Our 2022 Cruise on the Rhone River in France
We believe a bottle of wine can transport you to foreign locales. While "visiting" a location via purchasing and tasting a bottle of wine from that region is fun, it isn't the same as boarding a plane and visiting first-hand.
For our second Wine Club trip, we took a 7-day river cruise up the Rhone River in the region of Provence, France. Spring in Provence is magical, and our trip was too. Just like our first river cruise (which was on the Danube River), the food & service onboard the boat was 5-star. River cruising is an elegant and luxurious way to travel. The pace is slow, but the service is spot on! You unpack once, visit different towns and let others do all the work. There's no better way to travel!
<-- Impromptu Pre-Cruise Dinner in Avignon, FR
32 club members set sale for a spectacular spring trip. New friendships were made and old bonds strengthened. Some of the cities we visited were Avignon, Arles. Tournon, Vienne and Lyon. Each city was unique and interesting but it was the company that made it fun! Various morning and afternoon excursions kept us busy seeing the highlights. Daily excursions included tours of towns, shops, markets, wineries, churches and Roman ruins. Of course, those that included wine tasting had a lot of our club members in attendance.
Wine Club Social Hour / Wine Tasting -->
After dinner, we explored the night life the towns offered or enjoyed that night's onboard entertainment. We took private Labyrinth Wine Club trips to the Domaines Mousset winery in Chateauneuf du Pape and a food market (including numerous food and wine tasting) in Lyon, enjoyed a Labyrinth Club Dinner in the Chef's Room and had a private top-deck wine tasting of local wines with small bites.
After our 7 days aboard ship, 14 of us continued on a 3-day post cruise excursion to Champagne. This was fully planned and executed by Labyrinth (not part of the cruise company's offerings). We rented the Château des Tertres (Chateau of the Mounds) for our stay and had 2 vans take us on excursions including a day of touring champagne houses. Highlights included everyone getting Saber Certifications at the Champagne House Canard-Duchene, a private paired dinner at the chateau, and nights with the group exploring a secret cellar (we a found hidden door!) and the haunted, off-limits top floor.
<-- Stephanie sabering a bottle of Champagne
