Tuesday, Aug 30. Air travel, on a scale of 10, goes from terrible to tolerable. There are too few flights that rank above tolerable, so that’s the top end. Our trip rates a 5. A delayed connection in Montreal got us to Lyon at 4:30, rather than noon. Hot hot hot. Subsequently, we didn’t get off the ship at all. But on arrival there was no hint of the forecast rain. Hope it holds through tomorrow.

But the ship is fine. The crew seems fun. The people are rocking, literally. At 10:00 there were 15+ dancing! (I was told that 90 people had done a cruise just before this one, so they had already melded.) The bar is busy. Our first meal was fantastic. I had a steak with lightly flavored blue cheese, which was surprisingly quite good. Sweet potato soup. The first two house wines were very pedestrian, but the third (2020 Hermitage) was very acceptable. We’ll do some shopping tomorrow for better.

Sunday, Aug 28. Tomorrow we depart on a 20 day journey in France. We have had only a little experience in France, so this will be our first real immersion in the culture. We’re booked on two Viking river cruises, the first down the Rhone River from Lyon to Arles, the second in the area of Bordeaux. In between we’ll spend four nights in Paris. (Yes, we should have booked a south to north river cruise on the Rhone, but the original plan was to visit San Sebastian between cruises. Plans change. And yes, in hindsight a cruise in the Bordeaux region probably was a questionable choice. The ship doesn’t go anywhere we can’t ride a bicycle to from the city. We’ll see how it goes.) We’re going by train, which should be fun.

We’ve made extensive plans for Lyon and Paris. I’ve booked several excursions at the other stops on each cruise, leaving us little free time. We’ll just wander when we have the chance. Obviously, a key objective is to taste the foods and wines. No McDonald’s Royale with Cheese for us!