Wednesday 5th October.
Vienne to Serrieres
Oh dear, this morning we woke to a few white fluffy things in the sky which we haven’t seen since we arrived in France, but luckily they had vanished by the time we were ready to go. We were both full of enthusiasm as for once, we had a good route map in our hands and had booked a little hotel in Serrieres about 30 miles further on.
However, the lovely map we held was not that accurate and once over the bridge in Vienne, it bore little relation to what was actually in front of us. The first few miles were along the walls of the Rhone past pretty suburban merchants houses and villas, with some rather complicated barriers which are clearly designed for bikes without panniers.
Vivi had a certain amount of trouble negotiating her first one and a small boy was eager to show her how it was done!
then we went through very agricultural land on the West side of the river. It is very fertile, rather like the Nile delta and everything grows here, including Artichokes, chard, celeriac and vast orchards of cherries and pommes.
Chard planters and a field of artichokes.
Why it is wrapped in polythene we could not find out.
We crossed over the Isle du Buerre which is a designated wildlife reserve with hides for bird and beaver watching. We were hopeful that we would see a beaver as we were unsuccessful in Canada. However they are apparently mostly nocturnal so we didn’t. It was lovely and quiet until we lost our way on one of the many sandy tracks and ran into several rather hostile looking old men in florescent orange jackets with rifles. They started shouting at us and gesticulating madly as we tried to peddle through. They were on a wild boar hunt and had encircled the wood we were trying to ride through, so we would have really spoilt their fun had we been allowed to continue and they ours, too. Several turns later we were back on track.
Certain Departments in France aren’t too fussed about cyclists and provide no signs at all, at times like that some helpful cyclists make their own for the benefit of others!
Condrieu is an attractive town situated where the Rhone is very wide with a hostellerie which has a rather good reputation but we had our packed lunch so continued on a bit further before having our picnic on the river bank. Several species decided to join us and were all particularly fascinated by Alec’s big toe.
How the snail got there was amazing as he never noticed and must have taken a while. The bank was covered in snails so we felt a bit guilty sitting down as goodness knows how many were squashed.
The Romans introduced snails to this area and they feature much on the menus along with frog's legs.
There was a man with a large machine cutting the banks which we thought was a bit of a waste of the tax payers’ money, but thinking further, we realised that it all has to be kept short as presumably it would be a serious fire hazard if left. We have also past several timber yards where there is a constant spray of water over all the timber piles. We criss-crossed our way over from the east to west sides of the river which made for interesting changes of scenery. The west was very hilly and mostly labelled with wine maker’s tags and we learned at supper that the wine from the Cote Rotie is very select or certainly priced as such.The east bank is much flatter and more open with walnut trees and cherry orchards.
Barges plough up and down the river constantly but this was a different sort, a double barge. However, readers of Mark Twain will know that after the demise of the steam boat on the Mississippi due to the railway the enterprising boatmen tied together huge floating rafts and had them transported by a tug boat several at a time. This seemed to be exactly what was happening here.
We had booked into a little 2 star hotel in Serrieres – a town on the west bank which had probably seen better times in the 1930’s. The hotel was pretty uninspiring from the front as you had to check in via a scary bar full of local men putting bets on races and the lottery, which runs constantly on a screen in the bar. However, once shown upstairs, our room was at the back on the top floor with it’s own private balcony with chairs and an olive tree, facing west. As we had arrived quite early for once we made the most of the sunshine and sat on the balcony and painted the view of the church spire and clock- At least Alec did; I painted him painting the view.
We were given orthopaedic beds too which you could sit up or lie down in, not sure whether that was the only room available or because she took one look at us. Annoyingly we couldn’t get the Stannah stair lift to work to transport our bags up all the flights of stairs!
Of course, being Wednesday the whole town closed after lunch so there was a momentary panic as they told us that the only place to eat was back over the river in the Macdonald’s on the motorway a few miles away. Very fortunately we found the other hotel in the village (le Scheaffer) had a restaurant within walking distance so rushed in there. Linen table cloths are always a step too far for us as it means you will eat very well but probably at more strain to the pocket. Alec went into a bit of a decline to begin with, when we realised we could only afford a glass each of the local wine. However once the food started to arrive, he began to sound like Greg Wallace and John Torode on Master Chef and had to award full marks! From the bonne-bouche onwards It was delicious and the fact that we had to savour every mouthful of the restaurant’s Syrah from its’ own vineyard made it even better.
Thursday 6th October.
Serrieres to La Roche du Glun
After a very foggy start on the river bank, it was another glorious day and we had a great breakfast in the bar absolutely chock full of locals. All putting bets on trotting races in Dubai and who knows where else.
This is the unprepossessing hotel from the other bank.
We headed back over the river to where we had spied a bike shop yesterday.
En route a lovely lady regaled us with tales of woe about how polluted the river now is, but it was looking very picturesque anyway. You do get horrible smells whilst travelling along the bank when you hear a whooshing sound as they discharge all sorts of nasties into it. One is certainly discouraged from swimming or going too close as there are signs all along the banks warning you not to.
