9, 2019 July, Lyon to Tournon.

Leaving Lyon we set sail on the 'Mighty Rhone River' down towards the Med, or Sud,  which was infact very gentielle.... not fast flowing like everybody has told us. The spring melt this year has been very slow and not much of it.

The water is definitely more murky than the clearer waters of the River Saone.

Landscape very different now, the river is big and wide, and slowly flowing. Hills now on the banks with the beginings of vines down to the river and in the distance, mountains...


Vines growing either side of the gorge.
(Cotes du Rhone wines)

Next break we had was in Tournon where we stayed 6 nights over Bastielle Day.

The French are very good with lighting up all their monuments and squares at night. 

We decided to do tourist thing so
caught a steam train up
the Ardeche Valley.

The steam train has 4 pistons fired by steam
from a boiler using 6000litrs of water for
the 33 km trip.
AND  800kgs of coal.
( no carbon footprint then ,eh??)

It was a fun trip, and we had time to have
lunch and to walk
around the town of
Lamastre before the return jouney.

Then we got adventurous and

 headed up into the vineyards to visit the little chapel of St Christopher.

It was a long but beautiful climb up through the vines and as we started at 9am it was much cooler too. 

We saw the vines being tended to by hand, not machine due to the terain. 

And Max had found his dream cottage in the country....

Max getting hungry ? Thirsty ??

just not quite ripe yet...ha  ha  😋😪😪

Bastille Day fireworks,
and as usual the French have lots of fun.

 

And we always seem to be seeing such good sunsets. 

The weather has been amaqzing, 33-38 degreres most days 

with a slight breeze.

Now we head further south towards Avignon.

6 & 8, 2019, July, Lyon.

Initially arriving into Lyon, with temps of 40-42, we met up with Janine & Bruce, off  Paprika (from Sumner) who we had had a few good days/eves with last year. 

It's so hot we found the only way to cool off is with the hose, on the marina...

Repeatedly!!!!

(such babes!!)

The Marina at the Confluence was setting up for the 'Red Bull Jour d'Envol' and I think we were lucky we missed it as we went to Avigion for a few days.
Apparently it was a very hot day, lots of noise the whole weekend and 20,000 spectators.

Ring side seats!!!!! (arrow shows our mooring)

Amazing city buildings around Lyon, And the spaceship looking musee on the Confluence.

There are several building around Lyon that have totally painted facades..... look so real.    

  

Lyon is the second largest city in France. It has strategic signifgance at it is at the confluence of the Saone and the Rhone rivers as they head down to the Mediterranian.    

High up on the hill, on the Saone side is the beautiful Fourviere Basilica.   

View from the top of the Hill over Lyon.

Whats left of the Romam Theatres of Fourviere which have been made into a great stage show for perforances of all sorts, esp music. 

Ali cooling off after a hot tiring trip from London.

                                      Rob Cooper and Max showing off their red shoes,,                                                                that first met (the shoes) over 4 years ago on the Moselle

😁😁

The confulence fully lit at night.

And we down loaded the Lime scotter app and the boys were off,  having lots of fun, scooting around at          20-25km/hr.

Think Warwick is now hooked.

Me and the Boys....

And our last night in Lyon, with Warwick & Sam leaving for NZ, Ali for OZ via UK, , and Rob & Sue Cooper for St Jean de Losne to sadly sell their boat.. 

All visitors gone now, so we set off on our own,  down the mightly RHONE..

Just one word of advice before we go!!!

7, 2019, June, A quick side trip from Lyon to Avignon.

With Warwick and Sam and a hired car, we headed off to an air bnb in the Centre of Avignon. We wanted to really see the 'Carrieries de Lumieres' and it is not reachable from the boat.. This show was inside an old amazingly huge lime stone quarry and depicted Most of Van Gogh works through his life span.

An absoltuely amazing light show lasting about 50mins.

Afer that with temps around 42-44 degrees we headed off to 'Pont du Gard' for a swim. 

The Pont du Gard is a Roman aqueduct built in 40-60AD.  

It was built to carry water to the baths, fountains and homes of the citizens of Nimes from the springs of the Fountaine d'Eure near Uzes. It used to take 40,000m3 of water 50kms a day to the 50,000 inhabitants of Nimes.

 The aqueduct here stands 160 feet high and the water duct descends a mere 2.5cm over the span, while the whole aqueduct descends only 41 feet in height over its whole length, (50kms) indicative of what the Roman engineers did with simple technology.  

Sam and I trying not to get run over by the hundreds of canoes on the water.

Next day did the tourist thing in the Old City of Avignon, 

Le Palais des Papes.

 It is one of the largest and most important Medival Gothic buildings in Europe. The Papal Court fled Rome and Avignon became the seat of Western Christianity during the 14C, and 7 Popes lived there. Construction started in AD1252, and by the time the palace was finshed it covered 11,000m2 and was enormously expensive,  consuming much of the papacy's income during construction..   

  

And of course the 'Pont d'Avignon', or the 'Saint Benezet Bridge'.

Built in the 12th C but destroyed by floods and made unusable in 1668.

To dance or no to dance???????

😊😕

Max cooling down of an evening.

 A morning delivery to the shop next door to where we were staying. 

Then we returned to Lyon and Kiwi Rose. 

🙌🙌🙌🙌

and a thought for the day!!!!!