Love is in the air, even though it's not spring. We are in Lyon, third largest of France's main cities, and will stay for a few days. Unlike the Romans, who in 43BC decided to stay here for a few hundred years, establishing Lugdunum on the hillside west of the Saone. They must have loved it here because they built a substantial settlement, which became the most important Roman centre this side of Rome for a while, and was the focal point of Roman Gaul and German...

Last evening the Excellence Rhone slipped its moorings and headed up river, going past us at a rate of knots. On board we could see people in the dining room. It looked very cosy. But we were cosy on board Liberty too... conserving our battery power, Liz reading by just one light and me reading a novel on my iPad. This morning we strolled in to town expecting to find the small market in the town square, only to discover the market actually took up a whole stree...

Woke to thick fog, so no Le Mans start to the morning for the line-up of bateaux, but within half an hour El Spaniard (as we'd nicknamed him, due to his flag) had cast off and disappeared into the mist. We presume he knows what he's doing, or has a deadline that nothing can wait for. Or is a matador and not scared of anything. El fog? Pfff! The rest of us swabbed decks, cleaned windows, had a leisurely breakfast and generally killed time waiting for le broulliar...

A Kiwi, a South African, an Australian and two Englishmen walk into a bar. Sound like a joke? Well, actually it was funny. At the evening Boys' Beer on Wednesday, there we were sitting outside the Brasserie L'Amiral in St Jean de Losne, chatting just like last Wednesday about all things boating. There weren't many others there, but Madame was very apologetic that they had almost run out of beer after an incedibly busy day. I put this down to the two boat-loads o...

Last Friday aftnoon's drive to Liz's parents in south-eastern France was straightforward. Arrived about 5.45 and launched immediately into helping Liz's Dad Reg who we found roped to a tree cutting scrub on an almost vertical bank. He's 83, and I can only hope I'm as fit as that when I'm that age. The weekend was spent mainly attempting to re-roof the carport where we would be parking Van Rouge for the winter. Luckily the weather was very much in our favour - w...