Ship up the Rhone river
A week on board a ship cruising up the Rhone river
MARTIGUES
On Sunday, October 7, we boarded the good ship Van Gogh at 6 PM. The ship is part of the CroisiEurope fleet. I was surprised by the size of the ship which was about 100 meters, or 300 feet long. I only has two decks of cabins as it has to go under some 50 bridges on its 300 kms trip from Martigues to Challon sur Soane, The ship has 52 cabins with a capacity for 104 passengers. On our trip, we were only 50 passengers which meant that the ship never felt overcrowded and there were always places to sit.
THE SHIP LOCKS
The Rhone river flows from the Alps in Switzerland through Lake Geneva down to Arles. There it branches off with the Petit Rhone going to Stes Maries and the main Rhone down to Port St Louis on the Mediteranean. The distance to Lyon is 262 kms or 157 miles. There are 12 locks between Port St Louis and Lyon as the river drops some 148 meters in that stretch. One of the locks is 23 meters high as shown below.
Ships cannot be more than 12 meters wide to fit into the various locks. At times, our ship had less than 30 centimeters clearance as seen belpw
This is our daily sailing plan, in German. Abfahrt and Ankunft mean arrival/departure
We were shown to our Cabin which was not huge but spacious enough with a double bed and large windows looking out the starboard side of the ship. The ship had been refurbished recently and was in very good shape and well decorated. After doing a lot of cruises on the high seas in huge ships, it was fun to be on a ship without hoards of people and endless corridors and elevators needed to get anywhere on the ship. On the top deck, there was a huge area to sit in the sun as well as an area which was covered with a canvas roof to sit in case of rain or hot sun. On this sun deck, there was also the wheel house with control panels on each side of the ship for maneovering in tight spots. In fact, these outside control panels were used to steer the ship when going under one of the 50 bridges or while entering and leaving one of the 15 locks we passed through on the trip. The wheelhouse itself was rigged to drop into the the inside of the ship to allow the ship to pass under the bridges. In some cases, the clearance was only a few feet.
We left Martigues at about 7 pm as the sun was setting which was a pretty site. We chose a table for the two of us only which was nice as we rather enjoy each other's company and one never knows who one has as table mates at a table for 4 or 6 persons. We do this on all our ship trips. We had our first meal that evening and it was quite acceptable. Wine and bottled water were included in our ticket price so that we had a good choice at each meal. The dining room was nicely fitted with 4 or 5 waiters for the 50 passengers. The menus were fixed each lunch and dinner with breakfasts served as buffet. That night the crew was introduced and we found that there were 25 persons working the various parts of the ship. Most of the cabin, dinning and bar staff were girls from Hungary. The management, navigating and engineering staff were French.
We navigated through channels for about 3 hours before actually reaching the Rhone river at Port St Louis where we tied up for the night. A storm had been expected so we needed to get to the Rhone pronto. In fact, there was no storm and we had a quiet first night on board.
ARLES
We made Arles by noon and tied up near the center of town. Arles is where van Gogh spent 2 years painting so that many of his best work was done in and around this city. It is also the city where the musical group, the Gypsy Kings originated. We spent the afternoon walking the old streets of this former Roman town. Actually, most of the towns along the Rhone were inhabited by the Romans and one sees Roman ruins in almost every city.
AVIGNON
The next morning we woke up in Avignon where we were once again tied up within walking distance to the center of this famous town. I had booked tickets to visit the Palais des Papes which was the Papal residence while the popes lived in this town. This palace is said to be the biggest gothic building in the world and I can attest that it is a huge building. The power of the Church even at that time is so obvious in the opulence and size of this building.
