Thankfully, the wind had abated overnight, so there was no wind greeting us this morning. Just as well, since we plan to leave Valence today and continue cruising. But first we went shopping for a heater for the barge, since the cooler weather was starting to arrive, and an electric heater is always handy when you’re on shore power. So off we went to the nearby Geant supermarket, on our bikes, to get a heater and some groceries. On the way, we captured this view of the port, with the Rhone and mountain in the background.

We left Valence around 1330h, since we expected today to be a relatively short cruising day. However, as we arrived at the Bourg-le-Valence ecluse at PK106, the rain started to fall. It continued as we approached Le Roche de Glun, where we had intended to moor for the night. However, because it was raining and also because it was still relatively early, we decided to push on a bit further.

As always along the Rhone, cormorants were in plentiful supply, either sitting atop the channel markers, or perched as a group on the protruding branches of a submerged tree.

We continued on for another hour, until we arrived at the attractive town of Tain l’Hermitage.

On the opposite bank was the town of Tournon, which had ample mooring locations, including a brand new concrete pontoon. We had phoned ahead and got mooring instructions, which were basically “anywhere you like, because the port is empty”. We are discovering that this is a major advantage of Autumn cruising. While everything we had read has said that moorings on the Rhone are scarce, we have had absolutely no problems, finding empty spaces at every town we have wanted to moor. The moorings in Tournon are very attractive, next to a large town park, with a closed-off road used only by pedestrians and cyclists, and an occasional bus. The nearby chateau is also very impressive.

Given that it looked interesting, we went for a town walk. It was a very attractive area near the port, and even the new buildings near the Mairie looked like they were old. I even spotted something I haven’t seen for years; a Kodak box where you could deposit your film containers after-hours for developing! Film developing might be a thing of the past, but Kodak boxes continue to exist in Tournon.

Since it was starting to get cool on the way back to the barge, we stopped for drinks at La Peniche cafe, on board a barge moored just downstream from us. We were lucky as they were just closing and we were their last customers for the day. Even the view from the loo was spectacular.

As we arrived back at the barge, we heard birds overhead, and on looking up, we saw thousands of starlings swooping and swirling in the evening sky. They were coming from everywhere, and there were so many that you really didn’t know which flock to follow. This photo really doesn’t do justice to the display. After about 30 minutes they all descended to roost in the trees in the park for the night.

As night fell, we had a very enjoyable back deck dinner, just appreciating the surrounding environment. As we sat there, we noticed hotel barge Van Gogh approaching, and it then proceeded to moor just on the other side of our pontoon. Despite the massive turbulence it created as it manoeuvred to and fro while mooring, we felt hardly a thing on our side of the pontoon. A good sign that barges passing in the night might not create as much disturbance as at other river moorings.

This was confirmed a little while later when a 200m pusher gas barge went past - with no waves on our side of the pontoon!

The views of the river and the chateau views just got better as the night progressed - true bliss!