Passage Report No. 105
Sahula
Lyon to Mediterranian Sea

The Saone rises, racing in flood.

The Rhone, surges, boiling around its bridges. Two rivers joining.

Motor launch, bow wave curling, slowly, impatiently, seeking the seeminly impossible, battles upstream Saone.

Promenading lovers glasp, oblivious.

Lyon City life goes on.

Skipper contemplates departure: Tanya failing, anchoring difficult...patience, waiting...

"...there are trees coming down...

"... it is calmer in the wide Rhone..."

Overnight, dawns a calmer river. Sahula departs.

Futuristic architecture marks the farewell: Orange, Green facades to Musee of Lyon, silver, striking.

Sahula sinks into a deep, dark, dank, locked, canyon, lowered some 13-20 metres (floating bollards) - Rhone's largest lock.

First settled some 2000 years ago, subsequent first century Roman occupation established Vienne as a prosperous city in the image of Rome. Recently excavations and a Museum show its magnificance.

Nothing marks time passing more than to see the image and view so little.

Despite 3rd C destruction, Roman Empire decline, various invasions, the Revolution (Cathedral door icons are headless), the city remained important to this day.

Coffee in the square, overlooked by the incongruous ancientness of (well preserved - historically designated, a church), Roman (20-10 BC), Temple of Augustus and Livia.

Sahula, tied to the town pontoon (free), brown river, racing by, rolls due to passing barges, boats.

Barges, passenger ships, not pleasure boats, can navigate at night.

Cote d'Or passes; vinyards , green, yellow, sweep up low hills.

Vinyard, Cote-Rotie (red - "...a subtle bouquet of peppered violets and truffle...", ), oldest vinyard ("...forbids the use of usual mechanical means...") of the Cotes du Rhone, passes on steep river slopes.

Huge, stepped, white stone, quarries used over the eons to build the towns and canals, mark the vined hills.

A Nuclear power station, steam cloud rising, silently, ominously, white, providing (enriched uranium) means for civilizations end, in the Nation that nurtured its cradle.

Wind turbines slowly churn.

A bullet train streaks overhead (bridge).

Large dams raise the river, generating hydroelectric power, necessitate the huge bypass locks. Floating bollards, mournfully moaning, "sing" the lowering ballad of the cavernous (30m) lock; then a towering gate, a wet, black wall, rises, phoenix like, to admit light denied and the calm, silent, green, blue, river.

Past the 132 hectares (on steep granite slopes) of one of Frances's oldest (from Romans) vinyards, Crozes- Hermitage.

Competing for prominences, castles ruins, Virgin Mary's, war and peace, spike the blue sky.

Sahula berths at Valence L'Eperviere marina for supplies. Automatic fuel station denies the credit card.  (17.50 e).

Musee de Valence, art et Archeologie, beautifully presented art and artifacts.

Hector and Hermoine convey crew to nearby, Crussol Fortress, high above the valley.
"...it is the best castle (ruins) I've seen..." (Crew).

High white cliffs guide the wide, idyll, river, past steeples, cathedrals, monasteries, dominating, red roofed, ochre, yellow, villages, set in patchwork of rural, hilled, peace.

Vivers village pontoon is off river (calm), a kilometre from the hilltop town. It was a religious enclave, walled, a cathedral (France's smallest) surrounded by wealthy monks homes in narrow streets, dark alleys, overlooking the Rhone valley.

Past Chateauneuf du Pape, built, like a fortress, for Pope John XXII and appreciated by his two successorys, in the 13th C.

Ahead, on the flat river plain, rises the massive, medieval,  walled, Palace des Papes and Avignon village, set atop a rocky pinacle dominating the Rhone.

Amid Rome's, 14th century, political turmoil, Pope Clement V, fled, setting up his Court in Avignon.

His 7, French-born, successors, spent huge sums, adding to, redesigning, the original palace.

Ugly but imposing: "...the immense scale, cavernous stone halls and vast courtyards testify to the Papacy's..." misdirected "...wealth; the 3m thick walls, portcullises and watch towers emphasis their insecurity..." (Lonely Planet).

It tests imagination (aided by video guides) to conceive the "...former luxury of...vast, bare rooms..." adorned with ornate frescos, furniture, carpets and art; of, all consuming, Papal banquets, lavished in a sea of surrounding poverty.

There is more to Avignon: superb museums and art galleries, fascinating cobbled streets, imposing houses all within the city walls.

