ARLES

Coming to the end of our trip - packing, surveys etc. Leave for the airport 10am tomorrow. Spent the morning walking around Arles which is a old French town in the carmargue, Provencal area of the country. It was a large Roman city and has many artifacts, including a colesseum and theatre both well preserved. It is also Easter fair here for 3 days, we have French & Spanish bullfighting, the bulls will be run through the streets this weekend, we're not taking part 

Van Gogh spent some time in town & got his inspiration for starry night. He used to hang out in this yellow cafe.

Town hall with the French bullfighters hats. It's not like the Spanish version, they kill the bull but have to collect the ribbons attached to various parts of the bull without being gored or trampled.

This is the hospital where VG got his ear patched up and probably some psychiatric help.

Tonights bullfight poster shows the names of both the bulls and the bullfighters. We also have a big funfair in town, shame it's set up just outside our cabin window.

AVIGNON

 You know the story & song - Sur la pont d'Avignon etc ...etc. Apparently all baloney. Built by a shepherd boy on God's orders who hurled a one ton boulder into the Rhone to get people's support for the bridge. Nobody danced on it because the builder, owner charged tolls & you couldn't afford to dance on it. Now a tourist attraction that holds no attraction for me. I wouldn't pay to go on a bridge you can't cross.

The Mistral is still a monster putting white caps on the water - it's dreadful unless you are really wrapped up. 

 

The Catholics back in the 13th century had a problem. The Pope appointed the cardinals & the cardinals voted in the Pope. Corrupt, or what, anyway the French thought so & voted their own Pope who set up court in Avignon, built himself a massive palace & lived happy ever after. Not quite -  after many years of arguments & in fighting they two sides got back together again and continued their corruption to this day. The last 2 French Popes must have done something really bad because they have "disappeared" from the records.

Had Fabien Morreale, finalist of France's Master Chef, on board to cook us a meal - excellent grub, he used to work for Marco Pierre White in Mayfair. He chatted with us about what he's doing now, seemed a really nice guy.

Went out in the evening for a concert, very atmospheric venue.

VIVIERS

 Viv is a beautiful, medieval peaceful town. Narrow cobbled streets and original houses. It is a steady uphill walk to the cathedral, which is the smallest cathedral in France, parish church size, but very nice. The Mistral wind is insane, the days would be absolutely wonderful without it. We were offered kayaking on the Rhone, nuts to go in this wind. I think it was gusting 40mph today - good job the narrow streets offer some shelter.

This swanky house belonged to Noël Albert, a salt entrepreneur and tax collector for the Bishop. He tried to push his luck by plotting a Protestant insurrection so he could make more money. This project didn't go well and he ended up getting chopped into pieces & thrown into the Rhone. Don't mess with the Catholic Bishop!

Nice view from the top.

FRENCH KISSING IN MISTRAL

 Another walking tour, this time in Tournon-sur- Rhone. This is opposite Hermitage on the other bank which makes pretty expensive wines. They have something above organic in growing the grapes, nothing artificial, no machinery and only one variety of grape for red wine - syrah. It's been pretty cold here, but today we had high winds which make 5C feel like minus 1C. This is the Mistral blowing down from the Alps and is very nice when it's 40C but not so good today. While out, our guide bumped into a friend and we had a bit of kiss-kiss. She explained the etiquette. No lip touching on any part of the face, you must make the moui sound, in Tournon it's 3 kisses, (different number in other places) start on the left, although that changes in other places, too. She said that's all there is to French kisses - apparently they didn't have a word for tongue-in-mouth French kisses until about 15 years ago. It's Galoche.

Marc Seguin, the statuesque guy, is from round here and apparently invented the suspension bridge and the steam locomotive boiler. He built a suspension bridge here in Tournon in the early 1800's. When they knocked it down a few years back, they covered the statue's head with a blanket so he wouldn't witness it's destruction. When you look into it, Seguin was more of an improver than inventor. The Menai suspension bridge by Telford was earlier & Seguin had visited Stockton-Darlington to see Stephenson's Rocket before inventing an improved version.

Hope the Mistral stops soon- I would like to get out on the bike.