The bike shop lady gave us a most useful map of the next 50 miles so we set off very happily. You might wonder why we are being so over-enthusiastic about trying to negotiate our way along the Rhone, but on our last trip through France we found a book telling us that this route ‘La Via Rhona,’ all 850 K’s from Lake Geneva to the Mediterranean would be open shortly. This was published in 2009. Sadly due to various financial constraints it is taking a bit longer than anticipated. France is so divided into ‘Departements ‘there seem to be some with larger grants than others for tourism, so it is a bit of a financial lottery. It is now due to be completed by 2013 but we couldn’t wait that long – we would be even less able to get on our bikes. The biggest frustration is that the Rhone is the division between the Drome on the East Bank and the Ardeche on the west bank. They have absolutely no information about each other.
Anyway, today was very easy as we were spoon fed our route, the result of which is we can’t really remember much about it. We had expected to see quite deep gorges and castellated buildings on top of rocky outcrops but it was not so high or steep. One of the local sites is the ‘postman’s palace’ which is the most amazing castle the local postman built by collecting stones on his rounds and slowly but surely putting together a very Gothic looking palace . We never actually saw it as it was several miles further off our track than wished.
We ping-ponged back and forth over the river bridges several times until we reached Tain L’Hermitage with the town of Tournon on the other side of the river.
These are both really pretty towns so we stopped for a while, enjoyed a glass of Crozes Hermitage since the vines were winking at us from the hill, but decide to go a bit further as it was still early.
Another claim to fame of Tournon is the lady who discovered a cure for Epilepsy. People came from all over Europe to be cured and left her with donations with which she built this chapel. We rather liked this abandoned chateau on the outskirts of Tounon.
We carried on to the rather nicely named town of la Roche de Glun along the bike route on the side of the river, which was now gravel and not so easy to ride. We were delighted to arrive at the Auberge du Golf. Alec was keen to see if there was a course so he could see how his hand is faring towards holding a club next week, but there was no sign of one and not sure why it had that name. Anyway, it was the best place to spend the night once we had persuaded the couple running it, to cook supper for us. They looked totally exhausted as they had fed 95 for lunch! But no matter, the husband cooked sublimely and we had a very early supper. Fortunately one other person was staying so he needed feeding too so we felt marginally less guilty. We had tiny ravioli to start with, filled with some cheese /herbs /garlic which melted in the mouth. Madame said that in the war when they couldn’t get any meat, they made up this recipe from the local mountain cheese to give people protein. This must have been quite an area for the resistance as in most towns, streets are named after people who were either shipped to Dachau or shot by the Gestapo.
St Joseph seems to be the local wine which slips down very easily too.
Vienne to Serrieres
Oh dear, this morning we woke to a few white fluffy things in the sky which we haven’t seen since we arrived in France, but luckily they had vanished by the time we were ready to go. We were both full of enthusiasm as for once, we had a good route map in our hands and had booked a little hotel in Serrieres about 30 miles further on.
However, the lovely map we held was not that accurate and once over the bridge in Vienne, it bore little relation to what was actually in front of us. The first few miles were along the walls of the Rhone past pretty suburban merchants houses and villas, with some rather complicated barriers which are clearly designed for bikes without panniers.
Vivi had a certain amount of trouble negotiating her first one and a small boy was eager to show her how it was done!
then we went through very agricultural land on the West side of the river. It is very fertile, rather like the Nile delta and everything grows here, including Artichokes, chard, celeriac and vast orchards of cherries and pommes.
Chard planters and a field of artichokes.
Why it is wrapped in polythene we could not find out.
We crossed over the Isle du Buerre which is a designated wildlife reserve with hides for bird and beaver watching. We were hopeful that we would see a beaver as we were unsuccessful in Canada. However they are apparently mostly nocturnal so we didn’t. It was lovely and quiet until we lost our way on one of the many sandy tracks and ran into several rather hostile looking old men in florescent orange jackets with rifles. They started shouting at us and gesticulating madly as we tried to peddle through. They were on a wild boar hunt and had encircled the wood we were trying to ride through, so we would have really spoilt their fun had we been allowed to continue and they ours, too. Several turns later we were back on track.
Certain Departments in France aren’t too fussed about cyclists and provide no signs at all, at times like that some helpful cyclists make their own for the benefit of others!
Condrieu is an attractive town situated where the Rhone is very wide with a hostellerie which has a rather good reputation but we had our packed lunch so continued on a bit further before having our picnic on the river bank. Several species decided to join us and were all particularly fascinated by Alec’s big toe.
How the snail got there was amazing as he never noticed and must have taken a while. The bank was covered in snails so we felt a bit guilty sitting down as goodness knows how many were squashed.
The Romans introduced snails to this area and they feature much on the menus along with frog's legs.
There was a man with a large machine cutting the banks which we thought was a bit of a waste of the tax payers’ money, but thinking further, we realised that it all has to be kept short as presumably it would be a serious fire hazard if left. We have also past several timber yards where there is a constant spray of water over all the timber piles. We criss-crossed our way over from the east to west sides of the river which made for interesting changes of scenery. The west was very hilly and mostly labelled with wine maker’s tags and we learned at supper that the wine from the Cote Rotie is very select or certainly priced as such.The east bank is much flatter and more open with walnut trees and cherry orchards.
