In the morning we had a short walking tour of Tournon-sur-Rhone, a small historic (aren't they all) town on the shore of the Rhone River. The first suspension bridge was invented by Marc Seguin and crosses the river here. This region is famous for the white wine produced from grapes that grow on the hillsides on both sides of the river.
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| Suspension bridge over the Rhone; vineyards on the hillside |
From there we took a coal-burning steam train up the Ardeche valley. We were warned not to wear anything light colored as a lot of soot is produced by the train - very true! This region is also famous for lavender which is coming into bloom now and will be harvested in July.
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| Lavender at train station |
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| Steam train through Ardeche |
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| Aqueduct (1915) over Ardeche valley |
From the train we went to Vienne, a major city in Roman times, with an intact Roman temple that was constructed in 20BC. One can see parts of an ancient Roman road which show grooves in the rock from the wagon wheels. There is also a large amphitheater that could hold 13,000 people. At one time there was a Roman bridge across the Rhone River that connected to part of the city on the other side that included Roman baths and houses - the bridge was destroyed by floods in the 1500s and never rebuilt.
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| Roman Temple |
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| View of Lyon and the Rhone River |
Late in the evening we heard constant car honking and engines roaring - when we looked out, people were hanging out of car windows and waving Turkish flags to celebrate Erdogon winning the election.
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