Tuesday 28th July 2009 Fragnes. Canal du Centre

Warm and sunny. An empty péniche going past downhill woke us around 8.30 a.m. after a restless night due to the heat. Hireboats were going past around one every half hour (and mostly making a pig’s ear of it). Sweltering.

That brings us up to date - follow the rest of the 2009 diary of narrowboat Temujin by clicking on the link:-

www.nbtemujin.blogspot.com


and follow the archives to the 29th July 2009.


www.nbtemujin2009.blogspot.com


Or, go back in time and read 2008's blog by clicking on


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Monday 27th July 2009 Tournus to Fragnes C. du Centre.

Light cloud, followed by lots of black rain clouds, although we only had a light sprinkling of drops once; big sunny spells, light wind. Mike went a walk into town to get a loaf before we set off. We left at 9.20 a.m. A LeBoat hireboat which had moored in front of us overnight overtook us 2kms before Ormes lock N° 22. We increased speed to stop the distance between us and the hireboat getting too great. 1km from the lock we could see a British Dutch Barge was catching up, he was about 2 kms behind and a cruiser was behind him. The keeper at Ormes waited until all four boats were in the chamber before he closed the gates and filled it, which gave the LeBoat time to do half a pirouette and get back on the wall. There was another boat coming uphill, but he was just too far away and there was one small Rive de France hireboat waiting above to go down. As we left the lock we could see the Rive de France doing the same thing as the LeBoat - he was broadside in the chamber. The LeBoat we’d come up with winded and tied on the pontoon above the lock. A German yacht went past heading downstream followed by a French cruiser. The LeBoat overtook us, then moored in the old lock at Gigny. The four empty péniches (St Laurent, Helene, Doma and RO-GI) we’d seen on Friday were moored four abreast above the old disused lock.

On the opposite side by some fishermen was an elaborate duck shooting hide. A small French cruiser went past, it looked too small to be steered from the top deck. The LeBoat overtook us yet again (third time) just before Pont D’Ouroux. Another French cruiser went past at KP131. A hireboat from Tournus overtook us at KP132. Lunch. An English voice announced on Marine VHF in pretty bad French that he was leaving Chalon Sud (the commercial port) to go uphill when we were 2 kms downstream.  When we got there, there was just a small tug and an empty pan on the quay. A German cruiser went past at KP136. An Australian cruiser from Queensland went past at KP140.5 by the viaduct in Chalon. Two hotel ships were moored downstream of the steps, Mistral of Tain L’Hermitage was on the inside and Viking Burgundgy of Oberwesel (German flag) was on the outside with his engine running. 

After we cleared he backed into the entrance to the port de plaisance to wind and head off back down river. A péniche sized hotel boat, called Napoleon, had winded to point back upriver and tied on the steps. An old péniche called Isonzo was moored on the left hand side opposite the upstream end of the Ile St Laurent. An ex Locaboat was moored on the left hand side on the low quay with rings. The British Dutch Barge that we locked with had moored at the old sailing club moorings on the right hand side above the island. Next to him were a Danish tjalk, a hireboat called Maeva and a fat narrowboat. A péniche tripper was also moored there and a circus was setting up too. We hooted and waved and Mike indicated we were going up the lock. A péniche houseboat with a hull painted bright yellow and cabin done in green was moored next to the old docks on a 4m high quay wall. The hireboat cruiser Maeva overtook us (slowly) as we approached the junction with the Canal du Centre, so Mike slowed down to let it pass and then we turned left across its wake. Two red lights on the lock. Mike couldn’t find a VHF channel number so he called lock 34 (bis) on channel 10. No reply. We hooted then moored below the lock. 