Barges plough up and down the river constantly but this was a different sort, a double barge. However, readers of Mark Twain will know that after the demise of the steam boat on the Mississippi due to the railway the enterprising boatmen tied together huge floating rafts and had them transported by a tug boat several at a time. This seemed to be exactly what was happening here.
We had booked into a little 2 star hotel in Serrieres – a town on the west bank which had probably seen better times in the 1930’s. The hotel was pretty uninspiring from the front as you had to check in via a scary bar full of local men putting bets on races and the lottery, which runs constantly on a screen in the bar. However, once shown upstairs, our room was at the back on the top floor with it’s own private balcony with chairs and an olive tree, facing west. As we had arrived quite early for once we made the most of the sunshine and sat on the balcony and painted the view of the church spire and clock- At least Alec did; I painted him painting the view.
We were given orthopaedic beds too which you could sit up or lie down in, not sure whether that was the only room available or because she took one look at us. Annoyingly we couldn’t get the Stannah stair lift to work to transport our bags up all the flights of stairs!
Of course, being Wednesday the whole town closed after lunch so there was a momentary panic as they told us that the only place to eat was back over the river in the Macdonald’s on the motorway a few miles away. Very fortunately we found the other hotel in the village (le Scheaffer) had a restaurant within walking distance so rushed in there. Linen table cloths are always a step too far for us as it means you will eat very well but probably at more strain to the pocket. Alec went into a bit of a decline to begin with, when we realised we could only afford a glass each of the local wine. However once the food started to arrive, he began to sound like Greg Wallace and John Torode on Master Chef and had to award full marks! From the bonne-bouche onwards It was delicious and the fact that we had to savour every mouthful of the restaurant’s Syrah from its’ own vineyard made it even better.
Thursday 6th October.
Serrieres to La Roche du Glun
After a very foggy start on the river bank, it was another glorious day and we had a great breakfast in the bar absolutely chock full of locals. All putting bets on trotting races in Dubai and who knows where else.
This is the unprepossessing hotel from the other bank.
We headed back over the river to where we had spied a bike shop yesterday.
En route a lovely lady regaled us with tales of woe about how polluted the river now is, but it was looking very picturesque anyway. You do get horrible smells whilst travelling along the bank when you hear a whooshing sound as they discharge all sorts of nasties into it. One is certainly discouraged from swimming or going too close as there are signs all along the banks warning you not to.
The bike shop lady gave us a most useful map of the next 50 miles so we set off very happily. You might wonder why we are being so over-enthusiastic about trying to negotiate our way along the Rhone, but on our last trip through France we found a book telling us that this route ‘La Via Rhona,’ all 850 K’s from Lake Geneva to the Mediterranean would be open shortly. This was published in 2009. Sadly due to various financial constraints it is taking a bit longer than anticipated. France is so divided into ‘Departements ‘there seem to be some with larger grants than others for tourism, so it is a bit of a financial lottery. It is now due to be completed by 2013 but we couldn’t wait that long – we would be even less able to get on our bikes. The biggest frustration is that the Rhone is the division between the Drome on the East Bank and the Ardeche on the west bank. They have absolutely no information about each other.
Anyway, today was very easy as we were spoon fed our route, the result of which is we can’t really remember much about it. We had expected to see quite deep gorges and castellated buildings on top of rocky outcrops but it was not so high or steep. One of the local sites is the ‘postman’s palace’ which is the most amazing castle the local postman built by collecting stones on his rounds and slowly but surely putting together a very Gothic looking palace . We never actually saw it as it was several miles further off our track than wished.
We ping-ponged back and forth over the river bridges several times until we reached Tain L’Hermitage with the town of Tournon on the other side of the river.
These are both really pretty towns so we stopped for a while, enjoyed a glass of Crozes Hermitage since the vines were winking at us from the hill, but decide to go a bit further as it was still early.
Another claim to fame of Tournon is the lady who discovered a cure for Epilepsy. People came from all over Europe to be cured and left her with donations with which she built this chapel. We rather liked this abandoned chateau on the outskirts of Tounon.
We carried on to the rather nicely named town of la Roche de Glun along the bike route on the side of the river, which was now gravel and not so easy to ride. We were delighted to arrive at the Auberge du Golf. Alec was keen to see if there was a course so he could see how his hand is faring towards holding a club next week, but there was no sign of one and not sure why it had that name. Anyway, it was the best place to spend the night once we had persuaded the couple running it, to cook supper for us. They looked totally exhausted as they had fed 95 for lunch! But no matter, the husband cooked sublimely and we had a very early supper. Fortunately one other person was staying so he needed feeding too so we felt marginally less guilty. We had tiny ravioli to start with, filled with some cheese /herbs /garlic which melted in the mouth. Madame said that in the war when they couldn’t get any meat, they made up this recipe from the local mountain cheese to give people protein. This must have been quite an area for the resistance as in most towns, streets are named after people who were either shipped to Dachau or shot by the Gestapo.
St Joseph seems to be the local wine which slips down very easily too.
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