We’ve finally made it to the Rhone

Well we spent two nights on the free stop just south of St Gilles as our next run was going to be a longish one about 50km to either Aramon if there was room or 65km to Avignon. We had hoped to be able to take the boat to Arles and moor alongside Le Peniche restaurant as it said in Captains Mate but no luck the manager said there was no room for us, this would have been only 25km. Today we tackled the St Gilles lock, that was nice and easy only a 2foot height increase, then a 20km pootle along the Petit Rhône following the channel markers before arriving at the Rhône proper, we saw three other boats today all live aboards and all going south (down river). We passed Tarascon with the Chateau du roi Rene right on the river bank, stunning. There was a fair bit of current on the Rhône until we got through the giant lock by Beaucaire just after the Chateau. The Beaucaire lock was a rise of about 45ft, it was dark at the bottom when we went in but nice and bright at the top when we came out. The next part of the journey was nice and deep and had minimal current as it was on the Vallabregues reservoir, a 1000 hectare balancing reservoir and hydroelectric plant.En savoir plus