March 24: Tournon & Le Ardeche
I must note as I begin the journal description of our morning in Tournon, France that the guide we had today was probably the "weakest" guide I've ever had on ANY tour. She had a very good personality and was always happy, but as we walked around the small town of Tournon there was mostly nothing but silence (or the sound of her breathing). NO background stories, and when she did stop to point something out it was very brief, such as...."...the house on the left was built in the 16th century....." then she'd turn and continue on the walk!
Tournon Castle dominates the riverfront of this small village, though I can tell you very little about it. The same goes for the vast majority of the town, which is why I did not post any photos. The streets are very typically European - narrow, cobblestone covered, with a variety of very old houses. I can only wonder if there were any hidden gems here.
The walking tour only took 45 minutes, and to be fair it was the same length for all the other groups. We then boarded the motor coaches to be taken to the train station where we boarded for a trip through the famed la Ardeche valley. As we boarded the train I was curious if (a) it was round trip so it didn't matter which side you sat on, or (b) if one side was better than the other. One of our passengers was marking our coach so I couldn't ask her, but this lady nicely did and she told me privately that we would switch sides on the way back down the mountain. Through the first five minutes I thought we had the best side as I snapped these photos (above and below)
But of the approximately 40 minute trip up, only the first five to seven minutes did we have "the view." The rest of the way we were a foot or two from the side of the cliff. But no matter as I knew we'd switch. But our guide never mentioned this. Somehow word spread through the coach, and/or our fellow guests were courteous enough to move to the other side so we could see the views. At the top they manually turned the engine around and connected to what had been the back of the train for the trip down so we had a short break. Kim and I wandered around and I got this beautiful photo - the scenery is nice as well.
On the way back to the station the views were obviously better, and it was gorgeous. But to be honest, if you looked through my nearly two dozen photos they are all nearly identical....rapids on the river, beautiful rock-covered hillsides, and a bridge (or not). Don't get me wrong, we thoroughly enjoyed the scenic views but the narrator from the train was speaking in nothing but French (except when we were leaving then they did a courtesy English reminder). Our guide who had her microphone on either gave us a very brief comment to summarize the narration or let it go completely.
We got an excellent photo of the four of us, thanks to the Viking concierge who was along for the trip. Once we got back to the station we boarded the busses and headed to meet the ship, which had moved forward upstream. So we saw many villages, vineyards, and even some ruins of a castle. But the microphone was silent nearly the entire trip. A scenic morning, but unlike every other Viking excursion I've had, we learned little if anything.
Back to the ship and here's our view during lunch!
March 24 Highlight Video
No comments:
Post a Comment