Category: France

Travels in France

April 28, 2022 Douarnenez FR

Today was a little more of a chore than other days this trip. The good news is that it ended well and our final stop of the day made up for the trouble. The day began with a longish drive to get around Brest which is a large industrial port. There is probably a lot to do in Brest but we are avoiding big cities at this point on the trip.

A lot of the buildings in Brittany are covered in wisteria, it symbolizes long life. Wisteria plants live over 100 years.

We have now transitioned from the north coast to the south coast of Brittany. Brittany is a large peninsula sticking out from the mainland of France and at some point is the point furthest west on the French mainland. As we moved south the land became a little different and the weather warmed up a bit. Today started out as the coldest morning so far on the trip and by the end of the day it was the warmest we have been on the trip.

The church steeples in Brittany are really interesting. This one is from Sizun.

The first stop of the day was a small village called Sizun. It had an interesting church, but otherwise a little less than we expected. After taking a quick walk around we decided to head on.

These arches are connected to the church in Sizun. Arches coming off churches at an angle seem to be a common feature in Brittany.

We were thinking about staying in a town called Le Faou, it had a nice waterfront, but not much else caught our eye. So we decided to carry on.

Ton liked this boat propped up on the mud flats in La Faou.

Ton was really looking forward to the next town on our agenda as it was used to film the movie Tess in 1979. Locronan is one of the beautiful villages of France and it is a pretty town, but felt like one of the most touristy places we have stopped at. We gave it a good look, but after about 40 minutes we both agreed it was time to move on. Up to this point the weather had been a little dreary, but just as we were leaving the sun came out and it warmed up.

The Celtic words on top are a kind of dessert. It tastes good, but it is very difficult to order.
The village square in Locronan.

Our last stop today was Douarnenez. You may have noticed that the city names today do not seem so French. On this end of the peninsula the place names reflect the Celtic past much more. The signs as you go further west on the peninsula shift from French only to French and Brezh (Bretagne)in the Celtic language.

A mixture of French and Bretagne on the front of this creperie.

We were looking forward to Douarnenez as it is a center for the sardine trade which is famous, and a beautiful port town. The problem is that Greta Garmin decided to go on strike as we entered town. I had punched in a camp ground in town that was in her data base. After directing us down a series of increasing narrow roads she announced we had arrived. The problem was we were sitting in front of a building that most definitely was not a campground, it turned out to be a restaurant. Using the Camper Contact app I punched in the GPS coordinates for the campground and Greta took us to the campground, but we did not like the like the location. I told Ton that there was another campground closer into town, but there was a warning in Camper Contact that the street approaching it was a bit narrow (remember this warning was coming from Europeans who have a much different definition of narrow roads than Americans do). Again this campground was in Greta’s data base, and off we went. This time Greta couldn’t decide on a good route in and had us going in circles between two roundabouts. Fortunately Ton saw a sign for the campground and we followed the signs down a very narrow urban street that I assumed was one way but is actually two way, fortunately we didn’t run into anyone before we arrived at the campground.

The view of Douarnenez from near our campground.

There was one more hurdle before we were home free. The Grand Mere of the family was manning the front desk and she doesn’t speak English and I don’t speak French. At first I thought she was telling me that they didn’t have any space. But than she led me outside and was pointing and trying to explain something to me, but I was not getting it. Finally one of the guests came to our aid and it turns out she was trying to tell me to go pick a spot and come back and tell her which one we were in.

The entrance to the port of Douarnenez.

We walked into town and it was a really beautiful port formed where the Pouldavid River enters the Atlantic. The river is down in a bit of gorge so most of the city is a hundred feet or so above the port which makes the port pretty dramatic. It is full of pleasure vessels now, though it once was the center of the Sardine industry in France.

Some of the hundreds of pleasure boats in the harbor.

