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Tourism along the French waterways
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Fornew readers and those who request to be “好友 good friends” please read my 公告栏 first. For the past two weeks (6/2-16/2012), my wife and I were on a long ago scheduled vacation along the French Waterways. Below is an account of our journey. Tourism Along the French Waterways For most of the 20th century, European tourist travel usually means seven cities in a week. You start in the morning on a tourist bus, touring, driving, and visiting sites all day. Finally, you check into a new hotel, unpack and rest. The cycle repeat early next morning, you must pack and have you bags ready for the bus and check out. This is rather hectic and unpleasant for the senior tourists who have money to spend but not the stamina of rigorous travel. Then someone in the tourism industry had the brilliant observation that most major tourism cities of Europe are in fact located along major rivers or at most half day travel from river towns. River cruise travel was born. A cruise ship specially constructed for river travel (that are low slung and can pass under river bridges) accommodating less than100 passengers but with all the modern conveniences of a modern hotel and restaurant capable of traveling along these waterways was invented. Essentially, you have a moving hotel and restaurant traveling with the tourist as they move from city to city. You pack and unpack only once during the trip and can enjoy all the comforts of a modern cruse ship all the time you are not touring the tourist site on land. You still use local buses for visiting scenic spots and historical sites. But you have the further choice of simply relaxing on board and not be forced to move with the bus. This is a great boom to the senior traveling set. As a result, river cruise trip on the major rivers of Europe, the Danube, the Rhine, etc have becoming very popular in the past decade. One US travel company even started a Yangtze river cruise this year for China. in any case, we have not participated in these river cruises so far because we have been to most of the cities along these rivers on land in the past. But, advancing age wishing for convenience and the French waterway tour visiting several cities we have never been to attracted us. Thus, for June 5-16, 2012 we spent ten days abroad the MS Rambrandt on the rivers Soane and Rhone. Enjoying sumptuous French cuisine, wine tasting at several famed vineyards, and touring thousand year old monasteries and palaces were the highlights of the trip. Recorded below are some of the sites visited during the tour. Vineyards, wine cellars, and wine tasting France of course invented the "Appellation Origin Controllee (AOC)" or Controlled Designation of Origin in the classification of wine and other agricultural product such as cheese. Wines are classified as Regional, Village, Premier Cru and Grand Cru ( which are the most prestigious label ) label for wines. There are also Apertif wines (before dinner), dinner wines, after dinner liqueur , and brandy or cognac. In the series of photos below, we have the world's largest wine press, wine cellar, storage tanks, and tasting menus. The seven photos below were taken at different vineyards, vents, and cities along the way. Chateaux and Vineyard Wine Tasting World’s Largest Grape Press More wine tasting Wine Casks Wine casks and storage Toursit tasting wines A hospice built and used in the 11th century now restored as a tourist site. Three photos. 11th century hospital restored Hospital beds Pharmacy and equipments Scenes along the waterway . The pastoral scenes of the French river banks are very different from the scene along the Chinese Yangtze or Yellow river that I remembered. Green forests vineyards, and farm land are punctuated with neat and clean village residences, farm houses, ancient castles, and hilltop villages. Numerous locks and dams make the water flow even and smooth. Church being Restored
Courtyard of 11th Century Monastery
Gargoyles decorating a Church
River Scenes from Cruise Ship
Food Hall in the City of Lyon
River Country Side
Hilltop Village (used to be the feudal home of Grimaldi Family (Prince Rainier and Princess Grace Kelly)
Dining in the Hilltop village
Roman Amphitheater
Village dress shop
Village street The town of Avignon. During the medical times for close to hundred year, this town along the river Rhone was the papal seat of the catholic church (as Vatican is today). As a result, the town boast a huge papal palace and other legends and tourist attraction. Here are some photos about Avignon.
Papal Palace Hall in Avignon
Hilltop Papal Palace and Bridge at Avignon The Aqueduct at Pont du Gard. The aqueducts built by the Romans two thousand years ago are the oldest engineering system built by men for the benefit of mankind. The US National Academy of Engineering even adopted the aqueduct as is organization logo. This section of the aqueduct at Pont du Gard near the city of Nimes was part of a 37 km long structure for transporting fresh water from a source to the city of Nimes A nice museum nearby detailing the construction of this structure during ancient times.
Cheese tasting. France produces 325 different kinds of cheese ranging from soft and sweet to pungent and smelly. here we enjoy seven different popular varieties on board the ship at a tasting event. This is another major difference between chinese and western cuisine. There is really no counterpart to cheese in Chinese food. 臭豆腐 or 腐乳 comes close but are no match for variety. In fact , significant number of Chinese consider cheese disgusting and refuse to eat them ( being primarily spoiled milk). Photos are tourist guides lecturing and preparing cheeses for tasting. Cheese Tasting 1 Cheese Tasting 2 In the footsteps of Van Gogh The famous Dutch painter，Vincent Van Gogh lived in a psychiatric hospital in the Rhone river valley and painted many well known pictures before killing himself at age 37. Here are two well known pictures.
The Yellow Café today and Van Gogh’s painting next to it.
Arguably the most famous of the Van Gogh Paintings Nice and the Cote D’Azur Our trip ends at the famous town of Nice (and MonteCarlo) on the Blue Coast
Dining in Open Air Market in Nice
Nice and Cote D’Azur
Nice Coastline
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