Vineyards, vineyards everywhere around here producing Nuits St.Georges, Pommard, etc. - wondered what those were. Grapes all the way into the Saone et Loire department, to Chalon sur Saone - first glimpse of river Saone soon (excuse me!) Chalon is a wlne-market-mechanical engineering-textiles-food. Down river to Macon - a river port. Lamartine, great 19th Century romantic poet - love and lakes - born here. Still down river - on your right the vine-clad Maconnais heights - to Villefranche in Franch - France. This one was formerly capital of Beaujolais now in the Rhône department -textiles-chemicals-iron and steel, then on to Ars sur Formans where we spend the night. St.Jean Baptiste Marie Oianney was priest of the parish from 1818 until his death in 1859 and in 1925 was canonized as the model and patron of parish priests. His house at Ars is now a place of pilgrimage. Next morning on to Lyon - at last we shall see the great Rhone - if only to cross it at this point.
Lyon - ancient capital of Gauls - famous annual international trade fair - ecclesiastical centre - about ¼ of city's population engaged in silk industry - dyeing and chemicals too. Now through Bas Dauphine - textiles - paper mills - into the pre-Alps - on our left the Grande Chartreuse mass - deep in it - Monastery founded by St.Bruno in 1084 - deep in monastery the monks secretly concoct famous liqueur known as chartreuse. On our right and a bit to South is the Vercors mass, here in 1944, 3,000 men of the maquis held out for two months against Germans who then inflicted terrible reprisals. Next Grenoble -
hive of industry - mettalurgy engineering - textiles, paper, gloves. Stendhal 19th Century novelist and Fantin Latour 19th Century portrait-painter born here. From here we're in the proper Hautes Alpes - artificial lake at le Sautet near Corps then over the top by the Bayard Pass - 1,246 metres - somewhere near here Napoleon - 100 days - and down to Gap - prefecture Hautes Alpes - then through Basses Alpes - Digne is the prefecture - hydro-electric installations at Castillion falls near Castellane - now at last provence-Grasse - flowers-perfume-olives-cypress-pine-SUN-
Van Gogh painted it.