we docked in Vienne, we could see the remains of an old tower on a hill that was built in 1260 AD.

Since we would be leaving Vienne early in the morning to go to Lyon, we were having an hour and a half walking tour that started at 4:45 PM. Our great guide was Sley.

We started our walk down the tree lined streets.

Our first stop was at the Vienne Cathedral. The groundbreaking for the church was in 1130 AD. It was completed in 1251 AD, with the current façade added in 1529 AD. It is an important cathedral in that a pope was crowned there and the Council of Vienne met there in 1312 AD. The council dissolved the Knights Templar, labeled them as heretics and took all their property.

I was surprised that we could enter the church with it being Easter Sunday. I’m glad we were able to. The interior is very nice with gorgeous stained glass.

Below is some of the stained glass.

Sley next showed us the Temple of Augustus and Livia. This is a small part of the original Roman temple that was built in the first century AD. It is considered to be one of the best preserved Roman temples in the world.

I walked around to the other side to get a different angle on the ancient building. It is amazing that it is still standing after almost 2,000 years.

Close by was an unusual looking tower.

Sley showed us a plaque dedicated to Thomas Jefferson. It proclaims Jefferson’s love of France and thanks him for assisting in the writing of their constitution and bill of rights.

A more humorous sight was the metal statue of a cow eating grass.

The streets were empty, and we were able to enjoy the walk.

We passed by the Cloister of Saint-Andre-Le-Bas. We didn’t go inside this 12th century abbey.

We continued our tour seeing some nice buildings including the town hall.

We next came to the Archeological Garden of Cybele. This area was once a part of the 2nd century Roman forum of Vienne.

Across from the garden was a large mural on the side of a building. Sley told us about the people portrayed in the scene.

We could see the Chapelle Notre Dame de la Salette on the hill in the background.

We continued our walk through the lovely town and came to the Musee Archeologique Saint-Pierre. It was originally a 5th century church but is now a very nice museum from what I saw online. It looked like it had been shut down, but it was probably just closed for Easter.

Even with the shortened train ride, we thoroughly enjoyed the day. Sunny weather makes touring so much better.

Day 6 - Lyon Day 1

The Delling left Vienne at 5:00 AM. It would only be a 3.5-hour trip to Lyon, our last port on the cruise. As we cruised into Lyon, we passed by the Museum of Confluences. The science center and anthropology museum opened in 2014. It is an unusual looking building. Certaintly different from the other architecture we would see in Lyon.

Another unusual looking building was just upriver on the other side, the L’îlie Ô theater. We originally thought that it was a floating hotel until I Googled it.

In front of us were four tall towers. We would find out later that below the towers were some large swimming pools.

The bridge in front of us had the initials RF on it. As we had seen this in other places, it stood for the Republic of France.

We approached our docking space, which was next to the AMA Amacello, which was next to the Viking Hermod. so we had to go up to the sun deck, go over the Amacello's sundeck and come down the Hermods stairs to their deck 3 where we were able to exit to ground level.

For the morning, we had a panoramic tour of Lyon. Our wonderful guide was Christêle.

We boarded the bus and headed up the hill to the Notre Dame Basilica. We could see it in the distance. Christêle said that the building is nicknamed “the upside-down elephant”, since the four towers look like the legs of an elephant that is laying on its back. It kind of does look that way.

We passed by an area where we could see a portion of the ruins of a Roman amphitheater. I had to take the photo through the window on the opposite side of the bus, so I didn’t get much of it.

When we arrived at top of the hill, we could see the basilica in all its splendor. The bell tower has a large, gilded statue of Mary on top. The basilica was built with private funds between 1872 and 1884 and is dedicated to the Virgin Mary. They believe that she saved the city from the 1643 AD bubonic plague that ravaged Europe.

The exterior of the building has lots of beautiful decorations and fine detail to take in.

There is also a statue of Pope John Paul XXIII who visited in 1986.

Along one side of the building is a communications tower that looks like a smaller version of the Eiffel Tower.

From the side of the basilica I could see the copper statue of Archangel Michael fighting the dragon.

Before entering the church, we walked to the terrace behind it to see the panoramic view of the Lyon below. What a great view!

I saw the back side of the St. John the Baptist Cathedral that we would see later on the tour.

The city allowed a few skyscrapers to be built, which were very unpopular with the residents. No more are supposed to be built, and hopefully they won’t.

The opera house has a semi-cylindrical glass-domed roof. It is nicknamed “the Toaster”. Quite appropriate. The town hall with ornately decorated domes fits in much better with the other buildings.

When I entered the basilica, I was blown away with the beauty.

The mosaics all around the building are just stunning. This is certainly one of the most beautiful churches I have ever visited, and I have been to so many of them.

Christêle only gave us about fifteen minutes of free time to see the church’s interior. Many didn’t get to go inside since they had to use the restrooms. It was such a shame we didn’t have more time there. It is a must visit place.

We next came down the hill seeing the beautiful sights along the way. I also took every opportunity to take different angles of the basilica.

We stopped along the Rhone on the other side of the river from where the Delling was docked. Christêle told us about a statue of Annie and Regis Neyret. They are credited with saving Lyon’s old town that many wanted to tear down to put in a new highway at one time. The area was in disrepair and was considered to be unliveable. Thank goodness for their efforts. It is a wonderful old town.