It was 2.45 p.m. The keeper, a pleasant chatty young man, came down the steps to talk to us. He said there was a boat waiting above but we’d have to wait for another boat before he could lock us through, maximum of an hour. He told us that the canal feeder reservoirs have to have a thorough check every ten years and the biggest had been emptied earlier this year but there had been no rain to refill it so boats had to wait for others where possible as they were conserving water. He told us he had two big pumps to back pump river water into the pound above and there used to be a pipeline all the way to Chagny to feed the flight, but it hadn’t been used in donkeys years and now they hadn’t the cash to repair it. He said when the canal was built the main cargo had been coal to the aluminium works in winter time, so there was plenty of water available. Their quietest time then was in summer. Now that’s reversed with most traffic in summer so now they run out of water! Less than an hour later another LeBoat arrived, we waved him into the lock first and we untied and went in behind. Our book had a note which said use the right hand side floaters, we did and the water blew us off the wall so we drifted gently over to the left and I changed the rope on to the left hand floater. No problem. Above there were two boats waiting, a small French cruiser, called St Christophe, 1 with two huge flags, and a Loca. We left the top at 3.50 p.m. We’d got a mass of weed on the prop - there had been loads of clumps of the stuff going down the river and the canal had lots of it too. A building was under construction over the canal by the Leclerc hypermarket, what it was or why it was being built over the canal heaven knows. 

Might ask the keeper on the way back down. (It was a new resto for Leclerc!) The wind picked up so Mike took our sun canopy down. The towpath on the left was now a busy metalled cycle path and very shortly there was a chalk covered path on the right bank too. Three little ex-Rive de France hireboats were moored before the official moorings in Fragne. There were around half a dozen cruisers and a yacht on the halte nautique moorings, plenty of space, but we had no need of their electricity for 6€ a night, so we tied to the pilings about 100m before lock 34. Surprisingly there was a depth of 1.3m below the boat, it was very deep for a canal bank. Gave Mike a hand to unload the moped and he went off at 5.15 p.m. to retrieve the car from Tournus.

Sunday 26th July 2009 Tournus. R.Saone

Warm and sunny. Mike went to find a boulangerie that would be open on Monday. I did some washing as Mike had opened the box at the top of the steps to find out that the breakers were 16 Amp (and we had a socket to ourselves). He watched the F1 from Hungary. The hotel ship Princess de Provence went downhill late, followed by another hotel boat with a French flag.

Saturday 25th July 2009 Tournus. R. Saone

Warm and sunny. Mike made up a splitter to connect into the electricity supply. The British boat behind us had already split to allow a large British cruiser to have electricity so he wasn’t keen to split again, but the other supply was direct to a Danish cruiser so Mike told them their electric would be off for about 5 seconds while we connected. No problem, but they were making coffee so he said he would leave it five minutes. The yacht moored in front had gone and was replaced by a young German family on a poorly LeBoat whose water pump had packed up. Helen rang to say they’d unloaded Thursday and, although their shipper said they could get another load, she said they were having a few days off down south. 

We went shopping and bought a new blue electricity plug and socket to replenish our stocks. When we got back several boats had left, including the Danish boat we were splitting the electricity with and the French boat from directly behind us. We moved back one place so our electricity cable wasn’t at full stretch. Mike went up on the bridge to take photos of the mooring. After lunch Mike watched the F1 qualis from Hungary. 

Friday 24th July 2009 Mâcon to Tournus. R Saone

15.3°C overnight - cooler at last! Grey clouds with small holes to let the odd ray of sunshine through. Set off at nine through the old multi-arched stone bridge of St Laurent. There was only one medium sized Dutch cruiser on the pontoon on the St Laurent side, plus the tripper. (It would have been much quieter overnight on that side.) First boat past was an ex-Connoisseur hireboat with a Belgian flag which passed us at KP91. A British cruiser overtook us at the start of the passage around the Ile de Brouard KP95; he was moored at Crêche the day before. A downhill LeBoat hireboat with a Swiss flag went past before we left the island behind. Three lads in a punt were extracting weed from the stretch of river in front of the campsite at Fleurville KP97. It was midday as we went under the Pont de Feurville, passing loaded boat Koumac from St Jean-de-Losne (101m x 11m, 2,288 tonnes). The wind was getting chilly so I made us a cuppa soup and put my fleece on. 

