Today was a full on day, we had docked in Avignon after sailing most of the night. It was time for some more highlights of the tour. We started the day with a short bus ride to the site of the Pont Du Gard, one of the grand sites (there are 38) of France, built by the romans in the 1st Century AD it is part of the aqueduct to take clean water from the spring at Uzes to the roman town in Nimes. I will not try to do it justice with words as you can see from the pi...

Today was a day of a couple of short visits with a fair amount of cruising in between. We started the day in Tournon which is one of the wine towns on the Rhone, possibly most famous for being directly across the river from the original site of Hermitage, where on the top of the hill can be found a small chapel which was the home of a monk who had decided to become a hermit to contemplate his faith. Hence the name Hermitage. The hill produces some of the most ...

Today we joined the Silk and market tour, something for Jane following all the trains, museums and old churches etc. It was still a museum but one aimed at showing how silk was produced from the 18th century. Silk had traditionally only been made by the Chinese until French monks went to China and stole the technique and a number of cocoons which were hidden in bamboo walking sticks. Silk then started to be woven by hand in Lyon, with many families passing the s...

Today we continued our cruise down the Saone towards Lyon, it was a beautiful morning for cruising, and we arrived in Lyon just before lunch, so plenty of time to take pictures on the way through the city. We are berthed just north of the confluence of the Soane and Rhone rivers, so come Tuesday evening when we depart we will be on the Rhone for the rest of the journey. Officially Lyon is France's 3rd largest city but there is obviously a great deal of rivalry b...

This morning we docked in Tournus, it is one of the oldest towns in France sitting on one of the old roman roads midway between Lyon and Dijon. A quaint little town which on a Sunday morning is of course shut like almost everywhere in France, however this did not stop us visiting the local Abbey. The Abbey of St. Philibert This is a fascinating place, with the original parts dating back to the 10th Century, and one of the few original "black Madonna's" as one of...