The end of the Sabbaticus Line!

This is our last blog - the Sabbatical is over. 

At the start of our journey, I asked myself these questions:

1.      Can I be happy when I do not have the challenges that my work brings each day? The answer was a resounding, yes!―removing any fear that I had of retirement.  Would I recommend it to others?  Yes I would.

2.      How will living each day for four months within the confinement of our small cabin affect our marriage?  It provided space and time for me to find my best friend again and continue our life long journey of getting married.  Would I recommend it to others?  Yes I would.

3.      What are my goals and how do I structure each day to maximise the chance of achieving them?   I ended up visiting many places, catching up with many friends and family, reading many books, developing a couple of new skills, learning to relax and learning a huge amount about the history of the many places we visited.

Au revoir.

Merci beaucoup for keeping us company.

 



Still the very best of friends.



The End of the Line!



Views of Lyon

Abbaye de Collonges - Photo Album

Day Five of our River Cruise took us to the Beaujolasis Region.

View of the The Saône River
 A tributary of the River Rhône, it joins the Rhône in Lyon.

Wine Tasting in the Beaujolis Region
Best described as a cottage industry - and yet France produces the largest volume of wine in the world.
The wine tasting experience was completely unlike anything you would experience in NZ or Australia. 

Grapes on Vine

Historic Wine Press at Vineyard

 The Restaurant Abbaye de Collonges
Located just 5km from Lyon, on the banks of the Saône

Inside the Abbaye de Collonges

Fully Restored mechanical organ
Equivalent to a 110 piece orchestra (built in 1900 and restored in 1970)

In Love at the Abbaye de Collonges

Just some of the delicious food served Abbaye de Collonges 

Wine at the Abbaye de Collonges

Cheese at the Abbaye de Collonges

An impressive display of waiters running down the stairs to serve dessert at the Abbaye de Collonges

Dessert at the Abbaye de Collonges

Dessert at the Abbaye de Collonges

Name inscribed on the Eiffel Tower - by Wayne

While in Tournon we saw a statue of Marc Seguin, a famous 18^th century French Engineer. 

After visiting the world’s first steam locomotive to carry passengers designed in 1825 by the British brothers George and Robert Stephenson, Seguin managed to acquire, and then sneak, two of Stephenson's steam engines back France for closer inspection.  After dismantling one of them and examining their design—a form of industrial espionage—Seguin had an idea of how to significantly enhance the efficiency of Stephenson's design.  This idea was the multi-tube boiler: which involved replacing Stephenson’s large water tube within the fire box through which water passed to be heated into steam with a large number of much smaller-diameter tubes.  By passing water through these small tubes, Seguin was able to increase the area being heated, significantly increasing the engines ability to produce steam.

He designed two steam locomotives using his multi-tube boiler and also included, amongst other innovations, mechanically driven fans to increase the draught and hence heat of the fire.  Using his design, Seguin's was able to increase the speed of the train from 5km/hr to 40 km/hr.  A picture of a replica of Seguin's steam engine can be viewed on Wikipedia.

Seguin went onto construct several railways including the Vivarais railway line.  A steam train—called the Ardèche Train—now operates on his line today.  The steam engine (sadly, not of Seguin’s design) operates for tourists.  We took this train journey.  

Seguin was also famous for designing  suspension bridges in France.  By the end of his life he had built and had administered 186 toll-bridges.  Seguin wrote a number of books on bridges and locomotives engines. His name is inscribed on the Eiffel Tower: just one of only 72 names.

View from the River Rhone.

View of the Rhone.

View on the Rhone.

View of Rhone from Tournon.

View of Bridge over Rhone at Tournon.

The Village of Tournon.

Andance

Wayne & Julie in Tournon

Wayne in Tournon

Marc Seguin in Tournon.

The Ardèche Train.

Inside the Ardèche Train.

View of road bridge from the Vivarais railway.

le temple d'auguste et de livie vienne.
A temple dedicated to the cult of Rome and Augustus built around 20BC, 

Wanton destruction by radicals - by Wayne

Our journey up the Rhone uncovered numerous small towns.  While many are located on the river bank itself, some, perhaps surprisingly, are perched on top of a high rocky outcrop.  Each town includes castles or ramparts (walls) built to protect the old city.  These walls were necessary to protect the inhabitants from invading armies including the Romans which invaded France in 50BC and invading barbarians including Germanic Franks which invaded France from 400AD.  Those castles built on a rocky outcrop offered significant defensive  advantage to those that sought its protection .

While docked at the town of Viviers, we viewed the old city walls that surround the oldest part of the town.  We also visited the village of Grignan to visit the Château de Grignan.  This was originally built as a castle on a rocky outcrop in the 7th century.  It was significantly rebuilt in the 13th century.  Further rebuilding was undertaken in the 17th century to turn the castle into a palace. 

Then came a number of civil and religious wars, including the revolution!  The French Catholics were were slaughtering the French Protestants during the 16th and 17th century.  Then the French commoner were slaughtering French Aristocratics in 1789.   The effects of these wars is much the same.  With no respect, the Palaces and Castles were plundered and irreplaceable art work and fine furniture were looted and destroyed.    

It all sounds too familiar to what is happening in Syria and Iraq today: the only difference is that the ‘wanton destruction’ is being carried out by IS radicals rather than French radicals.

The name of our Floating Hotel

Our Hotel Amadagio

Our room on the Amadagio.

The top deck of the Amadagio

View of the Rhone River 

Dog searches for Truffles

The day of first...
Eating truffles

Experience of the Lavender Farm 

A view of the old walled part of Viviers.

The lonely parishioner of the Cathédrale Saint Vincent de Viviers
A Roman Catholic cathedral constructed in The 11th and 12th century

The Château de Grignan
It has been rebuilt and turned into a Museum
Displaying 18th century furniture.

A French preoccupation...
Giving the plane tree an annual haircut: entire rows of trees are attacked.
There is a take-no-prisoners approach: all branches chopped to the trunk. 
Here is one of the few plan trees that had escaped the madness.

The two of us - still more than just friends.