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3.3 days, bright then dull, cold, evening rain
227 km – 142 ml – 11 locks – 25 hrs
5 April: After a rather disappointing visit to Avignon we are a little anxious as to where we will stop for the next few nights, especially as we suspect some places are closed until the season starts – generally on 1 May but Easter and 15 May are also mooted.
Anyway, we push on into a northerly wind and maybe a 3 knot current (difficult to be sure, as the boat has no speedo as such – see info >>>>) in a hopeful frame of mind.
A highlight is ascending the massive Rhone locks (see info >>>>) including the famous Bollene ecluse (lock), the deepest in Europe. The lights at the top look small from the boat but are in fact full-size lamp-posts – it’s just that they are eight stories above us! Without other boats to help with the scale, the lock seems quite narrow, whereas it is in fact wide enough to spin our 32-footer around without touching the sides. We resolve not to try that.
Passing under the flood-gate near Donzere, which is a serious piece of kit that’s lowered into the river when required, we are reminded of the immensity of the whole Rhone enterprise.
Our hopes of sneaking into the little council-run marina at Viviers are thwarted when we arrive and find no pontoons, just a work-boat. This is a shame because Viviers is reputed to be really nice. It’s also a shame because we are running out of places to stop before the approaching nightfall.
Fortunately the very nice lock-keeper at Chateauneuf-du-Rhone is happy for us to stay on the layby overnight. This is an easy decision for him as there is little commercial traffic and virtually no pleasure boat traffic other than us (mad dogs and Englishmen etc). However, it is another cold night on board without water or electricity.
But we do enjoy a decent supermarche lasagne for supper, washed down with a suitable local red.
6 April: We have a quiet night other than for one or two barges passing through in the early hours. After breakfast, we enter the Chateauneuf ecluse “Je veux avalant s’il vous plait”, but we are not alone.
We follow a large (to us, at least) hotel boat into the lock, with great interest. Unfortunately the combination of its occasional use of an engine during the ascent, the sheer volume of water coming up under the boat and the fact that we are tied to a single bollard amidships, means we are being tossed us around like a plastic duck in a bath, despite using both thrusters. A sudden switch of its engine, for some reason, results a minor but annoying knock of the bathing platform against the wall, even with careful fendering.
At Valence, we find ourselves in a lovely marina with diesel at a reasonable 1.75 per litre, nice pontoons and all the advertised services. This is more like it.
It is an attractive marina, in whose restaurant we enjoy an excellent supper. How unlucky then that a sudden heavy thunder-storm prompts Colin to run all the way back to the boat to close the roof-hatches, which had been left on vent, in case the deluge should flood onto our bed. He is completely soaked and eventually returns to the table in shorts, having wrung out his jeans and shirt into the sink. Sacrebleu.
7 April: We head on up-river and arrive as planned at the marina of Les Roches-de-Condrieu, expecting full services and a choice of eateries. But the diesel supply has water in it, as the boss amusingly explains in a mixture of gestures and French, and is therefore not available. That’s two out of three fuel failures already, manageable so far but we are conscious of burning up to 35 litres per hour at up to 12 knots (see info >>>>). Marie also discovers that the seemingly good showers are not working. Plus ca change.
So we head up to the village only to find that our eating choice is limited to the nearby hotel overlooking the river. To be fair, we enjoy some excellent food and wine there.
On the way up, this heron seems more relaxed than those in the UK.
8 April: By early afternoon, we are passing through the ‘confluence’ from the Rhone onto the Saone in arguably France’s second city, Lyon. It is a wide junction with plenty of logs and other debris coming from further up the Rhone and getting caught in the swirling water. Perhaps the Saone will run more slowly and carry less flotsam.
The Lyon river bank is known to be not very boat-friendly unless you have a steel barge, so it was a surprise to discover a few days earlier that their relatively new marina in the heart of the city was – closed: “Come back in May.” Not for the first time, some people seem to think they are doing us boaters a favour.
There are other moorings in Lyon but they are really only suitable for large steel barges and seem to be fully occupied by same.
Progress so far
313 km – 196 ml – 13 locks – 35 hrs