Saône and Rhône - Homestretch

October 10 - October 26

For the last few weeks we have stayed at Roger Walsters Bourgogne Marine as we were back in Switzerland for some family business.
But before we start cruising we take advantage of our location and visit Beaune (sorry no pictures, I forgot the camera) and Dijon, two of the major cities in the Burgundy region.

Our cruise will move us quickly down the Saône, Rhône and Petit Rhône rivers into the canal du Rhône a Sête to reach our winter mooring in Beaucaire.

	One of the many beautiful old half timbered buildings in Dijon.
	Many of these woodcarvings decorate the old houses.
	Quite a beautiful newer building, but what does the inscription say?
	The house of the poor devil - imagine, if this is a house of a poor devil then how do the houses of the rich look like?
	Our mooring at Bourgogne Marine. We are number five in the 6th row. It is quite a popular mooring for barges. The mooring is in a small pond between locks 75 and 74 of the Rhône-Rhine canal. As this canal closes on October 11 for the winter we have to leave on Sunday October 10.
	The quays of Seurre, but all either bear no parking signs, reserved for passenger boats or limited to craft under 15m. I heard that the local authorities are quite aggressively chasing away any larger barges, so I guess they do not want our business and so we move on ...
	The banks opposite our stop for the day in Gergy. It was raining all morning, but fortunately the sun came through in the afternoon. On Monday October 11 we cruise only a few hours to Chalon-sur-Saone where we stay for a week in the port de plaisance. It is a nice port with a large quay to accommodate barges like ours. Thomas, Betty's brother, will join us on the 16th so spend a couple of weeks on Avanti B.
	On October 17 we continue our journey. We spend the night at a small pontoon outside of Creches-sur-Saône after we did not find any suitable mooring in Macon. On the 18th late morning we pass the last Saône lock. We are a bateau de plaisance; so a recreation barge and the rules in the Saône locks are: put a life vest on tie up on the bollards Are the rules different for commercial craft? No life vest and NO ropes! They just use the engine and bow-thruster to hover in the middle of the lock and then off we go. What the picture doesn't show is that we had a commercial barge in front of us and the one in the picture behind us, both not tied up to anything. Rules are here to be ignored.
	The Saône in Lyon; we are tie up on the left bank quay (right in the picture) above the VNF freight exchange.
	We decide to stay for a couple of nights. Paul Bocuse is sold out for the year, sorry Betty, but we find a very nice, traditional restaurant called the Grenadine close by.
	We had pictures of AvantiB barely scraping under bridges, but look at this! While the commercial barge is under the bridge there is not even space for his wheelhouse so he pulls it down and drives blind into the corner. Right as he emerges from the bridge he starts raising his wheelhouse to see where he is going!
	High above the old silk-quarter you see the basilica of Notre Dame de Fourviere.
	On the 20th of October we leave Lyon and the Saône and head down the Rhône. With the rain of the last few days the rivers carry a good amount of water. In spring when we cruise up the Rhône the flow at Ternay, below the lock in Lyon, was about 600 m3/sec today the flow is more than double, 1249 m3/sec which results in about 10km/hr current. Luckily we head in the right direction and reach speeds close to 20km/h. The wind blows heavy and the river shows waves with white-caps.
	No, we are not on the Mediterranean sea but on the Rhône.
	In the afternoon the clouds disappear, but the wind continues to blow and the river is choppy. We tie up for the night in Vienne.
	The view down the Rhône towards the vineyards of the Côte Rôtie. We stay for a couple of nights in Vienne, so I have time to find a couple of bottles of one of my favorite red wines. It was not easy, as it is too expensive a wine for the locals to buy, I was told. But now we have 2 nice bottles stored in the darkest corner of our bilges. They should not be touched for at least 5 years!
	Thomas is enjoying the few warm rays of the sun with a cup of tea. Even Thomas drinks tea to cure his cough.
	The castle overlooking Vienne
	On the 22nd of October we again get `chased' away by a hotel ship. This time he told us we could stay if we wanted, but he would come on our side and NOT move for three hours. Politeness does just not seem to be part of their behavior. Same discussion as in spring - they explain that they have a contract with the CNR (Company National Rhône) for use of the quay. But I wonder why did they then build a new set of mooring posts opposite which are marked for use of passenger ships only? Probably because the access into town is easier from here! We had to leave very early, 7:30, it was barley light enough for use to move. While we enter the Vaugris lock you see the Côte-Rôtie vineyards in the light of dawn. Even Thomas, who is not a wine-drinker, remembers the Côte-Rôtie for the rest of his life!
	Later in the day we pass the area of Tournon with the Crozes Hermitage wine region.
	Upstream traffic - this is a ship that can cruise the large rivers but also can cruise out to sea. You should have seen (or felt) the bow-wave this thing created! We felt like being out on the open sea!
	In case you ever wondered how the 45th parallel looks like, here it is!
	Our stop for the night; below the lock of Beauchastel at Rhône km 125. The lockkeepers are always very nice and accommodating. So we made good progress today: 5 locks, 92 km and 9 hours cruising.