A string of four empty péniches overtook us around KP100, by the former café Jean-de-Saône; Saint Laurent from Conflans-Ste-Honorine, next a very smart Belgian boat called Helene from Gent flying a defaced Belgian flag, then Doma from Abbécourt, and finally RO-GI, another  from Conflans-Ste-Honorine, an old boat with a very yappy Doberman in the wheelhouse. Lunch. Overtaken by another Dutch cruiser, then a French cruiser went downhill at the Pont d’Uchizy. I took a photo of one of the many former ports that are named in our guide which no longer have usable quays due to the changes in water levels when they altered the number of locks. 

The Port de Farges still showed signs of the old quay but a 10m wide field now had built up in front of it. We passed the junction with the little river Seille at 1.30 p.m. Another LeBoat went past heading downhill at KP110. Into Tournus. The pontoon was full with several Dutch boats moored side by side, the upstream half of the pontoon was reserved for Pavillon de Saône hireboats. The stone quay was full, but with odd short gaps. There was a gap several feet too short for us at the upstream end. Mike poked our bows next to the quay behind a little yacht and he asked the crews of a British replica Dutch Barge and a small French cruiser if they’d mind moving down a bit. There were no bollards or rings so we had to knock pins into gaps in the concrete, just as Graciosa went past heading uphill empty. Mike moved the small yacht in front of us up a couple of feet too, which made life easier. It was 2.55 p.m. by the time we’d tied up. He went to say thanks to the Brits. Got the moped off the roof easily as the top of the quay was halfway up the cabin. New electricity sockets had been installed up by the road at the top of the big flight of wooden steps, so Mike rewired our 3-phase red plug and added it to our longest extension lead. I took it up top to try it (both the blue sockets - there were only two - were in use, but not the two red ones) but our plug wouldn’t fit. Its diameter was, strangely, slightly too large . Mike went off to retrieve the car from Jassans at 3.45 p.m. I put all the cables, sockets and plugs away.

Thursday 23rd July 2009 Jassans-Riotter to Mâcon. Saone

Hot and sticky overnight. Grey clouds threatened thunderstorms, big gaps in clouds hot and sunny. We were away for nine after Mike had collected a loaf. Three tugs had gone uphill before eight and the five Belgian fast cruisers that had arrived the day before were still attached to the pontoon when we left. One cruiser passed heading downriver as we set off. At KP42, in Beauregarde’s port-de-plaisance there were three small cruisers moored and next door at Nautic 1. there were two dozen small speed boats. A sand pit at KP44 was occupied by a pan and tug of Ganulates Rhone-Alpes. An uphill tug called Paon pushing an empty pan went into the arm to the sand pit. A French cruiser went downhill at KP47. At Montmerle a sign on the wall said 10€ for boats over ten metres in length, 8€ for those under 10m. One Dutch boat was moored at the upstream end. Another boat had set off from the pontoon heading uphill a few minutes earlier. Paused at a new pontoon at Belleville and refilled our water tank. Set off again at 11.30 a.m. The skies went really black and a few drops of rain fell as we set off then the sun came out again. Two cruisers and two British yachts went past heading downriver at KP 57 above the islands Genouilleux and Tapanas. Dracé lock, N° 23, was empty with a green light (he must have a camera somewhere as the lock was round a blind bend) so we went in and up 2.9m. Although the large Saône locks fill from the front the yo-yo effect in this one was negligible. The keeper leaned out of the window of his cabin way up above us to say hello - and au’voir when we left. Graciosa, an empty commercial (108m long x 9.5m), was moored above the lock on the left. Couldn’t help smiling at the home port on the stern of Longeuil-Annel, that boat had never been there, it was far too big! Maybe he used to have a péniche registered there. The mooring at Thoissey seemed to be completely taken over by speed boats with a diving platform next to a campsite, but there was a section was marked as being a port-de-plaisance with a board saying the depth was 2.5m. Above the bridge there were two old short stone quays with steps and rings. A fast cruiser overtook us just after St Romain-les-Iles. Lunch. A downhill French cruiser wished us bonne appetit as we were eating lunch on the move. 

