P&O Cruise 2014 & River Cruise France 2015

Somehow our ocean cruise with P&O in 2014 & the river cruise through the centre of France slipped through the cracks & I never commented on them, so here goes, better late than never!

PACIFIC CRUISE WITH P&O DEC 2014

An ocean cruise that slipped through the cracks was one we did with P&O Pacific Pearl, which Jan won. No doubt I forgot it because it was quite forgettable!

Briefly, Food & service - couldn't fault it.  Shows - Davidia excellent, magician good, rest very amateur.  I've seen better high school performances.  Art seminars excellent.  Rest of cruise boring.

Isle of Pines snorkelling woeful with bleached coral, better at Green Is. 

Lifou crap, no buses or taxis at landing which was dirty, only tours, so we didn't get to see what we wanted. 

Port Vila OK but grubby & expensive being boat day. 

Considering we were in duty free area drinks on board were exorbitant as was internet.  The cruise was slanted to the young who wanted to party at night - one young bloke told us he paid $630 for it, - or to compulsive shoppers.

AVALON CRUISE THROUGH CENTRE OF FRANCE OCT 15

Having previously enjoyed a cruise with Avalon from Amsterdam to Budapest in 2012, we decided to book with them again for a cruise through the centre of France in 2015, taking in the First World War battlefields as well. Below is a summary of the trip & our thoughts on it.

Overall impressions of our French cruise - great, but not as scenic as the one we did Amsterdam to Budapest some years ago, and again, we could not fault the Avalon boat & crew. Also, we were told before we went that the French were rude & Paris was dirty & full of graffiti. However, we found the French friendly, polite, only too willing to help & very tolerant of my fractured french language skills! Paris was certainly not dirty compared to some places we have been & its graffiti no worse. A cruise like this is perfect to give one an overview of a place in comfort & enables one to decide what areas or places to revisit.

One thing that is essential in planning a trip is NOT to leave flight bookings to your friendly travel agent alone - you really need to check everything yourself, or you end up spending 6 hours in a transit lounge like we did in Hong Kong, which is a dump! We were booked throught to Paris, then backtracked down to Nice where we were met & transferred to our hotel in Moraco, which was very pleasant & Monaco/Monte Carlo was interesting.

19 Oct - We spent the next day on an interesting tour of Nice before a 4 hour trip to Arles where we boarded our boat.

20/21 Oct - Arles was a rundown place with many buildings looking derelict, but the Roman amphitheatre was very good & worth a visit. Bull running/fighting is held in Aug/Sep., although the bulls are not killed (it is not the barbaric style practised in Spain), but apparently it is much patronised by the Spanish. The town was very run down with many derelict buildings again & shops opened very late. A pity the Mistral was blowing & it was cold.

22 Oct - On to Uzes which was lovely with the impressive Roman acqueduct Pont du Gard on the way. Then reboarded to go on to Avignon where the ruined Popes palace was less than interesting, except as a reminder of the power & obscene wealth of the church.

23 Oct - Viviers & little of interest in what is supposed to be an unspoiled medaeval village.

24 Oct - Tournon & Vienne, great Roman ruins & pleasant little town with a great market at Tournon. Unfortunately we were unable to visit the Chateau de la Batie which is in private hands.

25 Oct - Lyon, beautiful centre of silk production in the 18th century& we would have loved to spend more time here. Well worth a revisit to explore the aspects of it as the centre of French resistance during the Second World War.

26 Oct - Macon & Tournus, which we did not visit, opting to take a tour to the Chateau Cormatin which was well worth it with its moat & lovely gardens. Then on to Chalon-sur-Saone where we disembark next day to catch a train to Paris.

27- 29 Oct - Paris, which I think is one of the most liveable of cities, much more so than London where I had lived & worked for nearly 5 years in the '70s. We visited the Palace of Versailles was quite disappointing although impressive for its size & the gardens were not much compared to others we have seen. Prinneys Palace at Brighton was much more interesting in that it showed the difference between the upstairs & downstairs life & conditions & possibly because it was more intimate. We also did the obligatory show at the Moulin Rouge & sauntered round the usual tourist destinations. We can thoroughly recommend the Batobus for hopon, hopoff stops at points of interest along its route. Unfortunately we were unable to visit the catacombs, which were closed on the only other day we had free.

We also took a tour of the battlefields of the Somme, visiting some of the allied & German cemetaries, particularly Villers-Bretonneux, where a school, which was the gift of children of Victoria to the children of that town, is now the Franco-Australian museum.  It was very moving to visit these & some of the old trench lines which had been preserved.  It was sobering to think that a whole generation had been decimated, particularly when I remembered stories told to me by my old Aunt & Uncle of people they knew who had gone & having met two other relatives who had been respectively gassed & severely wounded during that conflict.

As before we found Avalon to be an excellent river cruise company in all respects & will use them again. However, for anyone proposing to do some river cruising, we would recommend that they do this cruise before the Amsterdam to Budapest one, as it cannot compare in terms of interest & several places we might have liked to visit we could not, as we wanted to take an optional trip which clashed.