VIENNE

 Went for a walk with a guide around Vienne, not to be confused with Vienna. It's a small town on the the banks of the Rhone who's rulers were/are obsessed with taxing people. Brings Sadiq to mind! They had towers on all the roads to tax anyone who entered(congestion charge), the houses had beautiful stone mullion windows, some with 4, 6 or 8 panes of glass - not now, all the mullions were smashed out because they used to tax you per pane of glass, don't tell Sadiq. Parking is complicated here, different coloured boxes in the road determine the fee & how long you can park. They make more from fines than from parking charges(Sadiq already knows this)

Lots of Roman remains,

A temple to Augustus converted to a church, then restored to original. A theatre still in use as a music venue, holds at least 10,000 people.

Since they lost they lost their windows, they have taken to painting the sides of their houses, not just windows but whole panoramas.

Back on board for cheese tasting. They gave us 5 cheeses ranked in order of strength of flavour. Hadn't heard of many of them, but all nice.

LYON 2.0

 Nice easy boarding, bit of lunch, afternoon kip, set us for day 2. Not so, over indulged with cheese soufflé starter, coq au vin followed by rum baba but eaten too late to avoid the 1:30am heartburn. Combine that with further disrupted sleep, lost time change hour and early tour start - now exhausted and couped. Have to recoup with another afternoon snooze.

Tour was good, went firstly to the food market hall. Lyon is apparently famous for it's food, I really only know the potatoes. Paul Bocuse is the chef that made the food scene happen. 50 years with 3 Michelin stars - is that good? Anyway, he is immortalised on the buildings.

We had a food tasting showcasing local products. You have to be careful though, we managed to tack onto a second group by mistake, so 2 lots of wine, cheese, sausage & pork pie, all by 9:30am. Ces't la vie.

The cold & wind has been pretty brutal here especially as we didn't plan for it. We went up to the basilica around 10:30 which is situated on top of a high hill, you had to find a wind sheltered spot in the sun to be comfortable. Very busy, impossible to get inside. There is a very large marathon going with 30 thousand extra people in the centre.

That's our hotel in the middle. The locals call them the rubber, the crayon & the charcoal.

We had a wander around the old town on the banks of the Rhone. It is tightly packed, narrow roads & alleys with lots of little restaurants. As the area developed people took to building big in their back gardens, some 4-5 floors high and filling all the space between one street & the next. The entry to these blocks is through narrow alleys next to the original houses, then up spiral staircases. The houses are old & protected, so no lifts. You have to be young and fit to live in this district to climb the winding stairs up to your apartment. Being young to live here and also well off, as it's pricey, means that this district is party central as well. The alleys into these areas are blocked by secure doors & largely inaccessible to the public. Difficult to find the public ones if you don't have a guide.

ROAMIN' IN THE RHONE-IN LYON

We are off on a river cruise down the Rhone from Lyon to Marseilles. I am not sure what we are doing, but I know that Emerald will look after us. 7:40 flight from Gatwick which meant a silly-o-clock get up and a struggle around the M25 orbital. Many sections closed with "workers in carriageway" signs. I did not see any carriages, nor did I see anyone working. Frustrating to have speed limits suddenly reduced and to have to leave the road unnecessarily. As we neared the M23 turn we got repeated "junction closed" up on the electronic sign, Mr Google helped out & took us on a 5 mile detour for us to find when we actually got to the junction it was open! Oh the joys of the open road - did I get a radar speeding ticket. Who knows? 

Fast track at the airport & speedy boarding to a emergency row seat made up for it - almost. I muddled up the flight confusing it with a second Lyon flight that was delayed an hour. Spotted the error luckily before my muddle did any damage. Boarded, Captain comes on & says we are going to push back early - great, 5 minutes later he comes back on & says a few people had decided not take the flight and their baggage has to be offloaded. So we missed our take off slot and departed an hour late - not so great. 

Arrived in Lyon, it's freezing here, only a couple of hours from the Alps ski resorts and the cold air must have been falling off the mountains. 

Booked into the Radisson hotel on the 37th floor ( hey you, get off of my cloud) Lovely hotel, room and views to die for.

Went out and had drinks & savoury pancakes in a bar. Lin has Parma ham & rocket, I went for Provencale minced beef with a soft fried egg in the centre. Nice! Boarded the boat, lunch followed by a stroll along the river bank to where the Rhone & Saone meet. It's a gentrified old dock land but seems a bit run down, may be better after Easter.