Tourville, a 60m barge loaded with sand overtook us around KP68. We intended to stop at Port Arciat, where we’d previously marked on the map a new quay with bins and water. Two boats (a large British cruiser and the first hire boat we'd seen since leaving the Midi - a Locaboat) were already moored there, but there was enough room for us at the upstream end. We tied up then read the notice which said “Port de Crêche-sur-Saône” and listed the price as 7.60€ per night plus 6,10€ for water and electricity. No way we were paying 7,60€ just to moor at a little campsite. We left. A sand barge went past heading downhill. Nipped across the river, through the navigation arch and a new bridge under construction just upstream of the old girder bridge as empty commercial Apopis (63.5m x 8.16m, 911 tonnes) was catching us up. It overtook us just after the bridges. A second Loca went past heading downriver by the TGV bridge at 2.55 p.m. A new road bridge was under construction just a short way upstream of the TGV bridge. Tourville (who had overtaken us earlier) was in the Nouveau Port de Mâcon, unloading his cargo of sand. Rocambole (73.5 x 8.16m, 914 tonnes) was loading sand from a conveyor at the dolphins on the opposite bank to the sand quay, below the old viaduc de Mâcon. 

A very smart new road bridge spanned the river below Mâcon just above the derivation. Hotel ship Provence was moored at the downstream end of the quai Lamartine (our home for the month of October in the floods of 1993). A new pontoon had been installed, for private boats it said, just upstream of where the toilets used to be. We tied to the downhill end by the passerelle when we heard jazz music coming from a newly built projection overhanging the river upstream of the pontoon. We don’t like jazz at the best of times, but this sounded like a band tuning up! A large cruiser moored in front of us just after we’d finished tying up at 3.50 p.m. Mike went up on to the road to have a look around. 

The hotel boat Rembrandt arrived, winded and moored alongside the quay behind us. Later Mike went to have a look at the musicians playing at the “bandstand”; he said there were twenty of them. On the pontoon there was a group of youths drinking. We expected trouble but, luckily, had none. The tripper from St Laurent (on the opposite bank) went past fast making a big splosh around midnight.

Wednesday 22nd July 2009 Jassans-Riotter.

Thunderstorms during the night and in the morning. Clouds and occasional downpours, so we decided to stay put and do some washing. Amazingly the washing machine worked on the 10 Amp electricity supply. I did two loads before lunch. After lunch we dozed as it was still very hot and humid. Looked on InfoRhone to find G and H had locked through Châteauneuf lock at 10.30 a.m. 

Tuesday 21st July 2009 Jassans-Riotter. Saone. Day out in the Alps

Hot and sunny, clouds in some places, thunderstorms later. We decided we have a day off from boating, take a picnic lunch with us and go to see some mountains. 

Drove east across the plain de Bresse through Villar and Chalamont into Ambrieu-en-Bugey, where we paused while Mike went in the post office. Further southeast through St Rambert and Belley to Yenne, where we did a slight detour through the hills of the Mont de l’Epine and down into Chambery. 

