{"id":7458,"date":"2025-10-31T00:03:27","date_gmt":"2025-10-31T00:03:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.theblyde.com\/?p=7458"},"modified":"2025-10-31T00:03:27","modified_gmt":"2025-10-31T00:03:27","slug":"review-riviera-travels-history-and-art-of-the-rhone-river-cruise-days-1-to-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.theblyde.com\/?p=7458","title":{"rendered":"Review: Riviera Travel’s History and Art of the Rh\u00f4ne River cruise – Days 1 to 4"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Sailing upstream on the Rh\u00f4ne from Avignon to Lyon, on Riviera Travel\u2018s MS Thomas Hardy, is one of the world\u2019s epic river cruises.\u00a0 It is an eight day voyage from Avignon that concludes in Lyon.<\/p>\n

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Cruising through time from caveman\u2019s woolly rhino drawings, past crumbling relics of Roman conquests to Second World War destruction, this is more than a luxurious river cruise, it is a voyage through the very essence of civilisation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Rich in history, both beautiful and brutal, the Rh\u00f4ne displays the arrow-slit architecture of war; where even the papal palace was crenelated and where church bell towers were fortified.<\/p>\n

Stories from the history of art abound. Through Chauvet\u2019s cave drawings, Botticellis in Avignon and contemporary works in Arles\u2019 Vincent Van Gogh Institute.<\/p>\n

Day 1 \u2013 From London to Avignon<\/h2>\n

Riviera Travel arrange flights, from Heathrow in our case, booking us on a British airways flight, though other cruisers fly from regional airports or take Eurostar followed by the rapid TGV to Avignon.<\/p>\n

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At Marseilles airport we are met and taken on a coach, for 70 minutes, through a landscape of olives, rosemary and thyme, towards hills that have hosted the Tour de France. We do not see our luggage again until the crew deliver it to our cabin.\u00a0Riviera Travel deliver us straight to the MS Thomas Hardy: 135 metres of sleek, carefree luxury, moored at Avignon, within sight of the Middle Age city walls.<\/p>\n

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After an essential shower, nearly every guest arrives in the lounge for drinks. Cocktail and mocktail of the day are all-inclusive, as are a selection of beers, wines, spirits and soft drinks.<\/p>\n

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As it\u2019s the first evening everyone dines in the restaurant with a choice of soup, three appetisers, six main courses and three desserts. Selected red, rose and white wines \u2013 again all inclusive \u2013 reflect our oenophile\u2019s pilgrimage through some of France\u2019s great wine regions: Cote du Rh\u00f4ne, Bordeaux, Burgundy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Turn-down service is a surprising highlight of the day \u2013 not just because of the nightly chocolate \u2013 but also because the delivery of the daily programme reveals tomorrow\u2019s cocktail of the day.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Day 2 \u2013 Avignon <\/h2>\n

It may have merely been papal propaganda that suggested Pope Boniface Vlll died from a punch. But the rumour confirmed that volatile Rome was unsafe. His French successor Clement V, pope from 1305 to 1314, eventually based himself in Avignon.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Clement\u2019s successors built the Papal Palace where walls were sometimes three metres thick and where, in the banqueting hall, guests sat against the walls so that they could not be stabbed in the back. These were dangerous times. Only the Pope was permitted a knife to cut his meat.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Appropriately our guide for a walking tour of Avignon is Clement. We begin by walking across the remaining four arches of Avignon\u2019s famous bridge, 1668 floods swept away the rest of the bridge. Shattering childhood memories of singing in French lessons, Clement tells us that Sur le Pont d\u2019Avignon<\/em> was a mistranslation from the Proven\u00e7al. In reality, people danced under the bridge.\u00a0<\/p>\n

If Clement were to appear on Mastermind<\/em>, his specialist subject would probably be the era when Avignon was definitely home to seven popes. Possibly another two. Though those two were labelled antipopes, when the papacy returned to Rome in 1378. At one point there were four claimants to the papal throne.<\/p>\n

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After lunch onboard, there is an opportunity to take a tour of the Petit Palace Museum with its collection of pre-Renaissance and early Renaissance art, including Botticellis.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Day 3 \u2013 Arles and the Pont du Gard<\/h2>\n

