The Rhône Valley

Our original plan, before embarking on a rather long detour down to Valencia, was to travel up the Rhine and down the Rhône. But Team New Zealand qualifying for the semi finals of the America's Cup's Challenger series put well pay to that. Instead, it offered us the opportunity to follow the Rhône up from the Mediterranean towards its source in the Alps, on our way back on track to central Europe.

Chateauneuf-du-Pape was our first stop. After this we made a beeline for another, more natural beauty - the Pont d'Arc - the world's largest natural stone arch. Funnily enough, we hadn't even heard of this, until back in Dongen at the start of the trip Christien showed us some postcards of when she and Opa had holidayed there with Eric's mum. It looked amazing then and was even more impressive in real life!

great view of the pont

The weather wasn't quite on our side so swimming beneath it didn't quite have the same appeal as we thought it would, so we skipped that in favour of a drive down the twisting and turning Gorge d'Ardeche which begins at the Pont and led us nicely back into the Rhône valley.

end of the gorge d'Ardeche looking out to the Rhone valley

It was comforting to be back on a river and with the age of towns along it mostly being medieval, it's a great reminder of how important these routes were in those times. Plenty of old castles, ruined or otherwise, lined the hillsides, testifying to how much these waterways were once fought over and depended upon to extract as many tolls from passing traffic as possible.

Veiw across the Rhone from a castle top

Further up the valley the Rhône began to narrow quite suddenly with the hillsides rising up dramatically. This signified the begining of the upper Rhône wine regions which generally are more sought after than those in the wide open valley to the south. Every south facing hillside of this stretch is covered in beautifully terraced vines. The piece de resistance beng the hill of Cotes Hermitage, which has for many centuries been prized well above all the rest.

Cotes Hermitage

Being in a bit of a rush to head east we didn't dare stop for too long, long enough though to pick up a kilo of freshly picked cherries and apricots for lunch. We said goodbye to the Rhône at Lyon where its course veers off to the east towards Geneva. We still had some way northeast to go to find Munich.