Lyon & Provence - Viviers

Day 4 - Friday 18 August – Viviers

We arrived at Viviers at 01:30, and after breakfast we took the included excursion ‘Viviers Walk’ starting at the civilised time of 09:45. As we waited by our guide I heard laughing from one of the other groups. Their guide seemed to have them in stitches.

Viviers is small sleepy riverside town of fewer than 4,000 inhabitants and in August there were few people about and fewer moving cars. It had once been important and there was a cathedral on a high rocky crag that overlooks the town.

Untouched since 1546  is the ornately carved façade of the ‘Knight’s House’, all the more strange as it is in a long terrace of houses with plain frontages. The house was owned by a salt merchant who wanted to flaunt his riches. He was given the job of tax collector by the Bishop, got even richer and ended as ruler of the town.

Our guide took the group up a steep, cobbled street to the cathedral. I stayed behind looking at the façade and heard laughing people coming towards me. It was the leisurely group. Their guide was a short wiry Frenchman, in his late 60s or early 70s, and I listened as he told the history of the Knight’s house. But, unlike the guide with our group, he peppered his explanation with jokes and shrewd comments. 

While the earlier guide had pointed out the carving of knights with lances as a joust, he said that as some of the knights were using the lances on fallen men it was surely a battle scene as jousts were a contest between mounted knights.  

He moved the group on to the nearby small square to get everyone seated, before telling a tragic story about his mother’s family who were living in Viviers in the 1940’s under German occupation and of an American commando raid through the town that fought German troops as they headed to destroy anti-aircraft guns sited on the rocky crag. 

If you go on this excursion I recommend leaving whatever group you’re in and joining his laughing one. If it’s the leisurely group you won’t get to the cathedral but you’ll have a great time and learn a lot.

We cast off at 13:00 and we lunched as the boat cruised, Most preferred to eat inside where it was air-conditioned, but we revelled in the heat and took every opportunity to eat outside.

We started with Champagne, and got refills during lunch.

During this cruise we went through several locks. Some had pairs of doors that swung open (like this one) some had gates that sank below the water and some had gates that lifted high out of the water and dripped on the boat.

At 18:15 was the Viking Explorer Society Party for passengers who’d travelled before with Viking. I remember when this was a minority of people, but now it is the vast majority and there was no move to exclude anyone. Trays of cocktails were there for the taking. 

The Programme Director was absent dealing with an emergency so it was an unstructured gathering, during which the Captain explained about Aquavit having to twice cross the equator and anyone who wanted shots got them. 

Dinner today had my highlight starter of the cruise -  Red Pepper Tartlet.

Although it looked nothing special  such was the intensity of flavour that the first mouthful made me stop and go 'wow'.  From the regional specialities menu I had an excellent coq au vin as the main course and a delicious decadent walnut tart as dessert. The wine was a local Cozes-Hermitage by Maison des Alexandrins.

After dinner we found two shot glasses in our cabin. 

We moored at Tournon at 22:00 at the end of a most enjoyable. day