France gives green light to river cruises

The French government is to allow river cruises to continue from July 11.

“We are very happy with this decision,’ Lucas Schmitter, e-commerce and sales director of CroisiEurope, told SeaTrade. “We had expected a recovery on July 13 with our itineraries.”

The company plans recommence cruises on all French rivers with a reduced fleet on some of them, such as the Rhine (three ships instead of four) and the Seine (two instead of three).

International cruises will begin in late July/early August. Spanish and Portuguese rivers are currently slated to return in August.

“We have bookings from France, but also from Switzerland, Belgium and Germany,” Schmitter added. “We also hope to have some from Spain and Denmark. Even if our activities were considerably reduced, we are more optimistic than three months ago.”