	Pikesh with his squirrel tail high up in the air explores the quay, as always on the leash.
	Speaking of Pikesh, look at the arrows in the picture. He is now about 6 months old and loses (or is supposed to) his baby teeth. But the new ones start to grow while the first teeth are still there. So may be we should rename him Jaws? By the time I write this he is back from 8 fangs to only 4!
	The morning of October 23. The weather at the Bauchastel lock is fine. We see the sunrise, just some high clouds are visible and not a trace of fog. So we leave at 8:20. About 2 km below the lock the old Rhône joins with the lock diversion canal and thee things get foggy. First we just see some gray patches in the distance but when we approach the town and bridge of La Voulte we don't see the SNCF-rail bridge which is less than 1km away. As always, click on the underlined words like La Voulte above to link directly to an on-line map. So we turn upstream and luckily for us find a couple of bollards to tie up to. Otherwise it would have been either back up to the lock or throw the anchor.
	Only 10 minutes later the fog is so thick that we do not see the other bank. Even AvantiB is barley visible from less than 100 meters away. All the signs at the lock were showing no problem, even Thomas' trained eye did not spot any signs indicating fog close by. But as we discover the next day, it is quite common to find fog where the diversion channel joins the old Rhône. We tried to find out from the lock-keeper, but he did not see any fog, and as it was Saturday there was no up-river traffic for a few hours. But it is definitely a good idea as did we did the day before to keep communication with commercial ships open to find out if there are any trouble spots.
	Three hours later, around noon time, the fog finally lifts and we start heading downstream. After the lock of Logis-Neuf we pass one of several nuclear power plans lining the valley. This is the Cruas-Meysse plant at the entrance to to wide basin of the Rhône.
	The river looks more like a lake so it is important to stay inside the red/green buoys.
	After passing Montelimar and Viviers we enter the narrow passage of Donzère. As we had downstream we encounter quite enjoy the flow of the river which helps us to cruise at 15 km/h with barley 1500 revs.
	The view back North towards the Pont de Donzère.
	La Garde Adhemar high above the valley
	OOPS! Someone cut the corner under the bride of the route national 7 too close.
	After having spent the night below the Bollene lock we continue our cruise late in the morning. We get up at 7 and start checking on the weather. All is clear at the lock, but as the old river joins with the canal a few kilometers downstream we wonder if we will encounter the same situation, fog, as yesterday. I talk to the lock-keeper and he tells me all is clear, but luckily for us a commercial barge in the lock joins in the conversation and tells the lockkeeper that there is a `bouchon' at the village of Bollene, just 5 km downstream. So we stay put and wait for more news from commercial traffic. As they navigate with radar they can safely drive through the fog. At 9am the Macarena, no not the dance but a ship, heads upstream and tells us that the fig is still very heavy. Finally at 11am the lockkeeper tells us that he had called the next downstream lock and that passing ships had reported all clear. We finally get underway after 11 and pass the marker for Rhône km 200 around 11:30. As we see not too soon, as the fog has barely lifted above the junction of the lock canal with the river.
	As we enter the Provence region, leaving Rhône-Alpes, we see the fortification of la Mornas above the valley.
	At the Caderousse lock we have to wait until a large convoi-pousee passes us. With the 2x79m cargo units and the about 25m long pusher there is no space for us and so we have to wait, giving commercial traffic the priority.
	The village of Chateuneuf-du-Pape.
	Betty studies her cook-books while Thomas is asked to make a choice for dinner. As we stay below a lock for 3 days there is no chance to explore any close by villages.
	The twin TGV bridges below Avignon.
	We spend the at the Baucaire lock, only a couple of kilometers distance from our winter mooring, but as there is no entrance into Beaucaire from the Rhône it will take us about 70km driving and close to 2 days cruising on canals. Just a couple of km below the lock we pass the castle of Tarascon early morning of October 25.
	A view back towards Beaucaire into the overflow arm of the Rhône. You see the water flowing over the weir - only a few days later the Rhône starts flooding and the weir disappears under the green-brown mass of water. But that is another story!
	North of Arles we enter the Petit Rhône.
	Quiet flows the river ....
	Pet taxi on the Rhône - gulls use a log of wood to drift down-river.
	Another pet taxi in the Camargue and ...
	Avanti B serves as a taxi for the small frog. While we passed the next lock he disappears back into the water.
	More Camargue wildlife - one of the few pheasants left over despite all the hunting in the South of France. Go hide back in the woods!
	We enter the port of Beaucaire a little after 2pm. Most of the places are already occupied - it seems that we are nearly the last to come back from our cruising season.
	On October 26 at 3 pm we tie up on our mooring space for the winter having been away for a little over 6 months. I will create a separate page to summarize our adventures of the year, but for now we start the long list of winter projects .....

Cruise Statistics	This Story	Total
Locks	22	444
km	539	2032
hours	62.8	404.4