Getting to a train station in Saint-Jean-de-Losne isn’t easy. I learned this at the end of my Flavors of Burgundy river cruise this week. It’s not that the tiny town on the banks of the Saône has no trains. In fact, there are two stations within 1.5 miles of where AmaCello docked. The problem is that it’s not easy to get to the stations. There are no taxis to speak of—nor an Uber to be seen. Hail an Uber using your app, and you discover that it must come from Dijon, more than 20 miles away. Walking is an option, but with luggage in tow, not an easy task. And even though I had light luggage, there were portions of the road with no sidewalks, exposing would-be walkers to traffic. I did a reconnaissance run using one of AmaCello’s bicycles the day before departing, learning that even though I enjoy walking, the walk to the train station would not be pleasant.

To the rescue was Simon Armstrong, AmaCello’s capable cruise manager. A quick phone call, and he arranged a ride for me. It was like finding water in a desert—or more appropriately in this case, a camel. “Chapeau!” I heard Simon say before putting his phone away. I knew he had succeeded in finding me a ride when he used the French idiom for “hats off.”

At 62, Simon could be enjoying retirement with his wife at their home near Toulouse, France. So why take a job he didn’t need? “It was about not being done yet,” he told me. “I wasn’t finished. Plus, I was wanting something to exercise my grey matter,” he added jokingly. What becomes quickly apparent to those who cruise with Simon is that he loves his job and he loves sharing the culture of his country. (The Scotsman is a dual passport holder who has lived in France for 22 years.) It’s cruise managers like Simon who make the trip even more enjoyable than it otherwise would be.

Never Taking The Freedom To Travel For Granted

Flavors of Burgundy is a new itinerary for “more discerning guests,” Simon said during his talk on our last night on board. A handful of the towns that AmaCello visits—Seurre, Saint-Jean-de-Losne, Chalon-sur-Saône—aren’t that well known among even seasoned travelers. Sailing from Lyon, where AmaCello overnights, the itinerary exits the Rhone to sail up the Saône, calling on charming destinations that are not spaced all that far apart. The combination makes for a relaxed sailing with lots to see and do. With distances so close, there are even bike tours between some of the ports of call—between Seurre and Saint-Jean-de-Losne, fewer than 15 flat miles apart.

We had all experienced a wonderful week on AmaCello, with beautiful weather, although a bit hot. The evening before we were to disembark, we gathered in the lounge for Simon’s farewell. “Travel is a gift,” he told us. “I never thought of it like that when I was a cocky kid.” At age 21, his job was to escort busloads of British tourists across the English Channel to Paris. His motivation was to get tourists to Paris and off the bus at the Eiffel Tower so that he could have a smoke (which he no longer does) and collect commissions from people he steered to shops. “I thought I knew it all,” he said.

Then one night, “a little old lady was sitting on the coach crying,” he said. Eager to have a smoke, he only wanted to hurry her off the bus. “There’s nothing wrong with me,” she told Simon. “I just want to sit here and admire the Eiffel Tower.” What she said next changed Simon’s life. She said that her husband had died six weeks earlier, and their dream had been to see the Eiffel Tower together.

Simon struggled to tell the rest of the story. His voice choked with emotion. And there were a few tears streaming down the cheeks of guests in the room. “From that moment on, I never took travel for granted,” he continued. “I look around me, take in what I see, and I want to share it all with others.”

I was surprised to learn that Simon had been a cruise manager for only two years. His career had seen him at Thomas Cook, then British Airways. He was a “long-haul Boeing boy,” he told me. After retiring, he decided he was not yet done. So during winter a couple of years ago, he and his wife had a discussion. She encouraged him to send his CV to AmaWaterways. He did so and landed the job.

The most rewarding part of his job? “I think it’s seeing people once they’ve settled after day one—it’s like they’re completely mesmerized,” Simon says. “It’s like they’re in a bubble, the Ama bubble. They’re in this lovely world where they are looked after from morning till midnight.”

Simon says he also likes solving problems for guests and answering their questions about a place that he knows well and loves so much. He certainly solved my problem, saving me a long walk with luggage in tow to a train station. “Chapeau!” Thank you, Simon, for a job well done.

Also see … On AmaWaterways: Discovering The Art Of Barrel-Making In Burgundy