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ABOVE: Tournon's feudal castle, now a museum,
is built on a rock overlooking the river.
Tournon sur Rhône,
France
Continued
from: Vienne
The MS Maribelle sailed from Vienne at lunchtime,
passing through several locks at power stations along the Rhône
before arriving at Tournon sur Rhône in early evening.
Tournon's main attraction is a a
feudal castle that's built into a rock overlooking the town and the river. The
castle, whose foundations date back to the 10th Century, has a section built in
the Renaissance that houses the town museum. (One room in the museum is devoted
to
Marc Seguin, a local engineer who built the first suspension bridge across
the Rhône and invented the tubular boiler for steam locomotives.)
Other sights in Tournon sur Rhône
include the Collegiate Church of Saint-Julien and the Lycée
Gabriel-Fauré, a school that was founded in 1536 by the Cardinal of Tournon
and which claims to be the oldest lycée in France.
Tain
l'Hermitage: Many of the MS Maribelle's passengers were
more interested in shopping than sightseeing, so they followed the advice of
hotel manager Chris Hillebrand and crossed the Passerrele Marc Seguin footbridge
to Tain l'Hermitage, a modern town with a popular outlet store at the
Valrhona chocolate factory and several
wine merchants that offer tastings of
Côtes de Rhône
wines from the Hermitage vineyards.
(Tip: The Valrhona store is tiny,
and it can be unbearably crowded when passengers from a cruise vessel arrive
en masse. To minimize your misery, give other shoppers a chance to clear
out, and be sure to take a number from the machine near the door.)
Tournon sur Rhône is a gateway to
the Ardèche and the
Doux Valley,
which can be reached by road or via an excursion on the Vivarais Railroad
(which is described on the next page). For tourist information, please
see:
Cruise
Photos: Tournon
europeforvisitors.com
These are from the 169 images in my MS Maribelle
Photo Gallery.
Ville de Tournon sur Rhône
This site is in French, but you can translate with
FreeTranslation.com.
Tain l'Hermitage
The official Web site of Tournon's neighbor across
the river has English-language information on wines, chocolate shopping, and a
museum.
Next page:
Vivarais Railroad
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