Paris to Normandy Reviews

The cruise exceeded our expectations. Beautiful scenery and wonderful towns to explore. Would highly recommend Avalon cruises.
Excellent service with friendly staff and the best cruise director we have ever had Tony Jenkins. And thank you Global Journeys for an easy and hassle free booking. Will certainly book with you again.

Well organised, all staff gave their all, really outstanding service, the rooms, although compact, were well appointed and had everything you could need. The large panorama windows a definite advantage.

The one disappointment was the food, we were in France in Spring with superb fresh fruit, strawberries, raspberries, apples and fresh crusty bread ...read more in abundance at every port however not on the menu. Roast spring lamb, or freshly made traditional French onion soup or apple tart with fresh Normandy cream would have been nice, not hard or expensive but not available. We purchased our own at each of the stops.

The food was well prepared, often with a reconstructed presentation, Eastern European in style - it missed the mark in what it could have been delivering, that is fresh, provincial French food. Unfortunately, if you like quality cafe coffee you will also need to buy it onshore.

Overall the cruise was enjoyable and to be recommended, just buy from the local market or boulangerie when you stop for the day.

What a way to see the highlights of the French countryside! Pampered by the crew who attend to your every need. Relaxing in style, whether it be your room, the lounge or the dining room. The food was delicious! The tours were fantastic and went very smoothly as everything was so well organised! Highlights were Versailles, the French countryside and ...read more of course the Eiffel Tower. Would highly recommend this river cruise.

Absolutely wonderful cruise. Our first cruise and it certainly lived up to our expectations. Great food, really good cabin size and superb bed. The tours were full of history and the guides were first class and local.

This was our fourth cruise with Avalon Waterways and it's hard to fault them. It was a very pleasant week cruising to Normandy and back to Paris. The Avalon ships are very comfortable and very well appointed. The lounge at the back of the ship where you can relax while cruising (with coffee and cookies / muffins all day) is a very good feature. The ...read more cruise was very well organised, the staff on board were very helpful, efficient and friendly and the stops along the way were all very interesting. The one thing to point out is that 95% of the passengers were American, probably because of the tour to the WW2 Normandy Beaches so if you don't like that mix then this is not the cruise for you. Our other cruises have not been so prominently American and have been more of an even distribution of Australians, Canadians, Americans and British. Nevertheless all the people we met were very pleasant. We would definitely recommend Avalon Waterways.

It was an excellent time of year to travel, got on well with all passengers and ships personnel. Made some wonderful friends. Included excursions plus added trips were great.

This was our first river cruise with Avalon and we found the overall experience wonderful. From beginning to end we could leave everything to them and just kick back and enjoy the experience. The scenery was spectacular and the villages visited very charming. The service on board the River Ship Tapestry was excellent- the staff warm, friendly and accommodating. ...read more This particular cruise was chosen because we just wanted to relax and see a little of France, following our escorted tour through Europe, and were very surprised that it exceeded our expectations. We had a lower cabin and have to say that this was great as it did not look into other ship cabins when double docked. We spent very little time in the cabin as there was so much to see off shore and lots to talk about with friends made on the cruise - in the lounge, on the deck or in the dining room. The music and fun on the dance floor was terrific. The meals were well thought out and the dining experience was tremendous. We would definitely travel with Avalon again.

Great holiday, weather wasn't so great as it was quite cold but it didn't rain and it didn't stop us from enjoying every moment. Food and cruise personnel were fabulous, couldn't do enough for you. The stops along the way were good and the excursions from the boat well worth it.

Absolutely lovely trip, we stayed in the bottom cabins but it was great. You do not have time to sit and watch the view and if you do then you can go to one of the two lounges or the sun deck.

Worthwhile voyage with very good excursions. The guides were excellent with good knowledge and were able to get us into many places early to lessen queues. As on previous cruises we were provided with very good information on board on a daily basis. Diane's request for Gluten Free options was addressed well.

This was the best river cruise that we have ever done. Five star dining for lunch and dinner and the option of champagne with breakfast both non alcoholic and the real deal. Avalon even offered a choice of two included tours in all of the ports. The food and wine was of a very high standard. We would not hesitate to travel with Avalon again, it was ...read more a fabulous cruise.