After spending a couple of hours poking around we headed back to the campground because Ton had found a tempting washer and dryer and decided to get our laundry done. When I went to get the tokens needed for the washer and dryer Grand Mere was still manning the desk, but I managed to explain what I wanted and she managed to understand my mangled pronunciation of French, in the end we were both a little proud of ourselves for pulling off the transaction unaided.

Another view of the port with the old Sardine wharves in the background.

April 27, 2022 Trebeurden FR

Brittany is living up to our expectations. Today we had a great day with beautiful medieval towns, and incredible beaches.

A street of half timbered homes in the beautiful town of Treguier.

When we planned the itinerary yesterday our first stop was Treguier which was described as a beautiful riverfront port. Since about half of the towns in Brittany are riverfront ports I was prepared for a quick stop before we moved on.

It was market day in Treguier.

When we pulled into town it was market day which is always a treat in France so I knew it would not be a quick stop. This was a large market and there were all kinds of interesting vegetables, cheeses, and meats to look at. We spent some time in the lower market by the port, before heading to the upper market next to the cathedral.

People walking up and down the hill between the upper and lower markets with their shopping bags and baskets.

The upper market was more clothes and other stuff than food. We enjoyed looking around there as well as popping into a couple of the stores on the main square of town.

Some of the beautiful half timbered buildings around the main square of town.

The cathedral in town was also interesting. To our amateur eyes it appears to be a little more austere than typical French cathedrals.

The cathedral in Treguier had a very unique steeple.

Our next stop for the day was Tregastel Plage, which is a beach renown for its pink sand and interesting rock formations. The place was fantastic and only Ton’s pictures can do it justice.

Incredible giant rock formations on Tregastel Plage.
More rock formations in the background with the pink sand, which today didn’t come thru, but is still really pretty.
Kelp covered rocks, tidal pools and more giant boulders shaped by water. What a cool place.
More rocks from an incredible beach.

Our last stop for the day was Trebeurden. After checking into our campground for the night we debated whether to go to the beach right away or way for sunset, after checking sunset and finding out it was not until 9:25 we decided to go right away.

The beach at Trebeurden which is nice but we were a little spoiled from earlier in the day.

Walking back we were trying to figure out why sunset was so late here. The latitude is about the same as Portland but the sunset is much later right now. Our friend Kathy Howe supplied the answer, the issue is not latitude but longitude. By all rights Brittany should be in the same time zone as England, but since France only has one time zone sunrise and sunset are about an hour earlier on the clock than they should be.

April 26, 2022 Paimpol FR

Today we started our exploration of Brittany in earnest. To help guide us we are using the Backroads France book published by DK books. These guides are Ton’s favorite guidebook that she uses to do her planning as we move around.

While driving we came across this bay at low tide with really cool mud flats and boats sitting around on the mud. It was too good of a photo opportunity for Ton to pass on.

We are still a little slow getting going in the mornings, but as Ton said today we are not in a hurry so who cares. Our first planned stop for the day was the village of Saint Cast-Le Guido. It is a pretty beach town with a nice view and a small but lively promenade. We didn’t linger long as we had a lot of ground to cover and while pretty it didn’t tempt us to linger.

We really liked this house at Saint Cast-Le Guido.

We had seen a picture of Fort La Latte. It is an old castle that was turned into a coastal fort later in its life. It is everything Hollywood has taught us to expect of a a castle on the coast, and in fact it has been used a few times in movies. It is perched on some rocks not quite attached to the main land with two drawbridges to enter it. A central tower dominates the grounds of the castle. We spent a couple of hours exploring and climbing up and down the stairs. We were surprised to find out it was privately owned and that the family still stays there sometimes in one building that is not open to the public.

The view as you walk up to Fort La Latte, right out of the movies but real.
The inner courtyard of the castle taken from the watch tower. The building in the center with the tower attached is the home of the family that owns the castle.
The watch tower at the fort, you can see people at the top, which is where we took the previous picture from.