The Avignon Papacy was the period from 1309 to 1376 during which seven successive popes resided in Avignon rather than in Rome. The situation arose from the conflict between the papacy and the French crown, culminating in the death of Pope Boniface VIII after his arrest and maltreatment by Philip IV of France. The wealth of the Papacy can be seen in the size of the palace. By the way, a very good wine dating back to that time is still available under the name of Chateauneuf du Pape which is produced in this area,
The man looking up the stairs was heard to say:"Oh Shit". Monique was heard to say:
MARTIGUES
On Sunday, October 7, we boarded the good ship Van Gogh at 6 PM. The ship is part of the CroisiEurope fleet. I was surprised by the size of the ship which was about 100 meters, or 300 feet long. I only has two decks of cabins as it has to go under some 50 bridges on its 300 kms trip from Martigues to Challon sur Soane, The ship has 52 cabins with a capacity for 104 passengers. On our trip, we were only 50 passengers which meant that the ship never felt overcrowded and there were always places to sit.
THE SHIP LOCKS
The Rhone river flows from the Alps in Switzerland through Lake Geneva down to Arles. There it branches off with the Petit Rhone going to Stes Maries and the main Rhone down to Port St Louis on the Mediteranean. The distance to Lyon is 262 kms or 157 miles. There are 12 locks between Port St Louis and Lyon as the river drops some 148 meters in that stretch. One of the locks is 23 meters high as shown below.
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| Notice the small clearance between the ship and the wall of the lock. |
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| A do of an open lock. |
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| Looking into a lock as we entered. |
This is our daily sailing plan, in German. Abfahrt and Ankunft mean arrival/departure
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| The sun deck with its canvas roof which could also be dropped when needed. |
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| Leaving Martigues |
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| Leaving Martigues under the bridge to Marseilles. |
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| The dining room |
We were shown to our Cabin which was not huge but spacious enough with a double bed and large windows looking out the starboard side of the ship. The ship had been refurbished recently and was in very good shape and well decorated. After doing a lot of cruises on the high seas in huge ships, it was fun to be on a ship without hoards of people and endless corridors and elevators needed to get anywhere on the ship. On the top deck, there was a huge area to sit in the sun as well as an area which was covered with a canvas roof to sit in case of rain or hot sun. On this sun deck, there was also the wheel house with control panels on each side of the ship for maneovering in tight spots. In fact, these outside control panels were used to steer the ship when going under one of the 50 bridges or while entering and leaving one of the 15 locks we passed through on the trip. The wheelhouse itself was rigged to drop into the the inside of the ship to allow the ship to pass under the bridges. In some cases, the clearance was only a few feet.
We left Martigues at about 7 pm as the sun was setting which was a pretty site. We chose a table for the two of us only which was nice as we rather enjoy each other's company and one never knows who one has as table mates at a table for 4 or 6 persons. We do this on all our ship trips. We had our first meal that evening and it was quite acceptable. Wine and bottled water were included in our ticket price so that we had a good choice at each meal. The dining room was nicely fitted with 4 or 5 waiters for the 50 passengers. The menus were fixed each lunch and dinner with breakfasts served as buffet. That night the crew was introduced and we found that there were 25 persons working the various parts of the ship. Most of the cabin, dinning and bar staff were girls from Hungary. The management, navigating and engineering staff were French.
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| Somewhere along the Rhone. |
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| Cannot remember where this was but it is a nice picture. |
We navigated through channels for about 3 hours before actually reaching the Rhone river at Port St Louis where we tied up for the night. A storm had been expected so we needed to get to the Rhone pronto. In fact, there was no storm and we had a quiet first night on board.
ARLES
We made Arles by noon and tied up near the center of town. Arles is where van Gogh spent 2 years painting so that many of his best work was done in and around this city. It is also the city where the musical group, the Gypsy Kings originated. We spent the afternoon walking the old streets of this former Roman town. Actually, most of the towns along the Rhone were inhabited by the Romans and one sees Roman ruins in almost every city.
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| Roman forum of Arles |
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| A street in Arles. |
AVIGNON
The next morning we woke up in Avignon where we were once again tied up within walking distance to the center of this famous town. I had booked tickets to visit the Palais des Papes which was the Papal residence while the popes lived in this town. This palace is said to be the biggest gothic building in the world and I can attest that it is a huge building. The power of the Church even at that time is so obvious in the opulence and size of this building.
