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