We had planned on stopping at Cap Finistere which is the point of land next to the Fort. It is a French national park and billed as one of the largest moorlands on the continent. But, by the time we finished with the Fort and had lunch it was getting late so we decided to push on to our final stop for the day the port town of Paimpol.

The waterfront Promenade in Paimpol.

We pulled into the aire next to the train station about 3:30 and got one of the last sights away from the main road with electricity. The aire was fuller than we expected as so far most of the places we have stayed have been pretty empty. By the time we settled in for the night there were 22 RV’s in the aire with a nominal capacity of 28. It is a good deal for €6.90 with electricity, a dump station and very close to the waterfront.

The recreation port at Paimpol.

Paimpol is a very pretty seaside town with a great waterfront promenade. So we promenaded for a couple of hours, people watching and poking around in cute shops that weren’t too touristy. Ton took a ton of pictures as we walked around and thoroughly enjoyed herself.

Street scene in Paimpol, with the locals and tourists out for their evening stroll.

April 25, 2022 Dinard FR

We began the day with an excellent breakfast from Ton. It was Khao Tom which is a kind of rice gruel. Going thru François the night before she came across a bag of rice that neither of us remember buying. Last night it was a Rissoto to accompany our pork chops, and this morning with some spice and water it became Khao Tom.

St. Malo, our visit there 4 years ago motivated us to spend more time in Brittany.

After breakfast we had a long but uneventful drive to get us to the Northern base of the Brittany Peninsula, the total drive was 305 km’s which is roughly 200 miles. Brittany has been on our list of places we wanted to visit since we swung by St. Malo and Dinan on our second trip to France. We really liked the feel of both places and the mix of French and Celtic culture.

Brittany is famous for its rugged coast line.

Once we were settled into our campground, it was time for our first day of walking. It was about 2 miles to the main beach in town. But the walk was pleasant with lots of interesting old homes to look at as we went. The main beach and promenade came into view suddenly and despite the blustery day was full of people.

People enjoying the waterfront promenade in Dinard.
Nice sand castle, the architect was not in site.

The coast here is full of rocky headlands with relatively small beaches in between. They have done an incredible job of cutting a walking path thru and over the headlands between the beaches. It is one of the most spectacular walks we have done, and interestingly it does not even get a mention in any of the guidebooks about the area. All together we spent about 3 hours walking the beaches and the trails between the beaches. When we returned we were both a little tired and felt like we had earned our supper.

Some really beautiful homes perched on a headland looking over the harbor of Dinard and St. Malo.
Part of the walking path carved out of the rocks of the headlands.
Another section of the coastal trail.

April 24, 2022, Vendome FR

We were excited because last night when we were walking around town we saw them setting up the market for today. We woke up earlier as the jet lag is finally starting to wear off and headed into town to visit the market. When we got there it turned out to be a swap meet and not a market. We are not swap meet people but decided to take a pass thru to see if swap meets are different in France than the US, and the answer is nope, it is still other peoples junk.

The old city gate to Vendome, on the facade you can see bullet holes from WWII.

Above the town is the remains of a 9th century castle, so we headed up there. The view of the town was nice, but not too spectacular. They did have a pretty garden that we poked around in for a few minutes before heading back into town. By this time it was about 11 am so we decided to take another walk thru the city center to see if any of the restaurants or coffee shops got our attention, but unfortunately none did.

The 9th century castle above the town.

By this time the clouds were threatening a bit so we decided to head back to François for lunch and to make plans for tomorrow. We have three main regions we want to explore this trip, Brittany in France, Galicia in Spain, and the entire country of Portugal. Tomorrow we are heading to Brittany.

The statue to Marshal Rochambeau who helped defeat the British at Yorktown to end the American Revolution.

We spent the rest of the day watching the coming and going of other campers. This is always good entertainment for us. Unlike yesterday where we had the place to ourselves, today there are about 14 other vans here, the majority form the Netherlands.

