At the end of April Jackie and I flew out of Gatwick to Lyon to take a river cruise on the Rhône River. This wasn't going to be a birding trip but would include a few visits to areas where we might see some birds plus anything along the river that should show itself as we passed.
Our flight took us one hour five minutes and after picking up our luggage we were met by the agent and boarded our coach for a 45 minute drive to our ship the MS Lord Byron. On reaching the ship we had a few minutes to stow our baggage and freshen up and we were off to the dinning room for our evening meal.
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| Our Ship the Lord Byron |
Our first destination was Mâcon where we travelled to Cluny Abbey, Saône-et Loire, a Benedictine Monastry built in the Middle Ages it became the biggest Abbey to be built. Though much of it has been destroyed over time it was still a pretty impressive building. In its heyday around 1100 there were over 10,000 monks and 1,500 monasteries across Europe which came under the authority of Cluniac order and remained so until the construction of St-Pierre-de Rome in the 17th Century. Much of the buildings were demolished during the French revolution.
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| Cluny Abbey Saône-et Loire, France © Jackie Hull |
Jackie and I had a look around the village though there didn't seem to be many birds around Jackdaw, Collared Dove were plentiful and we did have a singing Serin, a Black Redstart and this Blackbird collecting food for its young.
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| Male Blackbird collecting food for young |
We then went off to a local vineyard for a little wine tasting after which we travelled back to the ship via the Rock of Solutré which stood at 495m in altitude which became famous after former President François Mitterrand walked to the top every spring to respect a promise to his brother-in-law when they were in the resistance in WW2.
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| La Roche de Solutré © M.Jeandeau |
We sailed overnight further north to Chalon-sur-Saône the gate way to Burgundy. It was as we were sailing north and leaving Mâcon we were sitting having coffee in the rear lounge when I caught sight of an Alpine Swift passing just behind the ship. I called to Jackie and she rushed out on deck and managed to see four Alpine Swift feeding with many Common Swift over the river a French tick for us.
Day 3
Our coach took us through the wine growing villages of Meursault, Volnay and Pommard at the village of Beaune (pronounced 'Bone') we had a break and had a tour of the Hospices de Beaune plus some free time to explore the old village.
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| Hospices de Beaune © Nick Hull |
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| Hospices de Beaune © Nick Hull |
The Hospices de Beaune or the Hotel-Dieu de Beaune was a former almshouse. It was founded in 1443 by Nicolas Rolin chancelllor of Burgundy as a hospital for the poor. Permission was granted by Pope Eugene in 1441 and the building was consecrated on 31st December 1452 and Rolin established the "Les sœurs hospitalières de Beaune" religious order. It remained a hospital until 1971.
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| The Hospital beds |
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| A model showing the plan layout of Hospices de Beaune |
They believe that the Flemish architect Jacques Wiscrère oversaw the building of the hospital.
It was then back to the ship and we sailed back to Lyon.
On route that afternoon Jackie and I were in the stern lounge and I looked up from my coffee and there circling in the sky were a group of White Storks.
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| White Stork over the Rhone River © Nick Hull |
Day 4
We had a coach tour of Lyon which ended at the Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvière which overlooks the city. The Romanesque and Byzantine architecture was designed by Pierre Bossan. The interior has some amazing mosaic art. Though the building was started in 1872 and finished in 1884 the interior was only completed in 1964.
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| Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvière_Lyon |
The dimension of the building is 86 metres long 35metres wide it has four towers each of 48metres high.
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| The interior of the main nave of the Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvière |
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| View across Lyon from the Basilica |
Day 5
After Lyon we sailed down river to Le Pouzin, here were we were going to one of the places Jackie and I really wanted to visit the Ardèche Gorges. The views here were spectacular and we also picked up a handful of bird species.
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| A small part of the Ardèche Gorges © Nick Hull |
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| The Vallon-Pont_d'Arc in the Ardèche © Nick Hull |
As we were traveling to the park centre we caught sight of a vulture we only had a brief view as it flew up over the coach but it was long enough to know it was a Black Vulture and shortly after we had a Peregrine.
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| A few of the Ardèche Wild Goats © Nick Hull |
At the centre birdlife picked up a bit as we exited the centre to see the prehistoric cave I heard a Common Redstart singing and in fact there were two one from above the cave and the other in a Judas Tree. Where we saw our first butterfly a male Scarce Swallowtail Iphiclides podalirius, just after I had brief views of a Provence Orange Tip Anthocharis eupenoides but it disappeared over the edge into the gorge. Flying around the gorge we had Black Kite, House Martin, Crag Martin and Alpine Swift.
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| Scarce Swallowtail on the Judas Tree © Nick Hull |
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| Alpine Swift - Ardèche Gorges © Nick Hull |
We rejoined the ship at Viviers and then sailed south to Avignon.
Day 6
Jackie and I took time out from the tour and did our own thing and walked part of the old town.
Avignon, is a city in southeastern France’s Provence region, is set on the Rhône River. From 1309 to 1377, it was the seat of the Catholic popes. It remained under papal rule until becoming part of France in 1791. This legacy can be seen in the massive Palais des Papes (Popes' Palace) in the city center, which is surrounded by medieval stone ramparts.
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| Palais des Papes Avignon |
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| The bell tower of the Palais des Papes © Jackie Hull |
After Lunch we in the coach and off to the Pont du Gard Roman aquaduct build in the firsr century AD to carry water over 50km to the Roman colony of Nemausus now Nimes. It crosses the river Gardon near to the town of Vers-Pont-du-Gard and is a UNESCO World Heritage site.
