We did it 

We stayed 3 days in Lyon. Time went fast. We talked to the other sailors in the little marina, did some distance work with the help of the port office's fast and stable WiFi connection, visited the beautiful cathedral that was high over the city, cycled and strolled in the area of ​​the pedestrian street Rue Victor Hugo. In the evening we saw the elegant lights on building façades, statues and fountains.

The day before we departed, Gitte came on board. She had flown from Copenhagen to Lyon in the morning - like Mikkel and Marianne, who had left us two days earlier.

Rhône is 872 kilometer long and originates in the Rhône glacier, located at the height of 2.200 in the Alps in Switzerland. It flows through Lake Geneva, further into France and ends in the Mediterranean Sea in the Camargue Delta, which is located west of Marseille.

The water flow is on average 1.700 tons of water - per second. That's more than 4 times as much as in Saône.

We noticed that clearly when we left the marina late in the morning and went from Saône to Rhône. Now it was wider and deeper. On some stretches so wide that we, under the sharp supervision of the helmsman, dared to let the autopilot take control.

There are 13 locks on the 323 mileage long distance and a height difference of 161 meters.

Hydropower is used to produce electricity by CNR – Compagnie Nationale du Rhone – which has exclusive rights to the production, operates the 13 locks. The production covers almost 5% of the annual consumption of electricity in France. 

The locks vary in depth between 9 and 23 meters, are easy to go through and waiting times are not very long. A lot of kilometers a day could be sailed per day . The distance was again given in kilometers, instead of as before in the number of locks

The landscape changed. The first large vineyards appeared on the hillsides. On some of them were large signs with the name of the farm. The vegetation darkened in its green color. The trees became lower. In some places there were palm trees and the houses in the towns now had turquoise or light blue shutters. We could feel that we had arrived in the South of France.

In just 4 hours we sailed 43 kilometers, went through the 3 locks and reached the town of Les Roches de Condrieu. Here was a pretty big marina with nice water depths. Some boats had not yet come out of winter hivernage and were uninhabited. Some seemed to have been inhabited throughout the winter and others were like we on a transiting.

It had gotten really hot. A few minutes' walk from the marina was a lake with a sandy beach and something as exotic as a wakeboard towpath. We skipped the towpath and settled for bathing in the clean and clear water. The next 2 days we covered 125 kilometers and went through 5 locks. At the third lock we saw a seagull and in the next ones whole colonies of seagulls.

No doubt. We approached the sea.

Late in the afternoon we reached a berth near the town of Viviers. On the map it was indicated that the water depth at the bridge was "weak" or low as google translate got it. We approached ducking with some skepticism and a good deal of hope. The next accommodation option was several hours' sailing further down the river.

The depth proved to be more than adequate and it was easy to moore at the rather old wooden pontoon.

In the evening we had dinner at a restaurant not far from Heron. Everything was set up for the very big Pentecost party. We were the first guests. When we had been sitting for a while a heavy cloudburst came. The rain poured down in heavy thick jets for nearly an hour. The staff took the storm with an exalted calm. When it finally stopped the guests started to arrive.

When we left the restaurant, the party was just about to start. From the boat we could hear that it developed so cheerfully that several of the guests saw the Pentecost sun dancing.

The next day we woke up to a market on the bridge. We saw the fine old and well-kept town. Relaxed in the heat and investigated the transport options to the airport in Lyon, from where Gitte had to fly home the next day. In the late afternoon several boats docked. We struck up a conversation with a young French/Dutch couple – Sarah and Thijs. They were on their way to the Mediterranean in a sailboat they had bought after they had decided to sail on a long trip. The boat had been in a bad condition, but they had expected to be able to make it seaworthy in 6 months. The schedule did not hold. It ended up taking 2 years. On 1 May they finally managed to set off. From Maastricht they had sailed the same route as us and had now caught up with us.

The transport to the airport in Lyon turned out to be a bit complicated.

It was Whitsunday. No bus services were running and the small town's only taxi did not answer the phone. We called a few other taxis further away. Here, too, there was no response.

It was late and the restaurant where we had been was læsningNow there was live music - a two man band playing French and English pop music.

We went up to the restaurant, explained through the loud music to the nice waiter from last night's dinner that we needed a taxi the next morning at 10. He shook his head in resignation. It could not be done on a public holiday. We must have looked desperate. Seeing our reaction, he asked an older man at the bar for advice. He pointed to two men at a table further away. We went there with the waiter. When the waiter had explained our problem, one man took out his phone. Made a call and spoke at length as he looked at us meaningfully. When the conversation was over, the waiter shouted through a "Happy Birthday" chorus that there would be a taxi for us the next day at 10 o'clock.

And quite right.

The next morning a little before 10 o'clock, probably the only taxi in the area stopped outside the restaurant. Gitte jumped in and was driven to the train station, which was 15 kilometers away.

We got ready for departure. After 30 minutes we were easy and hoped to reach Avignon just over eighty kilometers down the river.

We texted Sarah and Thijs that we had changed our plan and were now also on our way to Avignon.

At the second lock of the day we caught up with them and sluiced through together. When we got out the current increased in strength. With a speed of 19 km/h, we almost felt like we were flying down towards Avignon.

The approach to Avignon was impressive.

From the river we could see the old papal palace. A few hundred meters before the berth, we passed Bénézet's bridge, where one half is missing. The bridge is known from the children's song “Sur le Pont d'Avignon”. However, the title should have been "Sous le Pont d'Avignon", because the dance took place under and not on the rather narrow bridge. The missing part of the bridge disappeared in a flood in 1669 caused by a climate change in Europe during the 'Little Ice Age' which lasted from the 1300s to the 1850s.

In 1309, the papacy was moved from Rome to Avignon. 7 Popes managed to reside in the papal palace before the seat in 1377 moved back to Rome. The city remained under the control of the Pope until the Revolution of 1791, when it became part of France.

The city wall is completely intact and the old town center contains well-kept fine houses, pedestrian streets with nice shops, restaurants, cafes and museums. In addition, there are a number of theaters in the city, as well as the Opera Grand Avignon, which has its own ballet corps. We stayed in Avignon for 4 days and then sailed out on the almost 100 kilometer long stretch to Port Saint Louis du Rhône.

We had planned our departure after the opening of the bridge to Port Saint Louis du Rhone. The plan held and we got a wait of only 15 minutes.

After sailing 2.551 kilometers across Europe and through 254 locks, we sailed in the late afternoon through the last lock and out into the Mediterranean.

When we came out we gave each other a 'high five' and said:

"We did it" !!!