April 22, 2022 Sens FR

If we were younger today would have probably been more interesting. Last night we had plans of moving off towards the coast and beginning our new exploration of France. But jet lag and age won out and we did not wake up until nearly 11am, so those plans were put on hold another day.

Today consisted of taking care of one chore, a couple of visits to grocery stores and a nap. Sorry if anyone is looking for something interesting, but today is not the day. Please check in tomorrow as we are planning to begin exploring.

April 21, 2022 Sens FR

The jet lag kicked in and we ended up sleeping until after 10 am. Yesterday when I opened the door to the service area for François the handle came off in my hand. We had planned on spending the day in Sens to recover, get our shopping done, and get our shots loaded into the French government health system so we could get a QR code with our shot information on it. Not an exciting day but a necessary one.

The first stop was back to Eurocamping cars to show them the broken handle. I told Ton that we would probably have to come back in a couple of days after they ordered the part and it came in. But, much to our surprise they had one in stock, so we were on our way in less than an hour.

Our next stop was Auchan for a first pass at groceries. Ton had already planned on a stop at Auchan and Lidl as she has learned what she likes to buy from each one.

After Auchan we headed over to a pharmacy to get our Contolle´Sanitaire´. This is a QR code built into an app which Europe uses in place of the shot cards we use in the US. While there are currently no restrictions in place in France and the Contolle´ Sanitaire´is not being used we are not sure what the future might bring so we decided to get enrolled. The other advantage is the QR code is recognized thru out Europe so we do not have to deal with the different rules from country to country on the US shot cards.

The pharmacist told us it would take an hour so we headed off to Lidl to complete our shopping. When we went back to the pharmacy the Shot passports were waiting and the pharmacist walked us thru downloading the app.

Our not very exciting day ended up back at the Aire in Sens where Ton prepared a nice meal, followed by a short walk to check out the other RV’s. Some days are full of exciting places, and others are days where you buy food and get enrolled in government programs!

April 20, 2022 Sens Fr

We finally made it back to France. We spent the last two weeks making sure that all of the paperwork was perfect, expecting that the immigration process would be very strict. When we arrived the line was pretty long but we have seen it longer. But, much to our surprise the immigration process was not any stricter than in the past. The only delay was a new automatic process where you scan your own passport and stand in front of a screen to have your picture taken. No one even wanted to see our vaccine cards, or the QR code we had downloaded from the French government. After all of the worry and stress about the new Covid requirements we were kind of disappointed.

The ride to Sens was uneventful. Since we were last in France the company where we store François was bought by a French company and they have relocated from the old farm compound that used to serve as our base to a proper garage and store building. They are also acting as a RV dealer for the French population of the town and not just overseas customers. I asked if they had seen a large downturn in overseas customers and they said no. While we were picking up we met an Australian couple, a South African couple and another American couple to prove their point.

The water pump was found to be defective while we were picking up François so we had a little delay while it was fixed. We were worried about the effect of having an unexpected two years of idleness and the water pump seems to have been the victim. After they repaired the water pump they also apologized and said that the starter battery had run down and not to let the van stop running for awhile.

After we settled the bills we headed off to the gas station to fill our LP gas. Knowing that the battery was low we debated whether we should leave François running while we filled, but when we had returned from our last trip in François we had an extra LP bottle installed for our system and this would be the first time filling, so we decided to shut him down to prevent having François go up in a fire ball if we had a gas leak.

After completing the fill and finding no gas leaks from the LP system it was time to move on. Unfortunately, the time we had let François run and the short drive to the gas station had not been enough to restore the battery, so when we went to start him up the battery was dead. The clerk at the gas station had already been really fun as she broke out her high school English when I purchased the the gas, now I got to test her language skills further when I asked for her help to reach Eurocamping cars. She stayed past the end of her shift and insisted on giving Ton and me a free cup of coffee while we waited. Eventually we got hold of Eurocamping cars and they sent one of the mechanics to give us a jump.