Continuing southeast to Montmélian, then northwest to Pont Royal, where we crossed the river Isère to Aiguebelle, skirting the edges of the Massif de Vanoise, following the valley of the little river Arc as far as St Michel-de-Maurienne, where we took the mountain road south through les Aiguilles d’Arves over the Col du Télégraph to Valloire then crossed the Col du Galibier (out of the dept of Savoie into Hautes-Alpes) and the Col de Lauteret, 

following the valley of the Guisane to Briançon then up some more hairpins to Montgenèvre and into Italy, through lots of little tunnels into Susa. Northwest back into France through the Massif de Mont Cenis, 

rejoining the valley of the Arc and completing the circle of the Massif de Vanoise via the Col d’Iseran and the hugely popular (even in summer) ski-resort of Val d’Isère and followed the Route des Grandes Alpes through Bourg-St-Maurice (we stopped to get diesel and Mike helped a Danish tourist translate the French instructions on the 24 hr pump into English) and Moutiers to 

Albertville. Southwest to Montmélian completing the circle and retraced our steps back to Jassans-Riotter (almost, we missed the same turning in Ambrieu that we missed on the outward journey) and got back just after midnight. Lightening was illuminating clouds to the north, the storm must have been travelling south as it passed us later in the night.

Monday 20th July 2009 Villefranche to Jassans-Riotter. R Saone

Hot and sunny. Up at seven and away half an hour later, running alongside Floan and surfing their stern wave until we rounded the corner and a tug was coming upriver. We said au'voir to George and Helen and we’d see them on the return trip. Turned to point upstream and moored on the pontoon at Jassans-Riotter, quietly as it was still before 8.00 a.m. and people on boats were still asleep. Mike went to find the boulangerie to get a loaf for lunch, while I put the heat shields in the windows. We dozed in the heat - it was too hot to move. 

Sunday 19th July 2009 Collonges-en-Mont-D’Or to Jassans Riotter/Villefranche. R Saone

Grey clouds, turning to white ones later, with big expanses of blue sky and sunshine. Getting warmer again. Up at seven. Mike decided to move the car first thing so I gave him a hand to get the moped off the roof, he loaded it in the car and went off to Villefranche at 7.40 a.m. Jumbo went past heading upriver empty twenty minutes later. Mike was back at 9.10 a.m. quicker than he anticipated, he’d thought it would take him at least an hour and a half. We put the bike back on the roof and took photos of the scratch marks on the dolphin made by the chain that the pontoon deck was attached to - they went almost to the top of the it - that must have been some flood. 

Set off at 9.50 a.m. on our way to our one and only lock of the day, Couzon, lock 24, the first on the Saône. We had a red light. Mike called the keeper, there was downhill traffic. A Belgian cruiser had occupied the waiting area for the lock overnight, so we attached to the outside of the dolphins and waited. A cruiser and a yacht came down then Belgian decided to set off - he was going 5 kms downriver for lunch at Fontaines, he told Mike. We went up the lock, 2.9m, with bollards set in the wall. It was a yo-yo lock, water from gate paddles rushing to the back gates then back again to the top gates, and so on. I didn’t try to check it with the centre rope from the roof, Mike used the engine to lessen the surging effect. Left the top at 11.15 a.m. 

An empty péniche called Cotre from Pont-à-Mousson had stopped on the stone quay 500m from the lock, which had a large sign saying it was the Halte Nautique de Fleurieu. Two loaded péniches went downriver, Serjea and Hendaye. Lunch. Loaded low profile coaster Bella (another one registered in Kingstown) overtook us just after the old lock at Bernalin on a big sweeping left hand bend; water skiers were dashing about as he passed us. We went through Trèvoux at 1.30 p.m. where the new pontoon by the campsite had a few cruisers attached to it. A small Belgian cruiser came round the next bend on the plane but dropped off before Mike could get the camera switched on to take a photo. He’d just overtaken a Swedish yacht and made it bounce about. The cruiser went on the mooring at Trévoux, the yacht circled and then carried on downriver. As we rounded the next bend we saw a whole armada (seven of them) of small Belgian cruisers, all up on the plane, and this time we got photos. 

