Cote du Rhone

We did not find a museum of mobile phones in Orange but they do have an impressive Roman colesseum & triumphal arch. We spot people with plastic bags full of snails the size of mice, they are picking them from the verge plants. Through heathland now of oak & pine, carpeted under with masses of small pale blue star-shaped flowers. Unfortunately the only red squirrel we see is road-kill.

Camped at an immaculately tended site where the River Lez meets the Rhone at Bollene. the pitch was so hard we couldn't peg the tent, but tied it to trees & bushes. Our neighbours were Dutch caravanners, who generously provided us with fresh cherries for our tea. Passing out of Bollene the next morning we see their nuclear power station with giant steaming cooling towers. A flat route then of tiny empty country roads by irrigation channels & domaines advertising 'Cote de Rhone'. Into rolling hills of cherry & peach orchard. In the distance was a giant Lafarge limestone quarry & cement works, that Mike says I am not allowed to say is a blot on the landscape. Then another nuke power station using Rhone water.

Camped at a mini campsite wedged between the Rhone & the village of Charmes. The old centre was a tumble of houses squeezed into a ravine headed by a disused mill. There was a view from a ruined castle for miles up & down the Rhone. The hills to the W. are the edge of the Ardeche.

Most of the next morning we are off-road right alongside the edge of the Rhone on fishermens tracks & railway maintenance gang acesses. Then quiet roads through orchards, passing some gorgeous chateaux. We nearly fall off our bikes with fright thinking someone was shooting at us, but it was just a neaby bird-scarer.

We cut a large corner off the Rhone & avoid Lyons, by crossing at St Valiere & heading into wooded hills NE. We camp near the village of Anneyon in a family-run site called Chataignerie (Chestnut Grove). Two sweet chestnut trees remain in front of the old house. Coming down from the hills the next morning we pass dairy herds on virtually traffic-free country lanes. The farm buildings here are of cob walls with large river pebbles laid in herring bone pattern as a plinth & sometimes decorating a whole facade. To the E. are the snow-covered Alp foothills. Joining the Rhone once more, there are spectacular steep hills on either side as the valley narrows. We camp at the village of L'Ile de Verbai next to a young American touring cyclist with a 'bob' trailer. He started his tour in Iceland (because he got a cheap flight there from the States!)

At Seyssel, a charming town with a handsome bridge, there is a barrage with no lock on the Rhone, & so this is the upper limit of navigation. The river now narrows into a dramatic gorge. We turn a corner, & without warning, are into a dim tunnel with no cycle lane! We quickly stop to put on our lights & get through before anything comes to mow us down.

The houses are now distinctly alpine, with very steep roofs & wooden balconies. We cross the Rhone & enter Switzerland. Almost immediately we are on an excellent cycle track separated from the road that takes us to Geneva.