It is always amazing how when we run into problems the most unexpected people come to the rescue. The clerk was our guardian angel and like usual I forgot to ask her name but I will always remember her kindness. She turned a potential bad day into a good day.

Our next stop was the Aire in Sens and after hooking up the electricity to charge our battery we headed out, grabbed some food and turned in for a well earned sleep. We had been up for about 26 hours straight minus a couple of cat naps on the plane.

Languedoc

Languedoc is another region we have just touched as we passed thru.

Loire

The Loire Valley is another beautiful area in France.  We have just touched on it on both of our trips in 2018.  We have more to explore there.

Castle in Loire Valley

 

Posts for Loire

Normandy

We visited Normandy and Brittany unexpectedly in the Fall of 2018 after being urged to do it by nearly everyone we met.  Besides the D-Day beaches Normandy also has Mont St Michel one of the iconic places in France.

Auvergne

We stopped for a couple of nights to try out some Beaujolais wine, and to visit a volcanic mountain, this area really appealed to us.  We love the cheese from Salers.  The capital of this area is Lyon the second biggest city in France.  We made a short visit to Lyon in our Fall 2019 trip.

The beautiful rolling countryside of Auvergne.

May 26, 2025 Vichy FR

May 26, 2025 2 Comments

I selected Vichy for todays visit because of its association with World War II. Today and historically Vichy was famous as a spa town with

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April 13, 2018 Orcines FR

April 7, 2020 No Comments

Today we reluctantly left Burgundy.  But before leaving we wanted to take a look at some more of the Beaujolais country.  Somewhere around Julien we

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Aquitaine

We made a couple of stops in Aquitaine, primarily to visit the famous Bordeaux wine country.

I

May 4, 2022 Blaye FR

May 4, 2022 No Comments

The next couple days will be a lot of driving. We are looking at covering about 300km’s per day as we aim for Galicia. Today

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Midi Pyrennes

We have not really explored this region, but just stopped a couple of times coming and going.  Ron really liked Albi.

The gardens at the castle in Albi.


April 15, 2018 Albi FR

April 6, 2020 No Comments

The day started out with a visit to the cheese shop under the supervision of Patrick the campsite owner.  He also had a French couple

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Provence

On our first trip we spent a lot of time in Provence and it lived up to its reputation.  Provence was one of Ton’s favorite regions in France.

April 24, 2018 Gordes FR

April 6, 2020 No Comments

Today we headed towards another one of the most beautiful villages in France.  Gordes is considered a must see stop in Provence by most of

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November 16, 2019 Tournon-Sur-Rhone FR

We woke up early with only two things in mind for the day.  Head over to the Valrhona Chocolate company, and then jump in François and do a marathon drive on the Autoroute to Sens.

Both missions were accomplished, when we went out for our walk to the chocolate company we were surprised to see two river cruise ships tied up to the docks right next to the campground.  The fog was dense and you could barely see them but they loomed in the dark.  We think all of the passengers had already taken off for their day trips as the crew of one of the ships were engaged in a vigorous snow ball fight on the top deck which is usually used for the passengers to enjoy the sun and the views.

The pedestrian bridge across the Rhone shrouded in fog.

We arrived at the factory and Ton did some sampling and shopping while I sampled and tried to figure out why our internet was out of order.  Ton was much more successful than I was.  After much sampling and comparison we departed Valrhona with a kilo of chocolate to take home to Oregon.

François sitting on the banks of the Rhone, trust me.

We quickly packed up and headed to the autoroute.  At the entrance to the autoroute I was distracted going up to the gate where you get the ticket to enter.  In France they have a Telepass station where you put a transponder in the car and do not need to stop at the toll gates.  As I drove up to one of the two entrance gates I was not paying attention, so when I pulled up to the machine that usually dispenses the ticket you need, nothing happened, and then after a few seconds a recording began lecturing me in French about the fact that I had entered the telepass gate, after about 20 seconds of being scolded in French, and having a picture taken of our plate (there was a flash at the rear of François which I presume was a camera going off), the machine dispensed the ticket we needed, the barrier went up and we were on our way.  I fear there may be a fine in our future.

