Jassans-Riottier – Rochetaillée-sur-Saône – Lyon
Rochetaillée-sur-Saône
While our next main target was Lyon, we wanted to give Marty and Juliet a wild-type mooring before we tied up at a big city. So, our cruise for the day was to an unserviced mooring mentioned in the DBA Waterways guide at Rochetaillée-sur-Saône. We left at 9:10 am, and in less than an hour, Marty was at the helm. He was very keen, and so we decided that apart from locks and mooring, he could steer whenever he wanted. So, I could now be a tourist, get away from the noisy wheelhouse and appreciate the scenery passing by to the gentle sound of the river passing Catharina Elisabeth’s bow.
After a short three-hour cruise, we gently nudged into the pleasant, shady mooring at Rochetaillée.
All to ourselves except for some youths who were enjoying jumping off the aerial platform into the water, despite the signs forbidding it, and dodging the Police Nationale who arrived to police the regulations.
We had been alerted that there was a nearby automobile museum, and so, leaving Marty to chat with the jumpers, we climbed across to shore. A bit of a walk and a serious climb later,
we arrived at the grounds that hosted the Musée de L’Automobile Henri Malartre. The chateau was impressive,
and itself had an interesting history. The elevated strategic position began as a 12th-century fortified château to monitor shipping on the Saône. It passed through numerous owners and renovations, ending in it being refashioned in the Belle Époque style at the beginning of the 20th century. Henry Malartre was an auto wrecker before WWII and, in 1931, after refusing to demolish a particular car, an 1898 Schneider,
he started to restore old cars. In 1960, after buying the château, he founded France’s first auto museum. It was a wonderful collection of about 150 significant, beautifully preserved and documented antique cars – and their equipment. There was also a large collection of bicycles (100) and motorcycles (70).
The exhibits ranged across several floors of the château and the question soon arose – how did they get the vehicles up the stairs?
It turned out that there was a hoist just above these stairs, and the partially disassembled cars and motorcycles were winched up to the landings on each floor, then reassembled and positioned. It was a superb experience – highly recommended.
After a short detour to the supermarket, we were back onboard Catharina for dinner – roast pork and the trimmings.
Lyon
The next day, with only a two-hour cruise to reach Lyon, we left a little late for an uneventful cruise through countryside that gradually gave way to the suburbs and then the city.
It was quite eerie cruising to the centre of Lyon – a much narrower waterway with an enormous (well, seven) number of bridges in quick succession. Not since Paris, seven years ago, have we cruised such a metropolitan waterway. We had decided to moor in the ‘low-rent’ (well, free and unserviced) mooring just upstream of the main freeway bridge. We turned upstream and moored without incident.
Almost immediately, a Frenchman approached us and let us know he was one of our near neighbours and that the mooring was a good one – but if we had any problems, just come along, let him know, and he would be happy to help. He even offered to let us raft against him if we wished – a peniche several boats astern of us. The only issue with the mooring turned out to be that it had only limited morning shade, and the temperatures over the next few days were to be in the mid- to high 30’s.
Now, to start some exploring of France’s third-largest city.