We walked through the streets with Christêle telling us about the different buildings and shops we were seeing.

One of the streets was named Rue du Boeuf or Street of Beef. Since many people couldn’t read at the time, statues were erected in areas to show what items could be purchased in the area. Accordingly a cow statue was on the corner.

She stopped at a square where we would see the Charvet Clock perform on the hour. The clock was made in 1853 and was restored in 2022 by a local watchmaker. We were there a few minutes before 10:00 AM to see it in action. It was entertaining.

Lyon has many private passageways to get from one place to the other. They are on private property, but people can use them based on agreements with the city who fixed them up for use. We used several during our tour. It seemed strange to open a door on private property to walk through their passageway.

One passageway led to a courtyard with a tall tower with a circular staircase going all the way up.

In another passageway we could look up and see residence balconies. We were told to not speak loudly so we wouldn’t bother the residents.

Christêle told us that we should go to a bakery and try one of their pralines. They are nothing like the New Orleans pralines that I am very fond of. She pointed out one that she recommended. I liked the marker on the building.

We entered a square where the St. John the Baptist cathedral was located. We had seen the back side of it from the basilica. It had a gorgeous exterior, but it wasn’t open when we were there.

We were then given some free time to do what we wanted on our own. In the center of the square in front of the cathedral was a pretty statue.

From the square I was able to get some photo of the statues of Mary and Archangel Michael from the front on the Notre Dame Basilica.

We wanted to try a praline, but the place that was recommended had a very long line. We walked down the street and found a bakery that had some smaller ones that Cathy and I could share. They were also very tasty. I still prefer the American pralines.

With the sun shining on the old town side, everything looked so beautiful.

When the bus arrived to take us back to the Delling, I was able to take photos out of the window while we drove over the bridge. We saw the colorful flower tree and swimming pools under the tall towers I had seen in the morning when we docked.

We arrived back at the ship at around 12:30 PM. Our next tour was at 2:00 PM, so we would have to rush through lunch. We were taking the optional Timeless Town of Pérouges tour with another excellent guide, Sylvie.

We wanted to take this tour to see a town that hasn’t changed much since the 1500’s. It is recognized as Les Plus Beaux Villages de France, meaning the most beautiful villages of France. It was only a 45-minute bus ride to the town. Sylvie told us the story of how the town was booming in the 18th century. However, in the 19th century roads and railroads were rerouted resulting in the population dropping from 1,500 residents to just 12. Everything turned around in the early 20th century with the town being restored and becoming a popular tourist attraction.

When we got off the bus, we could see the back of the church. Sylvie paused at a map of the city to show us how it was just a circle, and we could easily get back to the entrance if we were to get lost.

The interior of the church was plain, but the ceiling was attractive.

We left the church and entered the town through the arched entrance.

We came to the other side of the church on the ring road.

It was a treat to walk along narrow village streets. It was a charming and lovely place.

We stopped at a shop where Sylvie pointed out the horizontal shutters on a shop. The bottom shutter was used to display goods.

We continued and could see a large open area ahead.

In the center of the square was a large linden tree that was believed to have been planted in 1792. That is an old tree. It has been supported to help it get even older.

This felt like a medieval town square. We were so glad we decided to take this tour.

After telling us about the various buildings in the square, Sylvie began a walk around the short ring road. All the buildings looked like they did hundreds of years ago. The town had done a great job of maintaining its appearance.

We came to a shop that had French pralines out on the windowsill for sale.

Every step of walk revealed another section of this quaint town. So pretty!

Along the road, Sylvie pointed to another gate we could exit the town from if we wanted to go back to the bus. Everyone continued the walk.

There were so many interesting buildings. We particularly enjoyed the designs made in the rock walls.

After finishing the walk, we returned to the square. Sylvie told us when we began our walk that she had a surprise for us. She told us to wait there, and she would bring it to us. She went into the old restaurant on the square. In a few minutes she came out with a large praline for us to sample. It was made in the restaurant’s very old brick oven. It was quite a treat.

We were going to have some free time after our surprise. Sylvie showed us that if we went a bit further on the road, we would see the town hall. She also said that there was a nice panoramic view behind it. We decided to go to the restaurant for some coffee during the free time. I told Cathy that I would meet here there after I checked out the town hall. It was a short walk there.

The view from behind it was very nice. The bright yellow rape seed or canola plants made the landscape even prettier.

I continued along the ring road to find the entrance closest to the restaurant.

In a few minutes I was back at the restaurant.

I was so glad we decided to get coffee, since the restaurant was charming.

I walked into the large dining room that wasn’t being used this early in the day. It was so nice. I liked the place settings.

Sylvie told us that in 1996 Bill and Hillary Clinton visited this restaurant. That certainly made it special. There were photos on the bulletin board showing the event.

After enjoying our coffee with another couple from the cruise, we went back out to the square to have our photo taken in this lovely town.

As we exited the gate, we appreciated the wisteria growing on the city walls, as well as the many flowers on the grounds.

As we returned to Lyon, I saw a modern building with what looked like a tall antennae mast sticking out of it.

We returned to the Delling ready to relax after a very full touring day. After dinner we went to the lounge to check out the band that was brought onboard for our evening entertainment. They were quite good. A lot of folks got up to dance, as did Cathy and me. Even Program Director Rafael was on the dance floor.