Windshield shot of a castle off of the A6.

The rest of the day consisted of us navigating the 430 km’s on the autoroute, and paying a huge toll at the end.  Before heading back to the aire in Gron which is our normal beginning and end of trip stop we also filled up a thirsty François to the tune of €120.  The days when we see the least are often the most expensive.

Fall colors as we return to Burgundy.


September 24, 2018 Chartres FR

Our plan when we arrived was to head towards Spain, so of course we drove north today to Chartres.  Along the way we decided to visit Normandy and Brittany on our way to Spain, so we had to divert north to get to Normandy.

We decided to visit Chartres primarily to see its Gothic Cathedral.  We visited Sens Cathedral the other day which is billed as the first Gothic Cathedral, and Chartres is supposed to be the best example of a Gothic Cathedral.  Chartres still has its’ original stained glass as during both wars they removed it and stored it safely.  During WWII the cathedral was in danger as the allies moved towards Paris, but an American Colonel successfully negotiated with a German General to declare Chartres an open city, so there was no  battle fought for the city.

The exterior of the Chartres Cathedral.  Note the contrast between the recenly cleaned upper part, and the uncleaned lower part.  The maintenance of these buildings is daunting.

On our way out of Chinon we decided we wanted to visit a winery, we drove thru the countryside only to find it was closed.  Disappointed again, we wrote off getting a taste of any Chinon wine, but on our way out of town Ton spotted the new tasting room for the winery we had driven out into the country to see.  Pierre and Bertrand Couly had opened a new tasting room on the highway to Chartres, Chinon Red wines are what we call Cabernet Franc in the US.  We spoke to the wife of the owner and she did a great job explaining the wines of the area.  She was aware of Oregon wines as her husband had spent some time at Sokol Blosser winery in Oregon in the 1980’s.

The very fine winery Pierre & Bertrand Couly.  As the owner said you do not have to have an old facility to make traditional wines.

The three hour drive to Chartres was uneventful as the “N” road that we used most of the way was quite good.  We parked in a free overnight spot, and walked about a mile into town to see the cathedral.  The cathedral was indeed impressive, and the interior stain glass windows were among the best we have seen in France.  The cathedral was constructed in the early 1200’s after the previous Romanesque Cathedral had burned.  The cathedral is deservedly a UNESCO world heritage site.  Besides admiring the beauty of the building we also again discussed the maintenance of these immense buildings.  Just keeping the exterior clean is a full time job. 

One of the stain glass “Roses” at Chartres, this one dates from around 1210 and is the original glass.

After touring the cathedral we decided not to wait for the light show, so we walked back to François.  Frankly we were a little peeved with one of the attendants who would not let us take the last crypt tour, and did it in a way that seemed unnecessarily officious to us while simultaneously refusing to speak English, even though we had just heard him giving an explanation of the tour in perfect English to another person.  I hope he was just having a bad day.  We had a light dinner and a relatively early night as we have a long drive to Normandy tomorrow.

Some of the art work in side the Cathedral.

September 22, 2018 Chateau de Chambord FR

Well, plans change. We had originally planned to go to Orleans for the day, but last night we discussed spending a few days in the Loire Valley.  When we woke up it was spitting rain and a little windy, The Weather Channel said it was going to improve as the day went on so we decided to skip Orleans, and head to Chateau de Chambord.

Ron plugged a GPS coordinate into the Garmin which was supposed to be for the motorhome parking at the Chateau and we took off.  The Garmin said it was only a 68km drive, and the roads were good.  Right at the end we started to think something was amiss as we suddenly started to get on smaller and smaller roads and this is maybe the largest tourist attraction in the Loire Valley.  At the end the GPS proudly announced we had arrived, but we were looking at a field next to a little village.  Either Ron inputted the coordinates wrong or the coordinates were wrong in the app we use to find places to stay.  Anyway after a little more research we were on our way to the Chateau.

