Rhône River: Condrieu, Saint-Vallier, Valance (l’Epervière), Cruas, Saint-Etienne-des-Sorts

After a quick round of the Carrefour at Confluence Lyon port, off we headed for our first day on the Rhône – two locks (one with a 9m chute, the other 6m), and a total of five hours. Differently from the Sâone, the Rhône has a specific channel that you (meaning Roy) have to watch for and follow. We had the famous mistral wind behind us, and a little bit of current.

I’d phoned ahead to book us in at the Condrieu port de plaisance. Our spot on the visitor mooring seemed to be the only one actually available for visitors, all the others being fairly big boats that looking like fixtures. Being on the outside pontoon, we did get bounced around by the odd passing commercial barge or hotel ship – but not too badly.

 

Saint-Vallier

Four hours on the river today, and just the one lock. Saint-Vallier’s halte nautique was perfectly adequate and not at all bumpy: when big vessels pass, they have to go under the bridge arch that’s nearer to the opposite side of the river.

My run along the river took me into an industrial estate, so I made a swift U-turn .

Back in the centre ville, the village weirdo engaged me in conversation about how polluted the river is – he seemed to be saying that the ornamental water features were pumping out raw sewage, I think.

L’Epervière (Valance)

Five hours and two locks today. At the first, we had to wait for a commercial barge – the massive Condor, loaded with timber; we couldn’t keep up with her, but were lucky to come in behind her at the second lock.

We’d booked ahead for l’Epervière port de plaisance. Dinner was at L’Escale de Fon Fon, a big restaurant with a nice terrace in the capitainerie building.

Aperol spritzes, a charcuterie platter to share, then a fish dish for me (fillet of loup, whatever that is – it wasn’t wolf, no – served with crispy polenta topped with a small-dice ratatouille) and ravioli in bouillabaisse for Roy. Then a café gourmand (espresso served with several sweet things): it’s becoming a bit of a habit.

Cruas

We’re still seeing very, very little traffic on the Rhône. Mostly, we have this gigantic river to ourselves.

Cruas, flanked by the four gigantic cooling towers of its nuclear plant, is an interesting little town. Construction of the nuclear plant began in 1978, it employs some 1,200 people and it supplies four to five percent of the country’s energy requirements.

Built quite a lot earlier than that – during the 11th and 12th centuries, in fact, is the Abbatiale Sainte-Marie, and a monastery that dates back to the eighth century. I could have visited them properly, but instead I found myself trotting back up north in the direction of the cooling towers.

On the way, I jogged past the railway station and then turned into the enchanting garden of the Musée d’Art et d’Histoire; the museum itself had just closed for the day, unfortunately. See those gigantic ants on the exterior walls? – they may have been inspired by the rather large black ants I spotted later on the river path.

I was fascinated by the mural on the southernmost cooling tower: a child using a seashell to pour water onto a pyramid? (Possible interpretation: Allow us to build a nuclear reactor right next to your lovely little medieval village and we’ll make sure your children can afford visits to the seaside and to Egypt.)

Apparently, the painting was commissioned in 2001, its theme is ecological, specifically “Water and Air”, and its title is Aquarius. It took nine mountaineers, 8,000 working hours and 4,000 litres of paint to complete the project.

Saint-Etienne-des-Sorts

We’d braced ourselves a bit for Bollene, the grandfather of all locks with a fall of 23 metres – twice that of the average big Rhône lock. In the end it was dead easy. The lock was ready and waiting for us, we sailed straight in and were out the other side in 20 minutes flat.

This seemed to me a particularly wet lock, joyfully spraying out lock-juice from its slimy walls. Roy, as usual, got the wettest spot.

Pretty Saint-Etienne-des-Sorts, dotted with vineyards, olive groves and swimming pools, feels prosperous and has two restaurants. Le P’tit Resto, which also serves as a depot de pain, seemed to be favoured by the locals; we stopped in for a pression at Le Pergola. From our mooring, we had the loveliest view of an old chapel and its bell-tower.

Before we set off in the morning, I took a short hike up the hill to find the 12th-century ruins that a sign promised.