MS Van Gogh, 4 Night Provençal New Year's Eve in the Rhône Valley ex Lyon, France Return

There’s no better way to start off a New Year than with a cruise through the French countryside with stopovers in exciting, historical cities such as Lyon, Avignon, and Vienne.

Day 1
Passengers are welcome to board our ship at 3:00 p.m. in Lyon. After comfortably settling into your cabins. Enjoy a welcome cocktail with the crew before dinner. Our ship will cruise through the night.

Day 2
We'll cruise towards Avignon. On arrival, join us for an optional excursion to visit the city and the Papal Palace. We'll cruise towards Tain-L'Hermitage.

Day 3
We'll cruise towards Tain-L'Hermitage. On arrival, we’ll leave on foot for the optional tour of the Cité du Chocolat. Come and explore, smell, and taste chocolate in all of its forms at the Valrhona discovery center. Lastly, we’ll indulge in a tasting of course! Tonight is our gala dinner and evening. We'll cruise towards Vienne.

Day 4
Join us for an optional tour of Vienne and its Roman vestiges. We'll then return on board and continue to cruise to Lyon. Upon arrival, join us for an optional visit of the city. Tonight is our special New Year's Eve dinner and evening.

Day 5
Enjoy brunch on board before disembarking at 13:00 p.m. End of our services.

Completely renovated in 2018, this ship has been redesigned and refitted according to the new standards of the company and offers larger, bright and comfortable spaces. In terms of decoration, the colour combination of gray blue and orange creates a lot of style and elegance. In a nod to the artist whose name it takes, the ship showcases some of his famous paintings, including those from the Sunflowers series. The patterns of the fabrics as well as the dressing of the bar follow the techniques developed by Van Gogh: impressionism and pointillism. The two main common areas are located on the upper deck. At the front, the lounge / bar and at the back, the restaurant where all meals will be served during the cruise. The 20 cabins on the upper deck have French balconies and the 34 cabins on the main deck have windows. On the sun deck, an ideal place to relax and admire the landscapes, passengers can enjoy comfortable sun loungers, as well as a large shaded area.

CroisiEurope has a fleet of Prestige category boats with cabins, which ply the most beautiful rivers in Europe. Spacious and light, they offer a welcoming and refined setting. Accommodation capacity varies from 100 to 180 passengers depending on the boat's design. At the cutting edge of technology, their facilities offer comfort and safety.

Carefully maintained and partially renovated each year, the CroisiEurope fleet is largely made up of recently built vessels, less than five years old, all with Veritas certification. The leading European river tour operator, our company owes its international reputation to its seriousness, its dynamism, its sense of innovation and its recognised value for money of long standing.

Vessels are rated four-star and food is superb – as you’d expect on a French-owned cruise line, staffed by French chefs and with top French and German wines aboard. One cruise of the Rhone and Saone Rivers in France concentrates on gastronomy and traditional French cusine, visiting Collonges Abbey, renowned for its great French chef, Paul Bocuse.

CroisiEurope is a family-owned and operated firm, with brothers and sisters running different aspects of the company and keeping a close eye on all operations to ensure excellence.

River cruising offers much free fun. Wake in the morning and observe the passing riverside scenery through your cabin window – perhaps from your bed. Gaze upon village churches or a patchwork of fields sparkling in the morning sun.

CroisiEurope’s network traverses a phenomenal number of European rivers and waterways. They range from the Guadalquivir and Guadiana (flowing through Spain and Portugal respectively); the Douro in Portugal, the Po and Venice Lagoon in Italy; the Rhone in Provence, plus the Seine from Paris to the Normandy Coast. And there’s more: the Moselle, the Neckar, the Saar, the Oder, the Havel, the Baltic Sea, the Camarge, the Rhine, the Main and the mighty Danube; the Tisza and the Black Sea; the Belgian and Dutch waterways. Everything from tulip time in Holland to Christmas Markets in Germany.

Drinks included with on board meals: mineral water, house wine, beer, fruit juice, and tea or coffee.