Europe2013: Day 36 Sat 20th July Tournon and Vienne

I can’t believe its 5 weeks today since we set off for our wonderful trip. We are not homesick as we are thoroughly enjoying every moment.

Today was one of the nicer days of the trip (although they are all nice) It was more relaxing. We sailed into a little town called Tournan and as it was Saturday they were setting up two markets. The ladies on the trip were very happy. The first market was a produce market and we headed straight for that as Paul was needing more peaches and apricots (he’d already finished yesterdays) We had no trouble finding them and at 1.50 eu a kilo they were a bargain, straight from the farm. The apricots were a little dearer at 2eu a kilo!!! Murray & Lorraine bought raspberries of course and said they were beautiful and very sweet.

The next market was clothing etc and they also had some bargains.

Back to the ship by 10.15 as we need to sail through some locks and the ship MUST be there at the exact time. We had a leisurely lunch. Today’s ice cream flavours were pistachio and hazelnut (they have two ice creams every day and we always try to get them in at lunch time!!!!)

After lunch we sailed for Vienne (not Vienna) and before we arrived we had the opportunity to tour the galley. It was such a small working area and so HOT. The chef said it got to 54⁰ on a hot night when they were flat out with cooking and service. He quoted “If you can’t stand the heat get out of the kitchen.” How they pump out meals for 130 passengers in that space I do not know. The food is always beautiful.

At Vienne we caught a little train for a panoramic tour of the town. We went to the top of the hill to see the cathedral (they are always on top of hills!!) and back in the old town did a walking tour, again in the brutal heat. There were more Roman remains to be seen. Its hard to imagine life 2000 years ago.

Back on board we had a local chef’s Dinner. A chef from Paris came on board and helped cook a really tasty 7 course meal. A local French singer came on board and entertained us well with songs from France.