April 12 – 13, 2026

Well, our time in Paris has come to an end and we now board the high speed train to Lyon to board our next ship, the SS Catherine.

Our luggage was taken by truck to Lyon and will be waiting for us when we arrive.

We were escorted to the Paris train station by John who helped us navigate this huge station. We arrived at the station at 8:30 for a 10 AM train so we had time to walk around and enjoy some of the sights.

They have these kind of trails with raised borders for blind people to be able to navigate the station.

There was a lovely bread and pastry shop where we watched the staff create their masterpieces. We had a wonderful breakfast on the ship so we didn’t buy any.

There are so many chocolate shops in France and this one in the station was really outstanding. It’s the first time I have seen a chocolate toucan.

The train was very comfortable and fast. It was a 2 hour trip to Lyon. A bus picked us up to take us to the ship. Our rooms were not yet ready but we spotted our luggage. We had lunch and relaxed and soon our room was ready and we unpacked. Here is a picture of our room.

Before dinner, we had a drink in the bar and were then introduced to our general manager, Silvia, our cruise manager, Kassima and several of the bar staff. Kassima and Silvia were proud to say how many of the senior staff are women! The engineer, head sommelier, head housekeeper and head chef are all women. We will meet the rest of the staff tomorrow.

We had dinner with two new friends, Terry and Alice from Charlottesville, Virginia. We really enjoyed getting to know them.

There was no evening entertainment tonight and we were pretty tired anyway, so we headed back to our room. We did get to speak to our sons and daughter in law (it was her birthday!) and my sister so our day was complete.

April 13 in Lyon

This morning we had a choice of the silk weaver walking tour or the panoramic tour with Traboules visit. We had initially chosen the silk one which was a total walking day but the day was a cold one with the potential for rain, so we switched. We also heard that there will be a silk presentation on the ship later. We were pretty spoiled with perfect weather for our previous 10 days. Today was 45 degrees, windy and cold. The rain held off until just about when our tour completed.

Our guide today was Emilie. We had a tour through the city – it is the third largest city in France behind Paris and Marseille and home to 190,000 college students. The city is at the confluence of the Saone and Rhône rivers and is also defined by twin hills.

We passed this large ornate cemetery and Emilie commented on how quiet the neighborhood is, the closest neighbors are dead. French humor I guess.

We visited the Notre-Dame de Fourviere Basilica which was built with private funds between 1872 and 1896. The inside is really amazing because of the mosaic murals that cover the walls. We sat for a while for Emilie to describe them. Then we had a bit of free time to wander in and around the church.

After that visit, we went to the Fourviere Hill where we had a lovely view of the town below. The Renaissance houses are striking and some are painted in colors.

More pictures from the town.

We then headed to the old town where we did a walking tour. A highlight was the silk shop. They will be coming to the ship later on so I will write more about it.

At one time there were 30,000 silk weavers here and almost half of the population was employed in the trade. The silks are famous and they are even being used in the Versailles restoration. The creation of such beautiful fabrics by hand is an incredibly strenuous task – in the past, a weaver could spend as much as 30 years of their life to decorate a single palace room.

Here are some other sights in the town. At one bakery, Emilie bought a large almond and red berry brioche for us to taste and we gathered outside the shop to enjoy it. Many Viking passengers passed by, thinking the shop was offering samples, Emilie told them it was only for Uniworld. I said she should have told them “next time come on Uniworld!” By the way, the brioche was delicious. It is the one on the second shelf. The top one is chocolate.

We were not at the right place at the right time as they say – to see the clock on a quarter hour when the puppets ring the bells and a trumpeter emerges from the top doors. It was beautiful to see just the same!

I didn’t know what the traboules were. It turns out that they are well hidden treasures of the Renaissance. They are in the old city, which is a UNESCO site and are shortcuts linking streets through one or more buildings. Most are private, but of the 500 that exist, about 80 are open to the public and we did get to go through one of them.

It just started to sprinkle as we returned to the ship after a great morning of touring Lyon. The warm peach tea they served on arrival back was so needed and delicious.

After lunch, the owners of the silk shop, Brochier Soieries, came to the ship to tell us about the Brochier family that has been handing down a tradition born in Lyon in the 16th century. They manufacture exceptional natural silk fabrics and printing artists scarves and neckties. Four generations followed one another since the creation of the factory. The collection has a wealth of more than 100,000 textile designs and they print products for the greatest museums in the world. They still use the hand silk screening technique and wood block printing for coloring their products. They gave a presentation with slides to show their process. It takes 500 silk worm cocoons to produce one small scarf!

They brought many scarves to show us and showed how each layer of color is applied.

I bought two, the Avignon and a colorful design one.

Tonight we will have a talk about the activities on the coming days, the Gala dinner and evening entertainment with Magali and Jerome (no idea what they do…yet).

Tomorrow we will arrive in Macon where we have a full day called Burgundy landscapes, Beaune walking tour and the hospices. Lunch will be on our own so we will get to experience some of the delicious food of the region.