BY GINNY WARE POSTCARD from Leonie
AFTeR lIVInG ABOARD On THe RIVeR DART FOR eIGHT yeARs GInny WARe AnD HeR HusBAnD CARl seT sAIl FOR FRAnCe AnD BeyOnD. HeRe’s An upDATe On HOW THey ARe GeTTInG On
S
ETTING forth on the mighty Rhône marked the no turning back point of our journey in
terms of travelling back up the French waterways as Leonie would struggle against its fast flowing current. We joined the Rhône in Lyon, a
vibrant and interesting city where we spent a few days moored up in a marina surrounded by trendy bars and restaurants. The Sirocco wind we had
experienced on the Saône picked up again stronger than ever during our first couple of days on the Rhône. Our bed got absolutely soaked as
we stupidly forgot to close the hatch and a huge wave dumped itself all over it. We dried it out in the hot wind and sun after mooring up at Les Roches and the next morning left the marina under a cloudless, windless sky. Within an hour the Sirocco returned with a vengeance causing Leonie to list and lurch in the white-horse waves. We pushed on another 69km that
day as there aren’t many places to stop on the Rhône. Several moorings were washed away in a bad storm a couple of years ago and others are just too shallow for Leonie. The Rhône is a huge, industrial
river and while some of the scenery is fantastic (hilly, steep vineyards, old villages etc) and the Alps are
Lyon, Pyrenees and Mont Blanc 103
an almost constant backdrop in the distance, it is also lined with nuclear power stations (three), smelly factories and wind turbines. We moored at one place next to
a nuclear cooling station and below a thick web of buzzing electricity cables. The town, 15 minutes away, was a
revelation though, as part of it con- sisted of a medieval fort, complete with ruined castle, thick walls and tiny alleys crammed with medieval houses that people still live in. The next day we arrived at an
even bigger medieval walled town called viviers, perched on a hill and sheltering a big old church and nar- row cobbled streets. It was here we met a French couple with a great story.
up and sail off on a great adventure. They plan to cross the Atlantic and sail to Japan in a tiny yacht, which is half the size of Leonie. Anne is selling her restaurant in marseille to help fund the trip. En route to Avignon, we entered one of the biggest locks in the world (L’écluse de Bollène) which lowered us 23 metres – we felt very small. The walled city encloses palaces, churches and lots of theatres and we stayed for a week as this time the Mistral, a strong north wind, blew for a few days and we didn’t feel like being bounced around on the Rhône. Even here, moored below the city
Ann first
met her fella (who is the father of her son) 34 years ago. They split up soon after but got together again two months ago and decided to give it all
ramparts, we were sniffed out by the local Jehovah’s Witnesses! Before leaving the Rhône for the open sea we decided to make a detour and explore the Petit Rhône and the Rhône à Sète Canal in the Camargue region.
River Saône Calanque de Port-Miou
Camargue
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