We left Vienne early afternoon and by 3.30pm were at Condrieu, which offered a sheltered Marina, hopefully impervious to the wakes of passing commercial boats. It cost €20 for the night, which included power and wifi, but the price seems a bit steep given that we're out of season. However, we wanted a good night's sleep, so paid up.

Adjacent to us were Brits Richard and Sophie in their boat Souvenir. They kindly helped with our ropes on arrival, and Sophie gave us the benefit of her local knowledge, having moored here before. We'd seen them briefly at Lyon but not met them, so it was nice to establish comtact with people who know what's what.

Being Monday the town was largely closed but we did manage to get three loads of washing done in the marina's laundry, though not fully dry, so next day when we set off it was with the aft deck flying flags of shirts, underwear and socks, proclaiming our nationality as gypsies rather than Kiwis or Brits.

After four hours we discovered the mooring at Tournon looked dodgy and too susceptible to wakes, so we pushed on for another hour to La Roche de Glun, where we found a delightful though small mooring off the main river in a placid side arm given over to yachting and other sports nautique. And here were Richard and Sophie again (that's their boat in the picture, just ahead of us in the lock). We moored behind them, and they later invited us over for drinks. Their dog Barney voiced his approval of our visit, and from them we learned a lot about what we could expect when we reach the south (though Barney didn't have much to say about winter moorings).

Richard and Sophie live full-time on board their boat, and their experiences over the past few years gave us much to think about. We now know for example that we should be heading back north in March, whereas we had assumed it would be later, after the spring snow-melt and the high waters in the rivers had dropped. But Richard advised us to go sooner rather than later. "Go while the snow is still thick on the hills," he said, as that way we should find the rives more benign. "We made the mistake of leaving in April, and we didn't get to near Paris until almost July!"

This sort of advice is invaluable, so apart from being lovely people to meet, Richard and Sophie became unintentional spiritual guides. We had them over to Liberty next evening and shared more experiences, limited though ours have been to date.

We walked and explored La Roche de Glun a bit. The supermarket was hard to find. And why do so many French shops look closed when they are actually open? If you look down many a main village street you'd swear aliens had been and abducted veryone, there is so little sign of life, until as you walk past a seemingly closed building you discover lights on inside and that it's actually a patisserie, or a traiteur, or the hairdresser's. Whatever it is it will likely be run by an "artisan", which seems to be the French way of establishing superiority over any other similar business. Hence you find Artisan Boulangerie, Patisiere Artisan... we even saw an artisan motor mechanic, who presumably hand-crafts his own oil filters.

At one of the markets we saw a stall where the owner specialised in "Bierres Artisanale", which could either be home brew or some sort of alcoholic colonic irrigation. We're still not sure (having decided not to risk it).

Next day October 9 and Liz's parents Reg and Kate arrived to see the boat for the first time. Unfortunately Reg wasn't well, with a bad dose of bronchitis, but they kindly brought a nice bottle of Champagne which we had on board before going to the only open restaurant in town.

Here we all had the Formule (set menu) at €14 pp for three courses: Thai soup, beef bourgignon, and - as Liz said afterwards - the best chocolate mousse she's ever tasted, presented in individual jars with lids. I agreed about the mousse, but for me the highlight was the wine, a 2012 Laurent Combier Crozes Hermitage which had a surprisingly dominant nose of turkish delight. Lovely, and a wine we must see if we can buy again.

The parents left for their home not too far away and we went back to the boat and a blissfully quiet night away from commercial river traffic. But one thing we have learned from Richard and Sophie is that marina opportunties from here down to the Med are fewer and further between, so we're gojng to have to plan carefully if we want secure and peaceful moorings in the next couple of weeks.