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.