/fdata%2F4543073%2Favatar-blog-1240322749-tmpphpPAD7g1.jpg){kind=avatar}
Two months ago I finished my work contract in Paris, packed the car with my clothes and books and headed south on the A6. After a stop in the Morvan Regional Park in the western part of Burgundy for some hiking, I continued in direction Marseille which has been my home base since 2002. When I crossed the Rhône in Lyon, I knew that I was getting closer to Marseille, to the sun, to the sea and to my lovely little house on the hillside.
The Rhône might not be the longest river in Europe, it might not be the busiest river in Europe, but it is the main water way in France. Whilst it takes 4 1/2 hrs to drive from Lyon to Fos-sur-Mer, it takes 24 hrs by barge at 15 kms per hour. From Chalon-sur-Saone the river accompanies you on your way to Provence: Lyon, Valence, Montelimar, Bollene, Nimes, Avignon, Beaucaire and Arles where it runs out in the delta in Camargue before mixing with the salty Mediterranean.
A couple of weekends ago I was so lucky to participate in various boat trips on the Rhône in connection with the programme Le Rhône à flot. Starting in Arles on Saturday morning we were about 30 people on board "Le Rhône", a motorised ship that belongs to Voies Navigables de France. Throughout the day a guide on board gave explanations whilst we were sitting and leisurely looking at the passing landscape. What a pleasant way to do nothing!
We passed Arles and its small river port with two ships at quay of which one appeared to be loading scrap (and working in the maritime transport myself I am certain that the scrap was destined for Algeria). Then we saw a dredger pumping sand and gravel into a barge. On the sides of the river we could see what is called "Girardon's boxes". To avoid gravel and other heavy material to obstruct the water way Girardon came up with the idea to create basins where the water could run into, then deposit the heavier material when the water was stagnating, and then run out again into the river. It worked on the western side of the river which appears as solid land with trees. However, on the eastern side the basins are more or less one with the Rhône and has become an area with a rich bird life, but the beaver is apparently also a common animal here between forrest and river.
After having passed the castles in Beaucaire and Tarascon we arrived at the last of the 19 hydroelectrical installations on the Rhône. The fall of the river is only 12 metres at Vallabrègues (as compared to more than 300 metres at the first installation in Génissiat), but the lock and the installation remain interesting, especially for a Dane like me who comes from a country with no rivers of any importance. Actually we don't have any rivers in Denmark.
After a picnic eaten in the warm sunshine whilst sitting on dry land looking at the hydroelectical installations we were given explanations by our guide about the passages created to help eels go up river to breed, about the lock (which we saw in use when a cruiseship full of tourists passed by) and about the hydroelectical installation which apparently produces the equivalent to the electricity consumption of a town like Nice.
Then we went back to the ship and sailed downriver letting the current help the ship to move forward and thus reducing the fuel consumption. We saw the entrance to the Petit Rhône, and once back in Arles we passed the entire town before heading back to the starting point.
The next say I went back with a friend, and this time the ship took us into the Petit Rhône and below its beautiful old railway bridge that looks like something out of an old American film. Perhaps not quite like in The Bridges of Madison County, but I could swear that I saw Clint Eastwood and Meryl Streep on the bridge.... This time we had four guides from the various museums in Arles to tell us about the town during the Roman empire, about Arles during the inondations of which the one in 1856 was the worst. This second visit made me realise that I hardly know Arles, a town I have visited a couple of times with foreign guests to give them a taste of Roman Arles.
After lunch my friend and I visited a couple of museums, among others an exhibition about clouds (Nuages) at the Musée Réattu and the archaeological museum. However, I shall leave the archaeological musum for another article on this blog.
A document which explains in French the works done on the Rhône in the last 100 years or so.
Some impressions from the Rhône