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| Pont du Gard Roman aquaduct |
We saw a few birds here, Common Redstart, Crag Martin and Swift, we also had an eagle sp which was either Booted, Short-toed or Bonnelli's but unfortunately I spotted it too late and my photographs are inconclusive to to the angle and lighting.
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| male Common Redstart Pont du Gard © Nick Hull |
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| Crag Martin Pont du Gard © Nick Hull |
Day 7
We woke moored at Arles and it was heavy rain so Jackie and I decided to take time out in the morning and in fact Jackie took the whole day off from excursions but as the afternoon promised to be fine I joined the excursion to the nearby town of Les-Baux-de-Provence and then on to the Olive Oil farm.
Les-Baux-de-Provence was situated on the top of a hill on the site of a old fortification and the commune part of the Alpilles Regional Natural Park. Traces of habitation have been found here dating back to 6000BC. It certainly had an amazing view of the surrounding area.
In the village I managed to get a shot of a super smart Black Redstart a species that seems to turn up in most French villages and towns.
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| male Black Redstart Les-Baux-de-Provence Nick Hull |
Where we learnt about the change from the traditional methods of crushing the olives with a mill stone to the more modern centrifugal method of extracting the oil. We also tasted the oil produced on the farm and how to know if it is Extra Virgin of second press by the taste.
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| The grandfathers wheel for crushing the olives before the olives first press that make the extra virgin oil. |
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| Bottle label of the Olive Oil of the Farm |
This was another of the tours that Jackie and I was interested in doing to mainly to get an insight of what the Camargue was like and if it was worth us making an effort to drive down and tour the area in the future.
We were at our moorings and were listening to Nightingale and Golden Oriole when two Glossy Ibis flew over and shortly after a single Greater Flamingo both were new for our French life list.
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| Greater Flamingo Camargue France © Nick Hull |
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| Camargue Black Bulls © Nick Hull |
These bulls are different to the Spanish Bulls in the horns point up instead of forward as these bulls are not killed they have ribbons tied to the ends of the horns and the young men have to take the ribbon off the horn without being run down by the bull.
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| Camargue White Horses © Nick Hull |
We saw many of the Camargue White Horses they take around four years before they are white the young fowls are a dark brown rusty colour.
Unfortunately when we arrived at the centre it was very busy it was half term and there were many Italian and French families and it gave the reserve a kind of Slimbridge feel about it. The first thing you notice once inside was the mixed heronry Cattle Egret and Grey Heron. There was also a Stork nest and Glossy Ibis were flying in and out.
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| Herony/Rookery of Egrets and Grey Heron © Nick Hull |
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| Cattle Egret - Camargue Centre © Nick Hull |
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| White Stork - Camargue Centre © Nick Hull |
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| Glossy Ibis - Camargue Centre © Nick Hull |
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| Greater Flamingo coming into land showing off their colour © Nick Hull |
In the garden of the Centre's Lodge we had singing Bonelli's Warbler and a female Pied Flycatcher all this was accompanied by the background sounds of singing Nightingale. In the the small lake opposite there were a couple of Black-winged Stilt and more Flamingo.
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| Female Pied Flycatcher Camargue © Nick Hull |
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| Black-winged Stilt - Camargue Centre © Nick Hull |
We didn't have time to explore the whole reserve before we had to leave to go to Saintes-Marlies-de-Mer a small town on the Mediterranean before heading back to the ship for lunch.
Day 9
Woke to rain and Jackie wasn't feeling too good and she decided to take the day out to rest so I went off to take a look around Orange a Roman city which turned out to be very interesting. The theatre is thought to be one of the best surviving Roman theatres in Europe, with its 103m long facade.
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| Outside of The Roman Theatre in Orange © Nick Hull |
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| A wide angle shot of the inside of the Roman Theatre in Orange |
The Roman Arch below was built between 10 and 25AD is one of the most interesting surviving examples of a provincial triumphal arch from the reign of Augustus commemorating the establishment of the Pax Romana.
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| TheTriumphal Arch and the old gateway to the Roman city |
In the afternoon it was a trip out to the Maison Bouachon Chateauneuf-du-Pape Winery for wine tasting. The most expensive bottle was certainly the best we tried was a red costing €30.
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| Maison Bouachon Chateauneuf-du-Pape |
The copy of the poster below show the variety of grapes that are used in the Chateauneuf-Du-Pape region
The map below shows the Côtes du Rhône and the Rhône Valley vineyards in the dark grey areas. The northern area produce mainly white wines where in the south they produce more red wines and some Rosé.
During our cruise lunch and dinner was served with the wines of the region which was good as some were very nice indeed and others were perhaps not to ones personal taste but I have to say most were very quaffable indeed.
We sailed overnight towards the north and Lyon where we arrived around lunch time. En-route whilst resting in our cabin with the window open we listened to the many Nightingale that were constantly singing from the scrub along the river bank. We also watched the Yellow-legged Gulls, Cormorants and Black Kite which were common along the length of the Rhone and seen every day.
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| Yellow-legged Gull - Rhone River © Nick Hull |
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| Cormorant over the Rhone River © Nick Hull |
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| One of many Black Kite seen through the Rhone River Valley © Nick Hull |
It wasn't until the afternoon once moored at Lyon that we picked up Common Terns feeding over the river and then from nowhere right in front of our window was a Black Tern a few minutes later another then we had three going south.
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| Common Tern - Lyon © Nick Hull |
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| Black Tern - Lyon © Nick Hull |
Day 11
Holiday over and it was just to catch our flight and travel back home though the weather wasn't the best it could have been we saw a new area of France and met some lovely people and had a great time and saw around 73 species on a non-birding holiday some of which were french ticks for us.
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