Must be a club cruise and I bet they were with the one who’d just moored and they would occupy the whole of the rest of the pontoon. The next fast cruiser was uphill, it overtook us at speed and took the middle of the pontoon between two other speed boats at St Romain, outside the restaurant Les Colombiers. The pontoon was full with speed boat sized gaps between the three. Eight jetskis went past doing at least 30 mph (the speed limit on the river is 12 kph) at KP38. On our right hand side (Jassans-Riotter side) we noticed a convoy of caravans being towed by vans and thought it must be a gypsy camp on the move; but there were dozens and dozens of them. One stopped which had "Evangelists on Tour from the Auvergne", signwritten on the van. What next? 

On the left (Villefranche side) there were a few boats moored and a party was going on on a péniche. They were shouting something as we passed, but they were too far away for us to hear them. Tug Pierre et Paul was moored by the sand quay on the left, as were two more smaller pusher tugs by an old crane and péniche Marvin looked like it might now be a houseboat. On the right, tug Nicephore was moored at the sand quay just upstream of the road bridge, with a pan well loaded with sand, ready for setting off on Monday. Mike said the same boats were still moored on the new pontoon (a T shape) as when he dropped the car off there that morning. Had a text from Helen to say that the Floan would arrive around sixish. 

We tied on the end of the pontoon at Jassans-Riotter at 3.15 p.m. George and Helen arrived just after six and tied up in the port on the opposite bank at Villefranche and we went over to moor next to them. They hadn’t changed a bit even though we hadn’t seen the pair for over two years. Helen admired our new (mainly white for the heat of the South) paint scheme. They said their colleagues were due to have unloaded on Saturday at Lafarge (in Viviers) but the company didn’t like to have more than one load of petrol-coke a week, so they had plenty of time to get there - although Helen said they might want to unload them on Wednesday. Their friends on another péniche were supposed to be a week behind them. We nattered and Mike showed George and Helen his new binos (stabilised, a retirement present to himself) then we all went on our boat and opened a bottle of red wine and talked about everything under the sun. George explained to us how he knew the day before that we’d locked through Piere-Benite at 11.30 a.m. by checking the website www.inforhone.fr, which had a section called “find a boat”. We chatted until after midnight. When we arrived they said they were leaving at seven next morning, but as they left George said better make it 7.30 a.m! 

Saturday 18th July 2009 St-Romain-en-Gal to Collonges-en-Mont-D’Or. R Saone

Grey clouds, but patches of blue sky between them. Dry and chilly when we set off at 6.30 a.m. we reversed out of the arm and winded under the motorway. Carried on upriver with fleeces on as the outside temperature was still only 13.6°C. At Loire-sur-Rhône, KP21.5, we passed Jumbo and Odysseus (both empty) moored just upstream of the fuel barge. Several pans were moored in the port basin, Loire/St Romain. Holiday traffic both North and South on the motorway was looking busy, southbound traffic was slowing to look at our boat - we could see them pick up speed again as they had gone past us! The first signs of life on the river were a group of fishermen in an open speed boat moored at KP21. A fast cruiser, registered at Sète, overtook us as we went under the bridge at Givors. It put water on our port gunwale. Nice, he’d no way of knowing if there was any downhill traffic around the long right hand bend. 

