Rhône River Cruise
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I don’t think I ever followed up after our Iceland stopover. We went from there to embark on a river cruise from Lyon to Arles with AmaWaterways. It was a great trip. Very relaxing to get on a boat, unpack and have a floating hotel with great food for a week. Lots of things to see, and the excursions are included in the price of the trip.
My favorite thing I saw? Pont du Gard, a Roman aqueduct built in the first century AD.
Iconic! This was built to carry water from Uzès to Nimes, over the Gardon River. You can kayak or canoe in the river.
We hiked to the top, but there’s a gate and no entry to where the water used to run. Here’s a look through the gate.
We really enjoyed this trip. There are usually two to three excursions to choose from, morning and afternoon, when not cruising down the river. The guides are great, all local. We wonder what we missed by having it all curated for us, but it was very efficient. And we did take the opportunity to explore a bit in Lyon, Tournon, Avignon, and Arles on our own.
The Arena in Arles, built in 90 AD. Still a site for concerts and bullfights.
You can see my whole travelogue on my blog, if you’re interested.
Here’s a separate post on Lyon, too.
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Dang. It's over already. i was going to offer you me as a sommelier for your trip. Rhones are the perfect food wine. I have two open at the moment.
@Mik Every evening the host would describe the local wines that would be served with dinner, always 2 red, 2 white. It was fun having options.
What’s your favorite of the Rhône wines? Syrah is the usual grape at the earlier part of our trip. I loved the Chateau Neuf du Pape Grenache we tasted in Avignon.
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I don’t think I ever followed up after our Iceland stopover. We went from there to embark on a river cruise from Lyon to Arles with AmaWaterways. It was a great trip. Very relaxing to get on a boat, unpack and have a floating hotel with great food for a week. Lots of things to see, and the excursions are included in the price of the trip.
My favorite thing I saw? Pont du Gard, a Roman aqueduct built in the first century AD.
Iconic! This was built to carry water from Uzès to Nimes, over the Gardon River. You can kayak or canoe in the river.
We hiked to the top, but there’s a gate and no entry to where the water used to run. Here’s a look through the gate.
We really enjoyed this trip. There are usually two to three excursions to choose from, morning and afternoon, when not cruising down the river. The guides are great, all local. We wonder what we missed by having it all curated for us, but it was very efficient. And we did take the opportunity to explore a bit in Lyon, Tournon, Avignon, and Arles on our own.
The Arena in Arles, built in 90 AD. Still a site for concerts and bullfights.
You can see my whole travelogue on my blog, if you’re interested.
Here’s a separate post on Lyon, too.
Thank you for these posts!
I like living vicariously through your traveloques.
I'm glad you had such a good time!
Pont du Gard would have been my favorite, too.
What a monumental feat of engineering, and how magnificent.
The Roman amphitheater c. 90 AD in Arles is remarkable, too.
The exterior doesn't look large in your picture, but your pictures of interior show it to be very large, indeed. How beautiful.
️'But as they said in one of the later Rocky movies, "Time...it's undefeated.".-- Mik
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Thank you for these posts!
I like living vicariously through your traveloques.
I'm glad you had such a good time!
Pont du Gard would have been my favorite, too.
What a monumental feat of engineering, and how magnificent.
The Roman amphitheater c. 90 AD in Arles is remarkable, too.
The exterior doesn't look large in your picture, but your pictures of interior show it to be very large, indeed. How beautiful.
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Thanks for sharing your experience! I hadn’t considered this cruise but now I am! Glad you enjoyed it!
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@Mik Every evening the host would describe the local wines that would be served with dinner, always 2 red, 2 white. It was fun having options.
What’s your favorite of the Rhône wines? Syrah is the usual grape at the earlier part of our trip. I loved the Chateau Neuf du Pape Grenache we tasted in Avignon.
@Mik Every evening the host would describe the local wines that would be served with dinner, always 2 red, 2 white. It was fun having options.
What’s your favorite of the Rhône wines? Syrah is the usual grape at the earlier part of our trip. I loved the Chateau Neuf du Pape Grenache we tasted in Avignon.
Chateau St Cosme is in my glass as I write this. Very big wines with a higher Syrah content, still under $20. A favorite. I love CDPs but the ones I drank in the 90’s for $15 are now $60 and up. I really like Domaine de la Janesse and Solitude, both CDP houses that make Côtes du Rhône from the lots that didn’t make their flagship bottles. Any like that are a good bet, but there are hundreds of everyday bottling that are very tasty and very reasonable. I don’t find many that I dislike.
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Oh, sadly skip the Kirkland Rhône’s and CDPs. Not bad wines exactly, but the CDP is too sweet and the CDR is boring.
@Mik Ha! The merchant at the Avignon wine tasting said that the CDP wasn’t expensive, just 40 euro. We had it with a sheep cheese and a couple goat cheeses. Harmonious!
I didn’t want to tell him that I buy a lot of wine at Costco for $10.
Wirecutter just had a Costco tasting; they liked Kirkland Signature CDP for $19.99. Of course it’s sold out.
Also a Kirkland Signature Vacqueyras CDR, but I don’t see it on the Costco website, either.
I had the CDR from Costco last week, maybe $14? And it was nice enough for me. But Wirecutter found it to be…unspecial.
Just keep tasting all of them!
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Thank you for these posts!
I like living vicariously through your traveloques.
I'm glad you had such a good time!
Pont du Gard would have been my favorite, too.
What a monumental feat of engineering, and how magnificent.
The Roman amphitheater c. 90 AD in Arles is remarkable, too.
The exterior doesn't look large in your picture, but your pictures of interior show it to be very large, indeed. How beautiful.
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@Mik Every evening the host would describe the local wines that would be served with dinner, always 2 red, 2 white. It was fun having options.
What’s your favorite of the Rhône wines? Syrah is the usual grape at the earlier part of our trip. I loved the Chateau Neuf du Pape Grenache we tasted in Avignon.
Chateau St Cosme is in my glass as I write this. Very big wines with a higher Syrah content, still under $20. A favorite. I love CDPs but the ones I drank in the 90’s for $15 are now $60 and up. I really like Domaine de la Janesse and Solitude, both CDP houses that make Côtes du Rhône from the lots that didn’t make their flagship bottles. Any like that are a good bet, but there are hundreds of everyday bottling that are very tasty and very reasonable. I don’t find many that I dislike.
@Mik I wish I could find decent, reasonable Rhônes here. Of course Manhattan stores are just a skip and a jump away, and there’s mail order but you need to know what you’re doing.
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