The Avignon Papacy was the period from 1309 to 1376 during which seven successive popes resided in Avignon rather than in Rome. The situation arose from the conflict between the papacy and the French crown, culminating in the death of Pope Boniface VIII after his arrest and maltreatment by Philip IV of France. The wealth of the Papacy can be seen in the size of the palace. By the way, a very good wine dating back to that time is still available under the name of Chateauneuf du Pape which is produced in this area,
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| Palais des Papes, Avignon |
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| Maquette of complete Palais des Papes |
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| Monique who decided that she was not going to navigate a huge set of steps, |
"You are quite right. That's why I am still down here..."
As we left Avignon, we passed close by the famous half bridge of Avignon which enspired the song
VIVIERS
That night we arrived in Viviers which is a middle age town known mainly for its cathedral on the highest point of the town. After supper, I decided I would walk up alone to the cathedral which proved to be a fairly strenuous exercise. The town streets were totally deserted to the point that I was a little nervous walking up these narrow streets. I walked for over an hour, climbing most of the time using my phone GPS to guide to the highest point in the town. I eventually made it up the cobbled winding streets to the Cathedral only to find that it was locked up for the night. I was very thankful to have my GPS with me as I would have had a hard time finding the ship again. It was a very nice sight when I finally got to the ship and was able to board. The walk was good exercise but a little scary as I saw only one person during the 2 hours I walked the town. These empty streets at night became a feature in most of the little towns we visited during our trip. People tend to go home and stay there.
THE ARDECHE
When we arrived in Tain, we boarded bus for a trip into the Ardeche mountain area. This is known as the Grand Canyon of France. It was an impressive drive up winding road to fairly high areas looking down several thousand meters. Monique is not comfortable with heights and did not really enjoy the views.
In the Ardeche, there is a world renowned cave called Grotte Chauvet which was only discovered in 1994 as it was blocked off by stones. In this grotto, paintings were found which are dated back some 35,000 years and show wild life which roamed at that time, as shown below. The paintings are considered so important that the actual cave is closed to the public but a replica has been made which the public can visit and see copies of these paintings.
LYON
We tied up in Lyon around noon. After a quick lunch, we hopped a taxi to the old part of the town heading to visit the cathedral of St Irenee which is on the top of the mountain overlooking Lyon.
Lyon is a large and rather pleasant and clean city. One can see that it was a very prosperous city when it was the center of silk production of France. During that time, the silk factories built a network of small streets joining buildings which were used to move products from one place to an other. These streets became know as the Traboules and are a part of the history of the city. In fact, during the Nazi occupation on the city, this maze of small roads allowed many to escape capture by the Germans. We visited one of these streets which are used nowadays by the people living along the way.
TOURNOUS
From here we took an other bus tour through the wine area of Burgoyne and to the town of Baune.
The area is beautiful and driving through the villages is like driving through a very expensive wine list at restaurant with names like Pommard, Baune, Volnay, Pouilly-Fuisse, Fixin, Rully, Montrachet. All lovely wines I remember from my wine time when Burgoyne wines were my favorites. The area is know as the Cote d'Or as the wine plants turn to gold in the autumn as one can see from the pictures we took and shown below.
The trip took us to the small town of Baune where there is a huge building called the Hotel Dieu which used to be a hospital for poor people. It was build by someone with lots of money and probably a bad conscience who was buying his ticket to heaven... History does tell whether he made it. It is now a museum but is is also the owner of some 60 hectares of wine producing land. The value of this must be in the billions as a local wine area of only 6 hectares recently sold for Euros 250 million!
After this tour, the bus took us back to the ship which had moved on and tied up in Challon sur Soane which was our last stop.
PARIS
The next morning a bus took us back to Lyon where we caught the TGV, bullet train to Paris. It is a 2 hour ride through beautiful country. We noted that the train was not as fast as the Chinese bullet train and that it had much more sway and shaking than the Chinese trains.