The new halte fluvial at Givors was full. There were four small cruisers and five speed boats, all of which looked permanent moorers, and the first two bays between the finger pontoons (which could have been used by four more boats) were blocked off with lengths of red and white tape. A little further upstream was a pontoon between two dolphins with a sign saying “No mooring without authorisation” and another that said “Halte fluvial 200m” and an arrow. Very welcoming I’m sure. The sun came out at 8.15 a.m. - the gaps between the clouds were getting bigger. The flow rate of the river began to increase below the TGV bridge. Three egrets and three herons were fishing in a pool of slack water created by piles of rocks along the left bank. A French péniche called Alanma was waiting at a sand quay for loading at KP17. A medium sized Luxemotor went past heading downriver, on its roof there was a car and a speed boat, plus a wind generator whizzing round on its back deck. At 9.00 a.m. we entered the last long canal section at KP15. The speed along the canal varied from 4.2kph travelling up the middle to 6 kph in places when travelling along the edge, with revs on for 8 kph. We slowed dramatically at the motorway bridge 2 kms below Pierre-Bénite lock, when the flow rate went up to 6.5 kph and our speed was reduced to less than 2 kph in places. The lock was ready, empty with a green light. As Mike said to me, all we had to do was get there! We arrived at 11.15 a.m. Our notes said the lock blows the boat off the right hand wall - use the left, so we did and it did exactly the same thing again. The stern went out from the wall and I had to slack the rope around the floater as we started to list. Mike brought the stern end back against the wall with the motor. It did that twice as we rose 11.80m. It’s the only one of the twelve locks that does that. Next time (if there ever is one) we’ll try using fore and aft lines on the lower bollards. Maybe that will stop it listing. Another strange effect was noted when the lock was full; the flag on the stern was blowing towards the bows and the flags on the mast at the bows were blowing towards the stern - how’d it do dat? Weird lock. Left the top at 11.35 a.m. The keeper was leaning out of the cabin window so we shouted our mercis and au’voirs. Back on the river it was warm in the sunshine and the wind was making small wavelets on the wide expanse of open water. Camaël, loaded with containers, was in the port de Lyon; another large vessel was moored further into the basin. A small dayboat was buzzing about. Mike went under the canopy that sheltered the unloading quay at KDI, a stockist of tubes. Next was a CNR container base. Tug Vaillant had attached to a pan full of containers and was ready to leave, he backed out from under the crane as we passed. A little further along the CNR inspection launch Le Rhône was moored and beyond it was a VNF yard where a tiny VNF pusher tug called Arar was moored. At the slipway the Police Nationale were slipping a police boat. It overtook us as Mike was doing a “farewell to the mighty Rhône” circle in the river. The Police went to watch water skiers turning at the first bridge over the Rhône, Point Pasteur, beyond the junction with the Saône. We could see a long line of houseboats stretched up the left bank of the Rhône to the railway bridge where there were lots of small dayboats moored, probably for hire. A tripper had just come down the Rhône and turned into the Saône. We passed the former lock at La Mulatière on the left hand bank and entered the Saône at midday. There were loads more houseboats along the Saône, mainly on our right but a few on our left too. We paused opposite the VNF offices (closed, otherwise Mike would have gone in to ask for a new VNF flag to replace ours which had been shredded by the recent Mistral) and we refilled our water tank. (There is a water tap behind a metal plate half way up the wall. Ed). I made lunch while Mike kept an eye on the tank as the tap was a fast one. There were three cruisers and two yachts moored on the quay upstream of the VNF office where we’d stopped previously. Unfortunately there is no satellite TV access from that side of the river so we decided we’d clear the city and find an alternative mooring.

Set off again at 1.00 p.m. eating our lunch on the way upriver through the city. No boats moving and only a few pedestrians to wave and wish us "bon appetit!" A very small cruiser with a red ensign went past heading downriver. A man was steering and two women sat on the bows, it looked a bit cramped for three! Saw nothing else moving until a Spanish yacht that had been moored by the VNF overtook us as we were going through Vaise. There was a line of houseboats on the left bank above the bridge at Vaise. An empty péniche called Porthos went past heading downhill as we were passing Ile Barbe and the site of another former lock which is now a mooring for yachts and cruisers.

We stopped at 2.45 p.m. and moored next to a 10m long pontoon slung between two dolphins with a sign at the top of a steep bank that proclaimed it to be the Halte Fluvial de Collonges-en-Mont-D’Or. Fine, if a bit precarious. Mike took photos and checked the parking by the slipway downstream of the pontoon. OK. He decided to go and collect the car from St Romain. At 3.15 p.m. tug Bachus went past heading uphill pushing an empty pan to test our mooring. The pontoon (which we were only tied to by long lines from bow and stern, our main lines were attached to the bollards on the dolphins) flapped up and down like a flag in a strong breeze, so we were glad we weren’t relying on being attached to it! 

