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We tidy up while it is still a cool 24C, say farewell to the owner, whose name we never did learn, and set off towards the Rhone valley.
The road seems much less winding and narrow now we are in a fresher state of mind. Valvigneres is still tiny and the next town St Thome, perched on a mound, is so small that blink and you'd miss it.
We reach the main D68 heading north through numerous towns on the west side of the Rhone. We stop briefly in a couple of them noting how the architecture has changed. At Rochemaure we glimpse the river and a castle, then see a rivercruiser moored up and suddenly there is an open view way along the blue waterway.
For miles we run near or beside it loving the deep blue colour.
Nearing Valance we keep west, hoping to bring Ali a bit of nostalgia. Forty years ago a school exchange trip took her to Guilherand-Granges, a small village nestling under a high escarpment. We park and Ali goes for a walk, hoping to see the house where she stayed, but after trying all the streets off the main road the street she remembers is now a dead end. Being Monday afternoon the Marie, and all else, is shut, so we leave slightly disappointed.
The Chateau du Crussol high above Guilherand-Granges is marked as a camperstop in park4night, and if we can stay there it's only two miles back tomorrow. We start up the road but it's so steep and twisty we abandon it half way up. The options are either go back to the model railway Passion 10 miles back or say we tried and go on north. We opt for a vinyard 11 miles north.
It all starts well, normal, riverside road but then we start folowing the directions in the book which specifically say do not follow sat-nav. We cross the river and climb up the gorge then follow the lanes as given in the directions.
Steep, narrow, bumpy, winding; been there done all that but this is actually scary. Holding 1st gear and needing brakes down 1:4 it's like Porlock hill on a tightrope. As we reach the Passion signs the road literaly disappears from view. We turn up the rough ramp into the parking area and WOW! What a view.
Spread out in front of us is the Rhone valley in all its magnificence; a wide, blue 'S' with the towns of Tain Hermitage and Tournon sur Rhone on either bank. The flat valley floor spreads for miles, criss-crossed with vineyards and little towns. Away in the distance, black and white in the haze, are the Ardeche mountains and a few snow capped peaks of the Alps. It truly is a breathtaking scene and worth every drop of adrenaline getting here.
Ali goes to see Madame and explains because of the terrain Nick will not come for tasting. No problem, she says, I will come to you, and so at 18:30 she arrives with a basket of bottles and three glasses. For the next hour we chat in a mixture of Silvie's English and our French, aided by a translation app on her phone, while sampling her wines. They have 4 hectares on steep land they work with horses and her husband is the third generation on this vineyard. We decide what to buy then she asks which is our favourite. Two glasses of 2013 St Joseph are poured out for us to have with dinner. www.desbos.com
On leaving she warns us to go out the way we came, the disappearing road to the bottom of the valley is not suitable for camping-cars! Like the one coming in is?
Boats navigate the river, trains and cars pass in the distance like toys and the early evening mistral cools us from 31C outside.
Through the evening the sunlight continually changes, lighting the valley floor, then the mountains, until all across the valley and mountains the orange glow of town lights takes over.
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