The Rhone, Romans and Fondue

This year we opted for a rather special river cruise along the Rhone in southern France, from Arles to Lyon and on the River Saone to Beaune. Due to the dry summer a lot of the northern rivers like the Danube and the Rhine have been struggling with low water levels, lucky for us, the upper Rhone is mainly fed by glacial waters with Lake Geneva acting as a giant filter for the river’s alpine sediment, so it was plain sailing and we just sat back and let it all happen!

We started off on a walking tour and singing “Sur le pont d’Avignon” by the remains of a medieval engineering marvel. In 1185  it had twenty-two arches that curved 920 metres across a series of islands forming the only bridge across the Rhône between Lyon and the Mediterranean Sea. This river is a bit vicious and the bridge had a bad habit of being washed away, it was also too narrow for carts to pass or to dance a ronde on, so eventually it was abandoned! According to our guide, the song should be “sous le pont d’ Avignon” (under the bridge of Avignon) as the towns folk prefered to dance on the riverbanks under the arches. The bridge and river were also the border crossing between the Papal State and the Kingdom of France and towers at either end provided extra defences and collected tolls for repairs and taxes.

In the 1300s, Avignon had a bit of a monopoly on the papal succession, providing 7 Popes over 70 years: making France, instead of Rome, the official papal residency (and causing the suppression of the Knights Templar). So, we went for a peak around this rather grand Palais des Papes and got very confused by how hot and steamy it was inside; it was a cool 19C outside. The French took their role of protecting their popes very seriously and the limestone walls are up to 4 metres thick. The porous stone behaves like a sponge soaking up the summer heat (30-40C the previous week) which it was now exuding from every crevice, it was sweltering in there and we were both dripping by the time we left!

 

 

 

I also hadn’t realised how popular this region was with the Romans (yes okay it is quite close to Italy), there are forts, forums, theatres and arenas everywhere, hence the nickname of “Little Rome”. Arles Arena is still in use today, mainly for bull fighting. The stonework is truly incredible, especially as the sunlight shines along the outer passages. I was so chuffed to be actually standing inside a roman arena watching the resident domestic cats “prowl” around. I just wanted at least one gladiator to make an appearance (where’s Russell Crowe when you need him)!

Stepping further back in time we headed to the Grotte de la Madeleine above the Ardeche Gorge. Think of the Cheddar Gorge Caves on steroids! Being plunged into total darkness was a bit eerie, but that was the backdrop for the dramatic lightshow that told the story of how a shepherd found the second, larger cave when he went searching for his lost lamb. Pictures do not do the scale of it any justice.

Did you know they have vultures in France? I didn’t! As we were driven back along the Ardeche Gorge, we saw a kettle of griffon vultures circling above the cliffs, massive birds with wingspans of 2.8m. The local farmers aren’t too happy with these scavengers right now because, the previous week, several vultures were seen killing a cow (very rare and usually means the animal was already dying).

After the cruise was over, we headed to Lausanne on the shores of Lake Geneva for a few days before heading home.

First visit was Chateaux de Chillon, a medieval castle based on designs used for Carnarvon castle in North Wales, and made famous in a poem by Lord Byron after his visit to the dungeons. I’d spotted a small entrance  across the road from the castle and discovered it was Chillon Fort, an underground fortification built deep into the side of the valley’s solid rock face. I had never considered that you could fortify the alps, but the Swiss did, starting in the 1880s and adding refinements, such as this fort, at the start of WW2.

On our last day we headed up the Col du Pillon near Gstaad to visit Glacier 3000. I was a tad nervous (scared to death) as it takes two very bouncy cable cars to get to the top with the opportunity to walk across the highest metal suspension bridge in the world spanning between two peaks (oh yes I did, but it was the steps up to it that were the worst!) At just under 3000m we had views of the Matterhorn and a very tiny Mont Blanc.

 

Coming back down to earth in Lausanne I sat in a restaurant with a very cheesy fondue before we went to watch one last sunset over Lake Geneva. It had been quite an epic trip.