The Avalon Scenery cruises past Tarascon Castle on the banks of the Rhone river between Avignon and Arles, France.

IT is clear from the start that Jean-Loup Domart is a man who likes order. Addressing the crowd of international guests who have gathered at Le Meridien Montparnasse hotel in Paris, he repeats his instructions like a mantra.

“Suitcases are to be outside your hotel room at precisely 6.30am,” he decrees. “At 8am you will check that your case, with its own colour sticker, has been placed outside the bus with the corresponding colour. You must not board the bus, however, until instructed. Remember, you must not board the bus until instructed.”

All this officialdom is beginning to make me nervous. Early starts? Sticky labels? Colour-coded buses? I feel certain I will be the one to ruin Domart’s finely tuned schedule by being too quick off the mark and stepping on to a passing city shuttle, sans colour swatch, clutching a fellow traveller’s three-piece Louis Vuitton ensemble.

Domart’s organisational skills, however, prove exemplary: our hotel departure proceeds without incident and this group of British, Australian, Canadian and American travellers is transferred in a convoy of coaches for lunch in the town of Beaune, at the heart of Burgundy’s wine region.

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Then there will be a 45-minute drive south to the village of Chalon-sur-Saone, where we will board our floating home for the next seven nights.

MS Avalon Scenery is one of the newest in the 10-strong Avalon Waterways fleet, which plies some of Europe’s most beautiful rivers. I’m one of 106 passengers who have signed up for Avalon’s seven-night Flavours of Burgundy and Provence cruise along the Saone and Rhone rivers, which begins with two nights in Paris, ends with an overnight stay in Nice and takes in some of France’s gastronomic and viticultural highlights.

Cruise director Domart is the glue that holds things together; he’s the go-to guy for everything from organising shore excursions and advising on local highlights to dealing with customer quibbles and sorting out people’s hotel rooms before and after the cruise.

My stateroom is 329, aft on the upper Royal Deck, and I’m surprised by its airiness. Unlike most other European river cruise operators, Avalon has dispensed with balconies and turned over the extra space to cabin width. There are floor-to-ceiling sliding glass doors that offer expansive views of the passing countryside, while interior fittings are sleek and modern. From my comfortable queen-sized bed (with Egyptian cotton linen and European-style duvets) I can watch the flat-screen television and, happily for a woman who likes to travel with her entire wardrobe , the cabin is like a Tardis when it comes to storage space.

Royal Deck is the pick of the bunch for accommodation and staterooms at the fore are most sought after. The lower you go on this three-deck vessel, the less expensive the cabin, but I find the 11 rooms on lower-level Indigo Deck slightly claustrophobic; in place of the glorious floor-to-ceiling glass doors is a tiny window, meaning a much darker room and none of those beautiful views. Avalon’s common areas – a lounge bar and separate club lounge on Royal Deck, the outdoor sky deck on top, an expansive dining room on Indigo Deck – provide a more than comfortable way to take in the sights. It’s in the lounge bar that Domart presents a nightly briefing – high camp in delivery and with a healthy dose of humour – informing passengers of the next day’s port, its highlights and on-shore activities.

On most port calls there is a free orientation tour to help travellers get their bearings and optional paid outings.

The fact nothing is mandatory appeals to this independent traveller. If you want to go it alone and leave the crowd behind (returning by the designated all-on-board time, of course, or risk the wrath of Domart), nobody’s going to see it as a mutiny. But if you like travelling in a group, there is plenty to keep the calendar full.

Traversing France from north to south, our cruise is set to depart from Chalon-sur-Saone and call at Tournus, Macon, Lyon, Tournon, Viviers, Avignon and Arles, our final stop, where we will disembark and travel by bus to Nice.

But nature is against us. Just down from Chalon, at Tournus, the tides are unusually high so we are going nowhere. With locks and bridges to negotiate, conditions must be perfect and water levels are checked every hour.

Chalon-sur-Saone proves an ideal spot to be marooned. After signing up for a walking tour to familiarise myself with the town (tour participants listen to the English-speaking commentary through headphones, meaning nobody has to crane to hear the guide), I explore at my leisure in the afternoon.

At Chalon’s small produce market just outside the town hall I find the famous Bresse chickens, white asparagus and local cheeses in abundance amid myriad varieties of fruit and vegetables. I decide to stock up – having noticed a little unoccupied space in my mini bar – and buy some comte and goats cheese. Nearby on rue Saint-Vincent I discover tiny La Tarteliere, run by Karine and Richard Bussemey, who are surely turning out the most exquisite pastries and tarts in the region. I select an apricot tart before picking up some salads and pates at a trateur just a few doors away. Remembering there is no kitchenware in my cabin, I complete my shopping with picnic plates and cutlery from a general store.