We were met at the Gare de Lyon by my cousin Irina Schirinsky-Schickmatoff and her partner Joel.
We had seen that there was a show on Madagascar at the Quai Branly museum so we decided to make a visit. The exposition was not very interesting as it concentrated mainly on the religous rituals of Madagascar and not on the country.
That evening, after checking into our BNB in Longjumeau, we went to the city of Versailles and had a lovely dinner this being now a very hip city. The weather was again warm for this time of year so we took advantage and ate outside.
The next day, Irina took us to visit the cemetery of Ste Catherine which is where many of the Russian exiles are buried and where there is a lovely Russian Orthodox church. We put our heads into the Chuch to follow the mass going on with the lovely Russian Orthodox church singing. We ambled through the cemetery where are buried Irina's mother and grandmother (who was a Keyserlingk, see the picture of her burial site). It also holds the burial site of the famous Russian dancer, Rudolf Nureyev.
In the afternoon, we drove to visit the Chateau of Vaux le Vicomte. It is a beautiful construction open as a museum to the public with gardens in the back which rival those of Versailles. As a matter of fact, the chap who build the chateau was put in jail by the king who was jealous that his castle was nicer than anything he had. It lead the king to build Versailles to prove that he could do better.
The chateau was used for several films, including the 007 movie, Moonracker. One can see the helicopter used in the film on the left.
The morning of our flight back to Montreal, we were picked by an uber driver and taken to the airport. Given usual Paris traffic it took us 2 hours to get to the airport but we arrived in plenty of time. Our flight home went smoothly and we arrived back to the sight of beautiful autumn colors outside our windows as shown below. It was a good trip with lots of wonderful memories.
Hope you enjoyed reading about our trip. If you have any comments or questions, let me know in the remarks section.
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| The main dining area of the Palais. |
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| This is a huge building which housed the popes for 75 years. Each pope added to the buildings. |
As we left Avignon, we passed close by the famous half bridge of Avignon which enspired the song
"Sur le Pont d'Avignon"
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| Monique and her Pont d'Avignon. |
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| A river cruise ship like ours |
VIVIERS
That night we arrived in Viviers which is a middle age town known mainly for its cathedral on the highest point of the town. After supper, I decided I would walk up alone to the cathedral which proved to be a fairly strenuous exercise. The town streets were totally deserted to the point that I was a little nervous walking up these narrow streets. I walked for over an hour, climbing most of the time using my phone GPS to guide to the highest point in the town. I eventually made it up the cobbled winding streets to the Cathedral only to find that it was locked up for the night. I was very thankful to have my GPS with me as I would have had a hard time finding the ship again. It was a very nice sight when I finally got to the ship and was able to board. The walk was good exercise but a little scary as I saw only one person during the 2 hours I walked the town. These empty streets at night became a feature in most of the little towns we visited during our trip. People tend to go home and stay there.
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| Palais des Papes |
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| The bar and living area |
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| Approaching a lock at night |
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| An other bloody ruin. |
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| The Rhone |
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| The dining room |
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| Our own table in the dining room. |
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| Our Hungarian barkeep. |
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| Cruising up the Rhone. |
THE ARDECHE
When we arrived in Tain, we boarded bus for a trip into the Ardeche mountain area. This is known as the Grand Canyon of France. It was an impressive drive up winding road to fairly high areas looking down several thousand meters. Monique is not comfortable with heights and did not really enjoy the views.
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| In the Ardeche. When the river runs high, water has reached to almost the top of the arc. |
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| Monique not enjoying the heights of the Ardeche. |
In the Ardeche, there is a world renowned cave called Grotte Chauvet which was only discovered in 1994 as it was blocked off by stones. In this grotto, paintings were found which are dated back some 35,000 years and show wild life which roamed at that time, as shown below. The paintings are considered so important that the actual cave is closed to the public but a replica has been made which the public can visit and see copies of these paintings.
LYON
We tied up in Lyon around noon. After a quick lunch, we hopped a taxi to the old part of the town heading to visit the cathedral of St Irenee which is on the top of the mountain overlooking Lyon.