Immediately the uphill boat had gone past another came downhill, Nina 1 - a loaded low profile coaster registered in Kingstown (I looked that up and it’s in the Windward Islands in the Caribbean) which went past with hardly a ripple! I gave Mike a hand to get the moped off the roof as some people arrived to slip a speed boat down the ramp just downstream of our stern. Mike had decided to follow the road which runs alongside the river through Lyon and all the way back downriver to St Romain and try coming back the same way in the car. He left at 4.00 p.m. When he returned he told me he’d spent a lot of time following one way systems as he couldn’t just take the west bank of the river all the way

Friday 17th July 2009 Chavanay to St-Romain-en-Gal. Rhone

Grey clouds, heavy showers of rain – edges of thunderstorms. Mike was up at five, saw the rain and went back to bed until seven. My back was still aching from sitting on the stern with the boat constantly rocking. We set off at 8.15 a.m. as a UK yacht went past. The crew of tug Atlas were busy turning the empty pans. A loaded 4,000 tonner overtook. The rain was pouring when we passed Les Roches-de-Condrieu. The small cruiser with scooter was moored on an old quay outside the hotel Bellevue (that’s one to remember). The harbour was, as M and D had said, full to bursting. Took a few photos. A Dutch cruiser set off and went across the river almost right in front of our bows (nothing else was moving) and turned to head downstream! We wondered why he did that with the huge amount of space he had available to him. The only possible answer was car-driver mentality. 

As we approached Vaugris, lock 2, a Danish cruiser caught up with us - but didn’t overtake - it stayed behind us. Two cruisers came out of the lock and the UK yacht went in, we followed it and the cruiser came in behind us. We were soon up the 6.7m - shallowest lock on the Rhône - and it started to pour with rain again. Left the top at 10.35 a.m. I hadn’t put my waterproof on so my top was soaked except for the bit where my lifejacket had been. I changed it, put my waterproof on and sat out. The cruiser overtook us soon after we left the lock and followed the yacht up into Vienne. The big barge Fidelity went past, loaded, heading for the lock. Strangely the yacht and cruiser took the left hand side of the navigation upriver, passing the big boat on the “wrong” side. 

The hotel ship Rembrandt was moored on the public quay, (where, in 1993, Mike bought fuel in cans from the garage across the busy road and had French lessons from the Chinese pump attendant!) it had winded to point its bows downriver, so it looked like Vienne must be its turn round place. A Sète registered cruiser was moored on the pontoon on the left bank and a bit further upstream a yacht was moored on a long quay with bollards just downstream of a footbridge. Two houseboats, converted péniches, were moored upstream of the Philippe de Valois tower. Under the road bridge and took photos of the castle on the hill on the right hand side. Gas boat Pampero, now empty, came past just as we’d cleared the bridge. 

The quay at St-Romain-en-Gal was empty, so we gently eased our way under the motorway, past lots of weed beds and into an old arm of the river. It was midday as we tied up. A noisy mooring due to the road, with no facilities, but good enough for overnight. I made lunch and then we had a doze after having a disturbed night the night before. At least it was cooler. While we were asleep a large cruiser had moored behind us, filling the rest of the quay. Gave Mike a hand to get the bike off and knock out a small dent in the rim of the rear wheel of the moped (must have been some pothole but  he didn’t notice it among the many bumps in the roads) and he went to get the car from Chavanay. When Mike returned with the car we went for a drive back to where he’d just been. Up into the hills in the Parc Nationale de Mont Pilat; the view back to Vienne was splendid and so was the view over Lyon. There were big black banks of cloud out towards Grenoble so we couldn’t see the Alps or further south to see Mont Ventoux, but the views were truly magnificent. We dropped back down into Chavanay and came back along the river through Condrieu and Vienne.