Any suggestion that the meals on board Avalon Scenery are inadequate would be wrong. My Chalon purchases are sheer gluttony – when in France, and all that – as the food throughout this cruise is surprisingly good. Buffet breakfasts, casual lunches and set-course dinners are all part of the package, although passengers are free to have meals ashore, at their own expense, should they desire. Wine is free with each multi-course dinner, which may comprise a green salad with spiced chicken, cream of celery soup, herbed roast beef on cognac sauce with potato, grilled tomato and creamy leeks, plus a warm chocolate cake with vanilla ice-cream.

It’s open seating, with tables of four up to groups of 10. While our small band sticks together most nights on a smaller table, other passengers mix and match, making new friends over dinner. Post-meal, the place to be is the upstairs bar-lounge, where more drinks flow at the bar (at guests’ expense) and entertainment is provided. One night an ageing French chanteuse buttonholes a bewildered elderly Englishman for a bit of harmless flirting; a couple of evenings later a Gipsy Kings ensemble (one of them a member of the original line-up, Domart confides) holds court. “Oooh, he’s had a big dinner,” says 60-something Australian passenger Joan in a stage whisper as the portly musical trio take their places on the stage. Well, haven’t we all …

A few nights into the cruise, the crowd has loosened up. Friends are made and conversation flows. Unlike some ocean cruises, when being cooped up during extended “sea days” can lead to lift rage and contretemps in the laundry room, river cruising seems to be something of a long-distance friendship forger. Fewer passengers – a maximum of 138 on this ship, catered for by a crew of 41 – means people get to know each other more quickly.

The delightful Jenny and Bill from Australia have become firm friends with Canadian Monica and her husband David; we look on in trepidation one evening as the glamorous Monica shows off a few Dirty Dancing moves with Bill, fearing a leap over the lounge chairs and some impromptu fisticuffs from Jenny, but seconds later she too is grinning like a teenager with a bottle of alcopop and strutting her stuff on the dance floor.

The cruise takes in parts of France that could be overlooked if travelling by car; the hauntingly beautiful town of Viviers, for example. Approached through a striking boulevard of plane trees – “we call it our Champs Elysees”, the local guide tells us – this medieval town of cobbled streets and deserted buildings on the west bank of the Rhone saw its lifeblood seep away when its bishop left in the 16th century.

In Arles, meanwhile, the spectre of Van Gogh looms, despite the fact the artist lived here for only two years and not one of his paintings remains in the town.

It was in Arles, however, that the Dutchman cut off his ear, allegedly after an argument with his friend Paul Gauguin, who had come to live with him in the town’s famous Yellow House.

My favourite stop on the itinerary is Lyon, arguably France’s gastronomic capital. I visit the splendid Les Halles de Lyon Paul Bocuse, a gleaming, sleek marketplace with every conceivable variety of produce, and stop for a meal at an old favourite, Brasserie Georges, a vast, bustling restaurant established by a family of Alsatian brewers in 1836.

After a final dinner in Monte Carlo with fellow passengers, the cruise is over all too soon and I find I have become a convert to hassle-free river cruising.

I am pleased to report that among our well-behaved group of travellers, nobody falls foul of the impressive Domart’s exacting schedule during the seven-night voyage. Well, almost nobody.

Three crew members, Domart informs us as we pull out of Lyon, have quite literally missed the boat. There is to be an unscheduled stop at the next available mooring to pick up these stragglers. I expect I’m not the only passenger who’s glad not to be in their shoes.

Michelle Rowe was a guest of Avalon Waterways and Etihad.

Checklist
Avalon Waterways offers 11-day Burgundy & Provence cruises throughout 2010 and 2011. Fares start from $4685 a person twin share for the October 17, 2010, Burgundy & Provence cruise on Avalon Scenery, and include cruise gratuities, all on-board meals, drinks at dinner and a wide range of tours and activities. Avalon’s Panorama, Europe’s first “suite ship”, has its inaugural voyage in May 2011. More: www.avalonwaterways.com.au.

Etihad Airways has seamless connections from Sydney to Paris, via Abu Dhabi, 10 times a week. Special $1919 return summer fares to Paris are available until July 16.

More: www.etihadairways.com.

<a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/travel/world/no-fuss-france-a-shore-thing/story-fn30267p-1225886058149tag:news.google.com,2005:cluster=http://www.theaustralian.com.au/travel/world/no-fuss-france-a-shore-thing/story-fn30267p-1225886058149Fri, 02 Jul 2010 14:37:26 GMT 00:00″>No-fuss France a shore thing


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