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| Our ship the Van Gogh |
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| St Irenee Cathedral on the mountain above Lyon. |
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| Looking down on Lyon |
Lyon is a large and rather pleasant and clean city. One can see that it was a very prosperous city when it was the center of silk production of France. During that time, the silk factories built a network of small streets joining buildings which were used to move products from one place to an other. These streets became know as the Traboules and are a part of the history of the city. In fact, during the Nazi occupation on the city, this maze of small roads allowed many to escape capture by the Germans. We visited one of these streets which are used nowadays by the people living along the way.
TOURNOUS
From here we took an other bus tour through the wine area of Burgoyne and to the town of Baune.
The area is beautiful and driving through the villages is like driving through a very expensive wine list at restaurant with names like Pommard, Baune, Volnay, Pouilly-Fuisse, Fixin, Rully, Montrachet. All lovely wines I remember from my wine time when Burgoyne wines were my favorites. The area is know as the Cote d'Or as the wine plants turn to gold in the autumn as one can see from the pictures we took and shown below.
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| This is why this area of the Burgoyne is called the Cote d'or. |
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| The wine cellar we visited in Bourgogne. |
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| Street in Beaune. |
The trip took us to the small town of Baune where there is a huge building called the Hotel Dieu which used to be a hospital for poor people. It was build by someone with lots of money and probably a bad conscience who was buying his ticket to heaven... History does tell whether he made it. It is now a museum but is is also the owner of some 60 hectares of wine producing land. The value of this must be in the billions as a local wine area of only 6 hectares recently sold for Euros 250 million!
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| Hotel Dieu in Beaune |
After this tour, the bus took us back to the ship which had moved on and tied up in Challon sur Soane which was our last stop.
PARIS
The next morning a bus took us back to Lyon where we caught the TGV, bullet train to Paris. It is a 2 hour ride through beautiful country. We noted that the train was not as fast as the Chinese bullet train and that it had much more sway and shaking than the Chinese trains.
We were met at the Gare de Lyon by my cousin Irina Schirinsky-Schickmatoff and her partner Joel.
We had seen that there was a show on Madagascar at the Quai Branly museum so we decided to make a visit. The exposition was not very interesting as it concentrated mainly on the religous rituals of Madagascar and not on the country.
That evening, after checking into our BNB in Longjumeau, we went to the city of Versailles and had a lovely dinner this being now a very hip city. The weather was again warm for this time of year so we took advantage and ate outside.
The next day, Irina took us to visit the cemetery of Ste Catherine which is where many of the Russian exiles are buried and where there is a lovely Russian Orthodox church. We put our heads into the Chuch to follow the mass going on with the lovely Russian Orthodox church singing. We ambled through the cemetery where are buried Irina's mother and grandmother (who was a Keyserlingk, see the picture of her burial site). It also holds the burial site of the famous Russian dancer, Rudolf Nureyev.
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| Nureyev's burial plot with a fiberglass rug mosaic as cover |
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| The burial site of Irina's mother and grandmother, who was a Keyserlingk, as shown on the plate. |
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| Joel Roediger, Irina's partner. |
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| Irina with Monique doing what Monique so much enjoys, visiting a cemetery. |
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| The Russian orthodox church at St Catherine |
In the afternoon, we drove to visit the Chateau of Vaux le Vicomte. It is a beautiful construction open as a museum to the public with gardens in the back which rival those of Versailles. As a matter of fact, the chap who build the chateau was put in jail by the king who was jealous that his castle was nicer than anything he had. It lead the king to build Versailles to prove that he could do better.
The morning of our flight back to Montreal, we were picked by an uber driver and taken to the airport. Given usual Paris traffic it took us 2 hours to get to the airport but we arrived in plenty of time. Our flight home went smoothly and we arrived back to the sight of beautiful autumn colors outside our windows as shown below. It was a good trip with lots of wonderful memories.
Hope you enjoyed reading about our trip. If you have any comments or questions, let me know in the remarks section.
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