Friday 2nd September - Les Roches de Condrieu

Crew and Skip decided to walk across the bridge into Condrieu (Crew needed the exercise and hadn't even been into one shop since we arrived back on Aphrodite!).  The town is what you might call shabby/chic, the shops not being very glamorous at all.  There was a small market in the centre which we looked around and bought a couple of things - then found our other requirements in a small supermarket.  It was almost midday and hot already with very little wind so we stopped for a beer on the way back in a little bar.  Condrieu is famous for its' bargee tradition, where barges were recruited to ply the mighty river Rhone with their cargoes and is also famed for water jousting - supposed to be the best jousters in the country.  The white wines in the region are excellent too - Voignier being one of Crews' favourite whites!    We had decided to eat in the Tele-ski restaurant but when Skip googled it we were informed that it was now not open until 18th September, instead we thought we would try L'Alternative, the small restaurant near the port as the Capitaine, Zac said it was good.  So we stopped there for another beer and book for dinner.  When we got back to the boat, Henk was working on our table and looked rather warm so we invited him over for a beer and offered him some lunch - the lunch he declined but the cold beer was very welcome.  We had some lunch, followed by a siesta then Henk came over for an aperitif before going for dinner - there's definitely a pattern here, you may have noticed!!  The meal was fairly average and rather expensive for what is was and we feel that the mark up on the wine a little heavy €24 for a bottle of local wine - good but pricey!  Henk declined a digestif and went off to bed.  Crew started talking to our Danish neighbour whereupon he invited us over to share a bottle of red with himself and his English wife.  We had wanted an early night really but it would have been churlish to refuse so we boarded his Birchwood 42 and chatted for about an hour.  Both in their seventies, they didn't seem to travel so far these days - they had already been in Condrieu for two months and were planning to stay another month, then go back to England by car.  On the move tomorrow so bed!