This trip was excellent apart from the cruise director (Sylvia). We thought we might get a cabin up-grade due to the fact that in August 2013 we spent a lot of money for the Magnificent Europe trip. We were on the ship for 3 days when Angela came down with a form of chicken pox and was asked to leave due to being contagious. We had travel insurance ...read more but we were still out of pocket about 7k. We were told a couple of days before we were to board ship that there were 7 available cabins and that it was up to the cruise directors discretion on whether or not we could get a cabin upgrade. Sylvia said she would contact Brisbane in relation to this but came back with a letter for us advising that they had not heard about this and therefore wouldn't consider it. I said to her that we probably wouldn't consider Avalon again because of this, and she agreed with us. We thought the cruise director would 'bend over backwards' to please her passengers. She came across to people that she couldn't be bothered with anything and wouldn't go the 'extra mile' for anyone. For this only reason we wouldn't consider an Avalon cruise again. Thank you.

We chose this cruise because we wanted an in depth visit to the DDay Landing Beaches. We wanted full coverage with strong military history commentary as my husband is a military historian at the Australian War Memorial. We were very disappointed in the tour provided. We had to choose between the American DDay experience and the British/Canadian experience. ...read more So the tour was immediately compromised and superficial. And the lunch was awful and took too long therefore wasting valuable time. A third in-depth tour should have been offered - one that left early and returned late so a full overview of the DDay landing beaches could be obtained and lunch eaten on the run. So our rating is based on the DDay Landing tour experience. This is the third time we have written of our disappointment - we have also completed two surveys on the cruise but not had a response. (GJ: Thanks Diana, I'm sure Avalon have taken your comments on-board - well we hope so! Global Journeys list all reviews, so your comments can help future travellers considering this river cruise)

We were very happy with Global Journeys, the booking, ticketing etc went very smoothly. The paper tags for our luggage transfer from the meeting hotel to the ship were for the wrong Avalon ship. The error was noticed early and the problem solved very quickly. We were very happy with the Avalon experience. We were expecting 'great' things and were definitely ...read more not disappointed. The staff were very good, the cruise director very professional and helpful, the accommodation, food and tour guides were very good. Our only mildly adverse comment would be about the 'meeting hotel' prior to being transported to the ship. The experience was 'ordinary' to say the least, we were all held in a large conference room, in a somewhat isolated hotel, with nothing to do in the area to while away the waiting time...for us it was a 'wasted' day in Paris when there could have been so many more options.

We enjoyed our river cruise and trip to Normandy. The cruise director was great and helped us with all our enquiries. We would book a trip with you again in the future and recommend it to our friends.

Would highly recommend Avalon cruise company. The experience was wonderful and both mum (82) and I (55) thoroughly enjoyed the tour. The food, the tours, the tour director and guides were all first rate. We would recommend this to anyone interested in learning about that part of the world as well as those who enjoy good company and meeting new and interesting ...read more travellers. Thanks Michelle.

We did not enjoy this Avalon cruise as much as our APT cruise and would not travel with them again, most of the tours we had to pay for, the food was mostly the same with not much variety, the newsletters from the tour director were too mixed up and hard to follow and a lot of the local guides were very rude, we were also expected to pay tips to drivers ...read more and guides even on the free tours and tips to crew and cruise director at end of cruise, also had to pay for most drinks - all of which we did not on APT.

The river cruise exceeded my expecations. The cruise director did an excellent job in ensuring that everyone got the most out of their cruise. Very helpful & flexible with organising optional excursions. The crew were very friendly. Overall it gavethe impression that each traveller was very special. I would certainly recommend Avalon to any traveller ...read more looking for a cruise.

Thanks Hannah for all your help in organising our tour. It really excelled all our expectations, food, service was all we could ask for. The Tour Coordinator was very good and always included a bit of humour into everything - spot on with everything he did.

The Avalon cruise from Paris to Normandy was fantastic. The ship was amazing, the food and wines of the region were excellent. Jerome our cruise director was very good and extremely efficient. All the staff on board the ship were great and cared for us very well . We had a wonderful time.