The Ardeche ride........

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Day 8

On our Itinerary for this trip the next 2 towns to visit are Tournon and Viviers. Technically I guess we did "see" them however briefly. Our boat was docked at both these ports today, however, we did not tour these towns and only saw them from the very comfortable seats in our bus. I shall explain.... We signed up for a tour of Ardeche on the day we reached Tournon which we sort of assumed would be sort of like Lyon and Perouges two tours same day. But it was not to be.
The boat docked in what appeared the time forgotten quaint little village of Tournon. I am sure the Romans came and conquered here at some point but their existence was not immediately apparent it was just a sleepy little village with the church smack dab in the middle. We immediately boarded the bus and were whisked away on a 2 hour drive to the medieval town of Vogue. (pronounced with a long O, long U and the E sounds like a long A three syllables) It was another charming little medieval town out in the middle of absolutely no where. I really don't even know why the people started building there...... Well....... it was along a stream big enough to be called the Ardeche River. But seriously it was at the bottom of a big gulch with incredibly narrow roads that drop off into gorges. We had a lovely guide who walked us around the town and up the streets and It really didn't take any longer than 45 minutes or so. They said we could have additional time to shop or whatever but there really weren't any shops open. The best part of that little town was that the bus driver passed out little nougat candies that were a local favorite here.

The next stop on this road trip was Pont D'Arc which was about 45 minutes down another road. We were told this is in a huge gorge and it is an Arch created millions of years ago by the Ardeche River eroding it's way through a wall of Limestone trying to find a more direct route to the Rhone. We were also going to be treated to lunch at the bottom of the gorge near the Arch. We arrived at the bed of the gorge and I must say the Arch was truly impressive. The river ran under it and there were kayaks everywhere going down this part of the Ardeche. I couldn't help wondering why wasn't Vogue built here? The setting was perfect.
The best part of this particular tour was absolutely the lunch. It was amazing. A small restaurant (and as far as I knew that only one there because It was the only building in this wilderness. We were first served an aperitif made of Chestnuts and dry white wine. (chestnuts are the industry in this part of France) Next a beautiful salad (could have easily been my whole meal) made of sweet local lettuces, onion, sun-dried tomatoes, bacon, goat cheese and crostini, served with the traditional honey mustard vinegrette. It was fabulous. On the table were three pitchers of wine. One white, one rose, and one red, all locally made. Following the salad came the main course, it was a very tasty veal stew. Last came the dessert which was some kind of chestnut tart. I can only say that it was a good thing we had an extra hour here so that we were able to stroll down to the arch and back to walk off some of those lunch calories!
We boarded the bus after lunch and began a bus trip through the huge gorges on either side of us. The road was small and windy, we were in a huge bus, and I was clinging to the side of the bus like a scared cat. The bus finally came to a stop at the top of the gorge so we could get out and take pictures. I for one was happy to be off the bus walking. We did have to get back on board and I suffered with my eyes closed (mostly) as the bus wound its way out of the gorge seemingly ready to go over the cliffs at any moment. I was able to relax a little as bushes and land began to appear on the right side of us. I was ready to go back to the safety of our riverboat but the tour was not yet over. They were taking us to a lavender museum and off we went in yet another direction. It took another 45 minutes to an hour this time to reach this remote lavender farm/lavender museum. In looking out over the rolling mounds of planted lavender I could see that had they been in bloom it would have been a worthy sight to see. However, harvest occurs in July, what we were viewing was mound after mound of shortly stalky brown plants. In my opinioin it was unnecessary to even come all the way out here as you can buy beautiful lavender products anywhere in Provence. After spending what I considered way too much time we finally boarded the bus to head back to the boat.
This tour had some interesting twists and turns to it and it wasn't quite over. We were not heading back to Tournon because the boat had already left the dock and began traveling South. We were being bused to Le Puzon. A little Village just North of Viviers. On the drive to Le Puzon we actually passed through the town of Viviers which, by the way was our next stop today on the river cruise. So we had to actually drive quickly through Viviers (quick descriptions were given by the guide as we wound around it. ) Then we headed due North to Le Puzon where the riverboat would pull over for the sole purpose of picking us up before it continued on to Viviers.
I think this particular tour could have been planned more efficiently. This was an aggressive schedule that left us exhausted by the time we arrived back at the boat. We were to arrive in Viviers at 8:30PM the same evening and on the tour schedule was another guided walking tour that began at 9:15PM. I am here to tell you that at 9:15PM I was pajamas on and toes up in bed fast asleep. I've enjoyed everything up to this point and the lunch we enjoyed was magical. I still believe this tour is very much in need of adjustments. Perhaps a lovely lunch maybe an hour away to enjoy the local cuisine after a short walking tour of Tournon would have been in order. We may have had enough energy to then brave the evening tour in Viviers.
We did ask a few people who went on the evening tour how it was. The answer was a resounding.........."we walked up hill in the dark and couldn't see anything." Viking is a great company who listens to feed back. I politely mentioned my thoughts on their questionnaire.
Tomorrow is Avignon.......can't wait.

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Photos

Street of the Fleas
Because that's the only thing that would fit