Le Thillay

The little ancient town of Viviers is known in France as the town most flooded. It is also, as it turns out, the last place Joseph and I will visit on our trip. But more about that later. Viviers has the bad luck to be on a low point of the river Rhône. This wild river that is now partially tamed by a series of dams and locks, occasionally is the victim of “controlled” water release. In order to save other communities up and below stream, water is released during wet years sometimes twice a year. The town is given about a two hour warning so that people can run and move their cars up hill. The water can come shoulder high and little boats come out for the people to be able to get around. Each time this happens it takes a couple of months to clean up. So come this winter if you hear about severe flooding in parts of France, chances are Viviers is mentioned. Also, for whatever reason, the Nazis took a particular delight in causing atrocities here during the war, especially to those who hid Jews from being rounded up. You will see some little arches between buildings. That is not for decoration but to keep the building from collapsing in on one another especially when foundations are compromised by flooding. Each year the townspeople are assessed a tax and every few years that money is used to restore one of the buildings. Many people wonder why the townspeople just don’t abandon this place of hardships but if you visit there you will meet a stubborn people who are very attached to their family history and are willing to fight for the place they live in and love. They are attached to their castle cathedral and all who live there.
After visiting Viviers we came back to the boat and got a call to our stateroom that Jeannette had tested positive for Covid. So as of that moment we were considered “unclean” as people were called in ancient times. We were not the only ones in this most unhappy of predicaments. Come the following morning after everyone else had left the boat for excursions in Toulon, the unlucky 14 walked the plank for the last time to a group of private taxis and were whisked away on a six hour journey to the Charles de Gaulle airport to be sequestered in the Marriott hotel. We will remain there until we test negative and then unceremoniously and gently we will be kicked out of France. No ands, ifs or buts. So our trip ends with a whimper instead of a victorious drum beat. Stay tuned, I plan to report some on our lament. And thanks for following along with our first and only leg of our adventure.Read more