Across the river; across the 14th C., border between France and the Holy Roman Empire, the hill top ramparts (never saw battle as the Papacy left and the River moved 900 m away) of Fort St Andre and the royal Benedictine Abbey near Villeneuve les Avignon, rise, equally imposing, tempering Avignon's Papal fervour.

Skippers long past mentor Vincent Van Gogh beckons. Crew bus (7e return) to nearby, St Remy de Provence.

"...there are better than St Remy...it is full of wealthy Parisans who buy the houses..."

Van Gogh was there. A pretty town, as then, now breathing tourists and wealth. Crew visit the hospice where he resided before moving to another further out.

"...you should go to Baux de Provence...take the bus...there is an exhibition there...it is "real" Provence..."

Set in the rocky Provence hills, Baux's ancient cobbled lanes, houses white, red terracota roofed, cling, precariously, to cliffs. Atop, fort remanents ensured security. It seems impregnable, time immoveable. It seethes with tourists.

Below vinyards paint the plain to distant, Arles and the harbour cranes of Gulf de Lion, Marseilles and Port st Louis.

The piece de resistance is below, literally - in an ancient, massive, underground white stone quarry,

"Carrierres de Lumieres." Crew enter, unsure, into inky blackness, then the cavernous walls move to fabulous projections of Gustav Klimt, post impressionist (Austrian), art resonating to moving classical music - spellbound by the spectacular, brilliance of such art and its unique, wonderful, presentation.

In Sahula's wake Avignon, the Papal Palace slowly recede; past Tarascon's riverside fort, to Arles.

"...there are no berths in Arles...no marina...pontoon (damaged in floods) not replaced..."

Cruising Association notes suggest phoning the "La Peniche" restaurant barge for permission to go alongside.

"...of course... you are welcome..." Sahula is welcomed by a young French couple "...we will give you a key to the gate..." Superb meal aboard is a bonus.

Later, a Danish yacht berths, gratefully, alongside Sahula. A barge races by - admonished by the Restaurant owner - yachts roll.

Van Gogh resided in Arles. Crew walked to locations of his works now marked by copies. The "yellow house" he set up for he and Gauguin, the " Cafe Nuit - night restaurant", the bridge, river front, all are there. Foundation Vincent van Gogh museum displays works through his life.

Skipper reads Van Gogh's letters with his brother Theo. A intelligent, eurudite, sensitive, delightful, difficult, man, dedicated, single minded, to his art (which he began full time in his 40's), bedevilled by depression which, when on the cusp of recognition, lead to his suicidal death (after 10 years art). A true tragedy - one wonders what masterpieces would have been bequeathed if life continued in his artistic prime

To Theo, who supported his brother throughout, art owes a great debt. Beset by poor health, he passed on a few short years later. His wife to her great credit, ensured that the world gave long over due recognition to brother in law, Vincent.

"...art is jealous, she doesn't like taking second  place...to get the essence...one has to work long and hard...I am glad I never learnt  painting...I learned to ignore...recognise effects...I can say just what I want...if its impossible, it is impossible...I don't know how it is to be done...I look at what is in front of my eyes...I couldn't care less about reality...it isn't...derived from some student manner or from some system, but from art itself..." Van Gogh letters.

Crew attend a bull race in the 20,000 seat, Roman arena (1-2 BC). Select local males run as close to the enraged bull as they can to snatch, crowds cheering, a rosette from between its horns. A poor, bloodless, risky, relation to a bloody bull fight.

Sahula races to Port St Louis and the last lock. The cruise across France is ended.  Onto Naval Services to lift the mast and rerig for sea (free alongside wall (for five days - violent rolling due to passing barges), 100e crane, 150e rigger).

Sundowners goes upmarket, Champagne Belin adds to the celebration.

French sailors berth alongside Sahula. They generously, advise Skipper on the weather and anchorages on Sahula's cruise along the coast and to Corsica.

Mast up, rig set, sails up, electrics connected, tested, fresh water tanks cleaned, engine parts and tiller pilots checked and new one received, etc, etc. Sahula moves to Port St Louis marina (30 e all facilities).

Hector and Hermoine go to a good "home" for use by David and Betty (Florida, USA) cruising north along the Rhone.

After so long in the calm, inland waterways there is apprehension about voyaging the sea. It is time to go.

Next Report No. 106 - Port St Louis, Marseille, Toulon, to Corsica.

Best
David
sv Sahula
Toulon, France.