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Court Short

James and Claire Short, Adventures at Sea!
29 August, 2018
From saline to salty!

After the most beautiful last day on France’s mighty Rhône River, we are now back in our familiar salty environment.   We have spoken to our last lock keeper and negotiated his slightly tricky lock, said goodbye to monster barges and 200ft long floating hotels.  We have closed our Guide Fluvials (Waterways Guides) and now […]

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28 August, 2018
Ancient Arles

So we’re now at our last ‘sightseeing’ stop of our wonderful canal trip.   Can’t believe it’s coming to an end but oh my goodness have we loved it all!  We’re now saturated with ancient history and almost completely befuddled with the names of all the places we’ve been to and, as for churches, we […]

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27 August, 2018
Sur le pont ....

  We have just loved Avignon.  5km of walled city, Palais des Papes (the largest and most important gothic building in Europe) the famed bridge, wiggly cobbled streets, trompe d’oeil windows, towers, churches, fountains, water wheels and restaurants.   It’s been a real cycle marathon but we think we’ve covered most things!! Great place to […]

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27 August, 2018
Châteauneuf-du-Pape

We arrived in Avignon and the first thing we did was to go off in search of wine!!  Rather special wine as it happens and a rather special day where we learnt even more about grape varieties, wine making processes and domaines.  Châteauneuf-du-Pape consists of the remains of a castle, dozens of little “caves” for […]

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23 August, 2018
From Valence to Viviers

We’re progressing down the beautiful Rhône with stops in marinas tucked out of the way of the wash from barges and other river traffic.  Valence was a nice town with a lovely park but it’s Viviers that’s caught our imagination with ramparts surrounding the cathedral and ecclesiastical buildings dating from the 11th Century.  We also […]

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19 August, 2018
What a load of ...... lovely bollards!

In our household cars and bollards do not have a happy relationship, however this is not the case with our boat and bollards!   We’re loving them, they’re the floating kind and as fast as we go down, so do the bollards.  Oh bliss!   Mind you we’re descending at a pace and quite some […]

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18 August, 2018
Côte-Rôtie : The ‘roasted’ side

Literally translated that is what Côte-Rôtie means and it refers to a very small area along the Rhône from Vienne to Condrieu where the sun beats down on the slopes.  Here a very dry red wine is produced from a combination of Syrah and Viognier grapes that are grown in terraces linked by steps.  We […]

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18 August, 2018
Surprising Lyon

We had such a great time in Lyon, finding so much more to see than expected.  From ancient to modern, Lyon is a city that surprises.  Everywhere we went from the narrow cobbled streets of Rue de St Jean to the astonishing Basilica of Notre Dame de Fourvière, from the modern bright buildings of the […]

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12 August, 2018
Weekend off!

How can we need a weekend off when we’re on holiday I hear you ask?!  Well we thought we did so here we are in Belleville enjoying the sunshine, the river, the countryside and very little else!   Great boulangerie in town though so we’re not totally in the sticks.   We enjoyed Mâcon and […]

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10 August, 2018
Wine country

  We’ve just had a great visit to Tournus.  What a gem of a town with its Abbaye, Hotel Dieu, cobbled streets, terracotta tiled roofs and its wines!   Plenty of opportunity to taste and learn about wine and we also had a great visit to Domaine Denderes where we not only learnt about wine […]

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