After Roman colonisation, Pliny the Elder said that this region of Southern France was \u201canother Italy\u201d.\u00a0 Elsa, our guide, tells us that Provence, where French was once the third language after Italian and Proven\u00e7al, only became a part of France in 1841. With a 20,000 seat Roman amphitheatre, Roman ruins, and long sunlit days, the city still feels very Italian.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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That light prompted an outstanding burst of Vincent Van Gogh creativity, over 300 pieces, oils and drawings, during his 15 months in Arles. Yet, sharing a house and absinthe-fuelled arguments with Gauguin, a troubled Van Gogh famously cut his off his ear lobe when Gauguin left Arles. Van Gogh\u2019s favourite colours of blue and yellow still dominate the city.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Our Riviera Travel\u2019s walking tour of Arles includes admission to the Van Gogh Institute. Two potatoes themed Van Gogh oils introduce Beneath the Cobblestones, The Earth<\/em>, a retrospective exhibition of the mixed media experimentation of Sigmar Polke.<\/p>\n

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An afternoon visit to the triple-tiered aqueduct Pont du Gard, its museum and 12-minute film presentation, illustrates how the Romans awed their colonies. Advanced engineering impressed with baths, cascades, fountains and above all, civilising good health.<\/p>\n

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Everything you need to plan your trip in 2025<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Day 4 \u2013 Chauvet Caves, The Ardeche<\/h2>\n

We would be sad to leave the Rh\u00f4ne Valley, even for a day, if we were not heading for the craggy limestone peaks, dense forestry and spectacular gorge of the Ardeche.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Iris gives us the insider guide to the Ardeche, knowing where chestnut flour is made into bread, where farmers once transformed their bedrooms into mulberry-leaf-laden silkworm factories for weeks on end, where charcoal was laboriously produced.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Some 36,000 years ago, homo sapiens, in the Aurignacian period, created more than 400 depictions of lions, mammoths, woolly rhinos, horses, and bison in the limestone caves of Chauvet.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Developed over a decade, Chauvet 2, is a replica of the original cave\u00a0containing. According to the audio commentary, it is mankind\u2019s \u201cFirst Great Masterpiece.\u201d Artists, working when the cave bears had moved out after hibernation, used finger-painting, charcoal, flint-stone points and blow-painting to show almost three-dimensional movement. Unlike many cave paintings they are not hunting scenes but probably a form of animism, attempting to make sense of the world around the artists.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe Ardeche Gorge is France\u2019s answer to the Grand Canyon \u2013 but with better cheese,\u201d our Cruise Director said as she gave her destination briefing.\u00a0But nothing could prepare us for the natural miracle of the Pont d\u2019Arc, a limestone bridge, standing 54 metres above the river. It is estimated that 124,000 years ago, water erosion broke through the rock to create the aperture.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The cost<\/h2>\n

In 2026, Riviera\u2019s Rhone River cruises, for 8 days, will begin from \u00a31,899 per person, based on two people sharing a cabin. <\/p>\n

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Mid-voyage verdict<\/h2>\n

It\u2019s plain sailing for Riviera Travel\u2019s guests. Flights, transfers, tours and admission tickets are all arranged, providing excellent value. Local guides are articulate, enthusiastic and exceptionally knowledgeable. Fortunately, they are disciplined too, getting us back on board in time for lunch or cocktails.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Disclosure: Our stay was sponsored by Riviera Travel.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Michael Edwards<\/h3>\n

Michael Edwards is a travel writer from Oxfordshire, UK. Although Michael had his first travel pieces published nearly four decades ago, he is still finding new luxury destinations to visit and write on.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Source: https:\/\/www.aluxurytravelblog.com\/2025\/10\/30\/review-riviera-travels-history-and-art-of-the-rhone-river-cruise-days-1-to-4\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sailing upstream on the Rh\u00f4ne from Avignon to Lyon, on Riviera Travel\u2018s MS Thomas Hardy, is one of the world\u2019s epic river cruises.\u00a0 It is an eight day voyage from Avignon that concludes in Lyon. Cruising through time from caveman\u2019s woolly rhino drawings, past crumbling relics of Roman conquests to Second World War destruction, this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7459,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.theblyde.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7458","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.theblyde.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.theblyde.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.theblyde.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.theblyde.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7458"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.theblyde.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7458\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.theblyde.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.theblyde.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.theblyde.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.theblyde.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}