Barb had a wander up to the Parc d’Or and the Fine Arts Museum as she had done the walking tour while in Lyon. We found a cafe for a croissant and coffee then began a tour of churches. Not an organised tour, just a progression from the local church (Eglise St Nizier) in the […]

We were due to be collected by taxi to depart the boat and transfer to the train station at 9am. We had plenty of time but Steve and Fiona’s train to Montpellier was due to leave at 9.55. When there was still no taxi at 9.30 Steve was justifiably getting very anxious. Negotiating platforms at […]

Another scorching hot day but we were mainly inside in the cool.  There was a wine tasting coach ride to a chateau in Burgundy. Well the wine tasting was at the chateau and the coach ride was through lovely French countryside leaving from Macon. It’s a smallish service city that has some significant industry, including […]

Lyon spreads across the Rhone and Saone rivers and we were moored just upstream of the confluence on the bank of the Rhone. Lyon is a very beautiful city and is France’s second largest. In the morning we had signed up for an ebike tour along the river. That turned into a non-e-bike tour but […]

We had a morning visit to the town of Tournon sur Rhone. Another smallish town in what has been a depressed area but is now enjoying some restoration and economic growth thanks largely to tourism. The dominant, prison-like building as you look across the river is a public high school, the second oldest in France, […]

We had a morning sailing and then guided walking tours of the small town of Viviers. It’s historic (like all the towns) and cute with a castle on the hill. The main reason for the visit to this area were the optional bus tours to the lavender fields and truffle farm. Given my tendency to […]

We arrived in Avignon quite late on Wednesday evening as there was a queue to get through one of the locks. There are quite a few locks to go through and we are travelling upstream so we rise up through the locks. A number of them are also power stations. We had signed up to […]

We had a bit of sorting out to do with our tours as the AvalonGo app doesn’t work properly for NZ and Australia but our tour director is very adept. In the morning we just chilled out on the boat and enjoyed down time. The food on the boat is great and you have a […]

Mike and I both had slightly dodgy stomachs on Monday morning so we headed to the Champs Elysees equivalent in Beziers where we got drinks and a croissant. Mike also wanted a haircut. According to Google there are 2 barbers just 400m away which we navigated to in blistering heat. Both were closed even though […]

Eventually it cooled down enough and we all got some sleep. The music finished at about 12.30 which wasn’t too bad and everything was quiet not too long afterwards. We did some washing and headed out to find coffee and something to eat. There seemed a shortage of open cafes although the market had a […]

We said goodbye to Pauline, who was off to Tarragona on babysitting duties and then to a family holiday with Sarah and Hamish and Fin in the South of Spain. Our train left mid afternoon so we got a taxi and sorted out the correct access point and platform at the railway station. Getting through […]