Les Roches de Condrieu to Valence – 69 km

Leaving Condrieu was a bit of a contrast to Lyon: no green-eyed monsters here, just this monster of a different sort. In fact there are several nuclear power stations along the Rhone valley. I don’t know if M. Hulot, the new Green energy minister not the manic holidaymaking cinéaste, plans to close this one. He says he wants to reduce France’s reliance on nuclear energy from 75% to 50% – but he hasn’t said how he’ll make up the difference. Lots more windmills, I suppose.

There was plenty of wind on the river today to spin the turbines, though few other boats, and we soon caught up with the Dutch family with whom we travelled a bit yesterday. They had set off about 20 minutes before us, but were kept waiting at the first lock. The lock-keepers like to group little boats. It's a lot of water to shift, I suppose.

Today’s voyage took us past the Table du Roi, the King’s table. As the Rhone navigation was improved, most of the rocks that had caused many shipwrecks and claimed many lives were blown up. But this one was spared because of the legend that King Louis IX, Saint Louis, stopped to have lunch on its flat top on his way to the 7^th or 8^th crusade. I can’t establish which, and he died in the 8^th.

We haven't said much this year about the wildlife, which has not been very varied. I seem to remember lots of egrets and kites on previous trips, but this time it has been almost exclusively swans.

We had hoped to stop for lunch at Tournon, which is dominated by this 15^th century castle, seat of the Counts of Tournon. However, although the little town looked attractive, the port was silted and dilapidated, so we pressed on.

This meant passing under rather a important suspension footbridge. It was built in 1824 by an engineer called Marc Seguin, nephew of the famous balloonist Montgolfier, and was the world’s first wire cable suspension bridge. Previously people used chains or ropes, or whatever. But using wire was obviously a breakthrough. Apparently M. Seguin also worked on boilers for steam engines.

After Tournon there was one more lock, and then we came to Valence. Once again, the busy Autoroute du Soleil runs beside the river for a while through the town, and cars were again nose to tail. The owners of this obviously lived-in barge didn’t seem to mind the traffic noise, particularly since they were avoiding the mooring charges in the large harbour where we are now installed (for 20 euros the night). In principle, there are mechanics available tomorrow, which would be good since we have developed a leak in our cooling system that needs fixing. That will delay our departure, so we cannot be sure where we’ll get to tomorrow.