Thirty minutes later we arrived and what a first impression.  The chateau is magnificent in scale.  As we walked up to the entrance Ton said that this must cost a fortune to maintain.  This would become a theme of the day. 

The first view of the Chateau, it really is immense.

The Chateau was originally constructed from 1519 to 1547 by King François I.  It is built in the Renaissance style and has 11 towers on the roof that are supposed to look like Istanbul.

The back of the Chateau. The roof was supposed to be modeled on the skyline of Constantinople (now Istanbul).

While it is really something to look at it is indeed difficult to maintain.  When you watch the movie of the history of the Chateau it goes something like this, François builds it, and then loses interest in it and it deteriorates, another king gives it to someone who spends a fortune on it and then loses interest and it deteriorates, it passes to another owner who spends a fortune etc.  In fact it may be the greatest white elephant in France.

The ceiling on the third floor, the salamander was the symbol of François I.  

It is now maintained by the French National Park Service and they are clearly spending a fortune to restore and maintain it.  Hopefully they will succeed as it is worth keeping.

These gardens were beautifully restored in 2017.


September 21, 2018 Orleans FR

It was time to get moving.  Last night with some encouragement from Robyn we decided to head to Normandy.  Orleans seemed like a good first leg for the trip.  The first few days of the trip the weather had been perfect, but when we woke this morning it was just starting to rain.  It pretty much rained the whole way to Orleans though the roads were good and pretty stress free.

Our first stop was the aire which is about 5km from the city center.  When we got there the weather was still pretty unsettled so we decided that Orleans could wait for tomorrow and settled in.  The one thing interesting was the aire shared its space with the local pétanque club which is the French version of Bocci.  Unlike other pétanque games we had watched, this group was really good.

The view from the aire tonight.  

In the evening we decided to take a stroll on the footpath along the River Loire.  Not expecting much we were surprised when around a bend in the river about 200 yards from the campground there was a really nice church.  Exploring a little further we came into a little village with a park on the grounds of an old Chateau.  It was an unexpected find for us.

April 26, 2018 Tournon-sur-Rhone FR

We are finally having to focus more on direction than interesting places.  We picked the destination of Tournon-sur-Rhone based on it being a good distance north towards Sens.

When we arrived in Tournon we were not initially impressed.  It was a nice enough town with a nice view of the Rhone River.   There were two river cruise boats docked near town.  We learned that Tournon had a sister city on the other side of the river called Hermitage.  They were connected by a nice wooden pedestrian bridge.  

The wooden bridge across the Rhone between Tournon and Hermitage.

We found another aire for the night and headed into town.  We did a pass thru Tournon and it was nice, and then headed over to Hermitage as Ton wanted to get some pictures of the Rhone and the river cruise boats.  Once we reached Hermitage we saw they had a chocolate museum.  The chocolate museum was really awesome.  It is called Valrhona, and is attached to a factory by the same name.  We decided not to take the tour, but just went thru the attached store.  The store had all you could eat samples of all of their chocolates.  Ron probably ate about 5€ worth of samples, and Ton about 4€ worth.  The chocolate was excellent, and we were almost tempted to buy some but we were full from our free samples!

One of the river cruise ships pulling away from the dock in Hermitage.

On the way back we saw some vineyards on the Tournon side of the river that were really interesting looking.  They were on this incredible slope of about 15 degrees with old stone walls between parcels.  We decided to walk over to get a better view.  They were even more impressive up close.  It turns out that this is a  Grand Cru ( the highest quality wine in France) for Syrah, and is considered the spiritual birth place for Syrah.  So we are going to look for a bottle of the local stuff tomorrow to check it out.

The hills above Tournan which are supposed to be the spiritual home of the Syrah grape.