“We are here for the food and the wine, and fully expect to eat too much and drink too much,” says Ben, 80, from Cornwall, sipping his welcome cocktail of sparkling wine. “And we would be very disappointed if we didn’t.”

What a marvellous bunch of hedonists there are on board the MV Van Gogh for this three-night, four-day cruise of Beaujolais and Burgundy wine country. And how wonderfully relaxing it is for a stressed-out almost-50-year-old to find herself the youngest passenger.

Is it just me, or are people my own age boring? They have an air of desperation about them as they worry over mortgages, wrinkles, careers and children. But this crowd is over all that – and over the guilt, too. It’s very refreshing.

It also means special-interest cruises such as this will be the fly-drives of the future. They make it all so easy – you leave home by train in the morning, settle in to your comfortable Eurostar seat, change to a speedy TGV train at Lille, and you are on board your cruise ship in Lyons by afternoon tea-time. Make that cocktail time.

Europe's top ten river cruises

Tom Le Bas, editor of Insight Guide: Great River Cruises, idles along the Rhine, Vistula, Elbe...

BACKGROUND

• Boat du Rhône

• River cruises take Britons to new shores

• All aboard for a wine-tasting cruise

Related Internet Links

• More than 120 cruise stories

“Begin as you mean to go on,” seems to be the thinking among the well-dressed, well-spoken retirees of Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire and the West Country. Glasses clink in toasts as our long, low and lean Van Gogh glides through the silvery waters of the Saône against the setting sun.

First stop is just 5km (3 miles) north, where we moor at Collonges au Mont d’Or in time for dinner at one of the most prestigious names in 20th-century cuisine, Paul Bocuse. At the historic Abbaye de Collonges, the hospitality is immediate, the aperitifs generous, and the huge silver trays of canapés irresistible.

Suddenly, the red velvet drapes are swept aside and we are ushered in to the grand dining room to booming music from a gigantic restored Gaudin fairground organ. Dinner is splendidly old-school French, with lobes of foie gras under puff pastry hats followed by creamy lobster velouté, chicken with morel mushrooms and a beautifully kept Saint-Marcellin from the famous Mère Richard at Les Halles market in Lyons. The wine, from Coteaux du Tricastin, keeps flowing as we do what people always do over good food and wine – get to know each other. Then it’s an unsteady stroll back to the Van Gogh and into our cabins for the night as the captain strikes north for Tournus.

Built in 1999 for the Strasbourg-based CroisiEurope fleet, the Van Goghis 110m (360ft) long, with 76 outside-facing, air-conditioned cabins on two decks. My cabin is comfortable, with twin bunks, a big picture window, plenty of hanging space, room under the bed for suitcases, and a small but trim bathroom. The real joy comes in the morning, sitting up in bed, curtains drawn back, as water birds skim back and forth, and the occasional fisherman raises a hand in salute.

But this is a gastronomic cruise and we are here for the food and wine. The first day’s lunch on board is not promising, with its oily foie gras, overdone lamb in filo pastry, and white meringue swans sandwiched together with Chantilly cream, and I feel as though I am trapped in a wedding reception on water. From then on, however, the meals, under the executive chef, Alain Bohn, get better and better. A terrine of salmon, cod and lobster on the first evening is exceptionally good, as is a wobbly pyramid of sweet jelly made from muscat wine and citrus fruits. French wines are suggested for each meal at reasonable prices, but it would be good to see more burgundies on a cruise through Burgundy.

Each day brings an on-shore excursion (for an extra 27 euros, about £19). The first is to Beaune for a visit to the 15th-century Hospices de Beaune, a former hospital and now the scene of Burgundy’s best-known charity wine auction.

The next day is devoted to Beaujolais, with a bus trip to Le Hameau du Vin, a wine museum set up by Beaujolais’ most famous son, Georges Duboeuf. The tour is long and terribly dull so I pretend to feel faint and run out, recovering just in time to return for the wine-tasting finale.

Even the copious quantities of wine can’t unite the 20 Brits and 50 French. We tour in separate buses, and eat at separate tables. The French play cards and board games, the British read books – Ann Widdecombe’s latest was popular.

You can eat well in France, and you can take many a river cruise. But there is a special magic about doing the two at the same time, sipping a velvety Savigny-lès-Beaunes and tucking into sea bass with lentils and bacon while rows of poplars or majestic cathedrals pass by like heavenly mirages. For me, there are not enough opportunities for a fast walk, and too few salads and leafy greens, but I can only assume that is a sign of my youth. I’m sure it will pass.

Need to know

VFB (01452 716838, www.vfbholidays.co.uk) has three-night gastronomic cruises on the Saône leaving on April 2 and November 3, 2008, from £627pp. The cost includes travel by Eurostar and TGV to Lyons via Lille, most meals and a dinner, including wine, at Paul Bocuse’s Abbaye de Collonges at Collonges au Mont d’Or.

Times recommends

• New York's top 10 new hotels
• A Scottish monastery retreat
• Welcome back to Rwanda