Back on Board

Back on board.

Firstly, thank you to all who offered beds, washing machines and parking spaces whilst we had a “holiday” in the UK.  It was hectic but great to see everyone.

We arrived at Lyon in the afternoon of the Monday and got everything sorted away and set off the following morning.  Heading for Les Roches Condrieu.  We were soon back into the swing of mega locks - all of the next few are 200m long and drop around 12m - the really big ones are lower down the Rhone.  We’re going with the flow of the Rhone and so our speed is now around 7knts.  Condrieu was a nice enough town but the highlights were the visits by a kingfisher in the marina and some unusual neighbouring boats.

Only the tiny top section is above water when you enter the lock.

This boat was hilarious

Morning visitor

Second day was supposed to be fairly short to Tournon but as we got there we found the harbour had silted up and the pontoons were sat on the river bed - we backed very carefully out of the narrow entrance. Shame as it looked to be a very nice place to visit and is home to the l’Hermitage vineyard - had planned on stocking the wine cellar on the boat here - will have to find a supermarket wineshop instead. We continued on, through two more mega locks, and got to Valence before 5pm.  Decided to stop here for a couple of days to have a look around.

Lunch stop

Strange smoke?

Unfortunately this was the cause

Valence is the birthplace of Paynet, the painter - he’s the chap who in 1942 painted the scene of ”the lovers” being serenaded by a violinist under a bandstand - its based on a real moment and the bandstand is in the town centre park

The grape harvest is in full swing here

The famous bandstand

Bonaparte made his mark here too - more statues of him.

Lovely town, we can understand why some of the motorboaters overwinter here - nice place, easy access, good restaurants and shops.

Valence really is a lovely town

Looks like its going to be a very long day tomorrow - two harbours we’d planned on going to have silted up  - one completely and the other only has a depth of 1.4m, so no entry for us there.

Lunch in the market square

Ready for the RhoneI

Ready for the Rhone

Back to the UK for a bit now but here are some photos of Lyon - trying to temp you to visit the city - a fab place.

I jumped off the boat to take some piccies

The confluence museum

Evening out watching jazz at the Opera bar with Graham and Brigid

Jazz band playing Stevie Wonder music - great night

The Saone - The route to Lyon

The Saone - The route to Lyon

We stopped at a couple of villages -  Montmerle and Trevor, before the run into Lyon itself

Trevoux’s bridge had some weird blue figures sat on top - but it looked good.

Strange blue figures on the bridge

The trip from Trevor to Lyon meant one enormous lock, two huge ships came out of it.  We’d parked on the sport pontoon and sat and watched a hire boat properly crunch into the various walls and dolphins before finally coming to a halt near us - too near!  These hire boats must be ridiculously strong - we couldn’t see any damage at all to it.

The motor through the outskirts and into the centre of Lyon was fabulous - the buildings and sculptures along the river side just show how rich a place this was and probably still is.

Sailing through Lyon

Entering Lyon

Murals on the sides of buildings - very clever

We booked in for three days at the small marina in the centre of Lyon - a short water bus ride from the historic centre.

Celebrating the end of this leg - 1 more to go!

Our mooring in Lyon

The confluence with the Rhone is just 1km away and the area where we are is called the Confluence - a big shopping and high tech business zone with the Confluence Museum at the southern tip.  It cost €9 to get in but it was worth it just to see the photos and videos from a french Antartica expedition - amazing photography.  Managed to get my foot into an exhibition on shoes as well.

After a little bit of charm and application of the credit card we have persuaded the marina to let us leave the boat here whilst we return to the UK.  Not cheap but easy for the airport and it saves us travel and hotel bills from the next place further down the Rhone.

Travelled up the Lyon funicular today to see the St Just Basilica - amazing place built late 19c, incredibly ornate, so much so it verges on the ugly but well worth the trip.

Basilica - tres ornate

Lyon has lots of back allies cutting across between streets, some from the 15c, cutting through courtyards with galleried buildings and spiral stone staircases.

Miniature room - 30cm x 25cm

Some great architecture, both old and new