For the next three days I would walk close to the Rhône, sometimes on forest footpaths high above the river, sometimes along its very banks. Here are my backpack and trekking poles - and yet another shell marker. It also looks like a starburst or a sun...
I passed a road bridge, Le Pont de la Loi. The mountain behind is Le Grand Colombier...
This day, Monday 19 September, was to be my last day of rain. For the rest of the trip I enjoyed wall-to-wall sunshine. Sleek, brown slugs commandeered the path. Walnuts rained down from the walnut trees. I scooped some up and broke the shells. Difficult to find a perfect kernel - the freshly fallen ones were too unripe and pulpy, the older ones too bitter (apparently you have to keep them just a day or two - no longer). I walked through what my guide book called the biggest poplar forest in Europe, then finally, late in the afternoon, emerged at the small riverside resort of Chanaz. I was feeling very tired, exhausted in fact...
Chanaz was ravishingly pretty. When I was there it was very quiet, but in the summer it must be teeming with visitors. There's a marina. There are boat trips. There are picturesque backstreets with artisan craft shops and delicatessens. And there are lots of flowers...
I spent the night in a chalet on a camping and caravan site, and slept on-and-off for twelve hours. The next morning I felt so much better. It's amazing what a good night's sleep can do. I breakfasted on a café terrace in the centre of the village...
... and, at 10 o'clock (quite a late start for me), headed back into the hills, appreciating this old water-powered oil mill on the way...
