Intro
In late August of 2024, my wife, my daughter & son-in-law & I, spent a week cruising the beautiful Rhône river.

We have traveled a lot over the years. We get a lot of enjoyment learning about other cultures & experiencing a taste of another countries citizen values and ways of living.
However, as we age, we find it more difficult. Flying is no longer as fun as it used to be. I walk the cobblestoned streets in old towns and view more cobblestones than ornate lovely buildings and landscaping. I must make sure my next step does not result in my cane entering a street sewer or a hole where a stone once sat. Inclines have become hills, blocks feel like miles.
But, when the journey has completed and our bodies have finally adjusted to our original time zone and the aches and pains have somewhat subsided, we are grateful for having been able to experience another memorable adventure.
This journey brought us, by river long boat, up the Rhône river from Arles in southern France to our final destination in Lyon.

Arles

The city of Arles on the banks of the River Rhône in Southern France, where our Viking cruise ship first docked, is famous for its short, but memorable association with the artists Vincent van Gogh and Paul Gaughin. Van Gogh stayed in Arles for only 18 months, yet during this time he produced some of his most famous paintings of landscapes and real life in and around Arles. 
Arles is a wonderful little city, with beautiful 18th and 19th century Mansion houses and old Roman buildings. It was made famous through its association with van Gogh and there are plenty of  van Gogh's famous scenes to see around the town.
We visited Theatre Antique which was a Roman theatre that could house 8,000 people . Little remains of the original structure, but the space is still used for open-air theatre productions and we could get a very good feel for what the space was originally like. 
Although the Arles main square is modest, it is ringed by several impressive buildings such as the Archbishop's Palace, the Hotel de Ville and the cathederale de St Trophime.

Avignon

Next day we visited Avignon, a city in southeastern France’s Provence region, which, again, is set on the Rhône River. Known as “the city of Popes”, From 1309 to 1377, it was the seat of the Catholic popes. It remained under papal rule until becoming part of France in 1791. This legacy can be seen in the massive Palais des Papes (Popes' Palace) in the city center, which is surrounded by medieval stone walls.
Avignons city centre, includes the Papal Palace, the Episcopal ensemble and the Avignon Bridge. It is a wonderful example of medieval architecture.

Viviers

Again, on the Rhône river, we next visited Viviers. It is known for its medieval cathedral and incredible views over the Rhone river.
We walked streets around the Cathedral of Saint-Vincent, which is the centre of the old town. There are a number of narrow streets around the cathedral with buildings that are sometimes very carefully renovated, others seem rather dilapidated looking.

Tournon

Now we port in in Tournon and take a Viking coach to the old train station where we will board open air train cars and will be brought to Colombier, by an old steam engine.
Along the way we see beautiful mountainous scenes of wood’s, gorges and a ragged creek that follows us along the way.
When we reached the small train station of Colombier le Vieux, which we reached after a journey of about half an hour, the steam engine was manually detached from the cars, hand rotated by turn table, and attached to the other end of the cars. We are now set for our journey back to the Tournon station from which we started.

Lyon - first day

Our journey next takes us to our final destination, Lyon. Here we will have two days to visit this amazing area.
First day, begins with a coach drive to the Basilica of Notre Dame, at the top of Fourvière Hill. We explore the interior of this old church, enjoy sweeping views of the red roofs of Vieux Lyon (Old Lyon) and the narrow peninsula of land between the rivers comprising the Presquile shopping district. Next, we again board our coach and drive through town past the Gothic St. Jean Cathedral and the Palace of Justice, stopping at the city's famed Painted Houses, a collection of outdoor murals. Then we continue with a walking tour along the cobblestone street of vieux Lyon, where the city has unique hidden passageways made for busy merchants in medieval days.

Lyon - second day

This day, now in Beaujolais Wine Country, we take a Viking coach to a family wine vineyard, to learn how this family, whose father and his fathers father, have grown grapes and created their distinctive brand of Beaujolais Wine.
Their granite soils and warmer climate make it Ideal for growing grapes that produce a light flavor.
The drive getting there, through the rolling hills of Beaujolais was beautiful and the chance to learn about the art of winemaking was interesting.
Of course the opportunity to enter the wine cellar and taste the finished wines was wonderful.

Home again

We had a wonderful experience with our daughter and son-in-law, it made the trip all that more meaningful.
We look forward to more journeys.