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Romans-sur-Isère is the town that is twinned with Coalville. It is through the Coalville town twinning Association and its links with Romans-sur-Isère that Ceri went to St-Marcillin in 2006 and we hosted a girl in Shepshed in 2007. We paid two visit to Romans-sur-Isère, both on market day, ie Thursday. Our trip we got to the market lunch time when it was winding down. ©Stephen Dee ID 2007-08-03-22667 |
Romans-sur-Isère Côte Jacquemart - a narrow alley in the town. ©Stephen Dee ID 2007-08-03-22668 ID 2007-08-03-22668
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Romans-sur-Isère - a water feature statue of a flutist ©Stephen Dee ID 2007-08-03-22671 |
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Our second visit we made sure we got Romans-sur-Isère in morning so we could go around the main food market to buy French goodies. The food market at Romans-sur-Isère is spread around the streets that rise up from the river bank. This is the street that continues straight from the river crossing seen below. ©Stephen Dee ID 2007-08-10-23604 |
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In Romans-sur-Isère, the Isère river is fairly wide. On the opposite bank is the the town of Bourg-de-Péage. ©Stephen Dee ID 2007-08-03-22674 |
Bourg-de-Péage is twinned with East Grinstead, The residents of East Grinstead have presented the town with a classic red phone box where you can make a call on a French telephone. ©Stephen Dee ID 2007-08-10-23596 |
St-Nazaire-en-Royans a nice little village located around a crossing of the la Bourne, just before its confluence with the Isère. ©Stephen Dee ID 2007-08-08-23434 |
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St-Nazaire-en-Royans is typical of many villages in France, on what was a Route Nationale, N532, which is being down graded to a Departmental Road. As with many Route National, the main road goes through the narrow streets and the villages seem to cope. Whilst we were walking around, there was not un, nor deux, but trios "convoi exceptionnel" going through the village, one of which is seen negotiating one of the bends in the village.. ©Stephen Dee ID 2007-08-08-23434 |
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What makes St-Nazaire-en-Royans interesting is "Canal de la Bourne", which as far as I could tell is a bit like the "New River" in the Lea Valley in Hertfordshire, an open water main in the form of a canal. In order to cross the la Bourne it does so on an aqueduct which dominates the village. This is a view looking though the arch that crosses the N532. ©Stephen Dee ID 2007-08-08-23455
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A classic view of St-Nazaire-en-Royans, from the west side of the village from the N532 looking across the aqueduct to the limestone cliffs of the Vercors. Unfortunately we were graced with better weather before going home to take an afternoon shot. ©Stephen Dee ID 2007-08-08-23451 |
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After visiting St-Nazaire-en-Royans, due to the cloudy weather we went to Valance, the préfecture of Drôme, department 26. The weather brightened up and after parking the car we emerged from the underground car park to find a nice park between the town and the river Rhône. The Isère flows into the Rhône just north of Valance. ©Stephen Dee ID 2007-08-08-23462 |
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The town crest in flowers ©Stephen Dee ID 2007-08-08-23463 |
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Looking back towards the town centre ©Stephen Dee ID 2007-08-08-23471 |
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Looking across the bandstand in Valance to the cliffs on the opposite bank of the Rhône. ©Stephen Dee ID 2007-08-08-23459 |
Some views of Valance city centre ©Stephen Dee 2007-08-08-23479 2007-08-08-23480 |
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We drove back through the Vercors to Pont-en-Royens, first climbing over Col des Limouches, 1086m, then Col de la Bataille, 1313m, Col de la Portette, 1175m, Col de Lachau, 1337, Col de Proncel, 1100m. For those of little faith (ie Ceri's driving instructor!) yes, not only did our car get us all the way to the south of France, it took us up all those cols, plus Alpe-d’Huez, 1850 m and Col du Lautaret, 2058m. ©Stephen Dee ID 2007-08-08-23483 |
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As we headed down from Col des Limouches to Léoncel,
the weather deteriorated and turned to low cloud and rain. We
managed a photo of Abbaye de Léoncel.
After that photos were out of the question. The advantage of
driving over cols such as Col de al Bataille in such weather, is that
you do not see how far the drop is either side of the car! ©Stephen Dee ID 2007-08-08-23486 |
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Page last changed 21 Dec 2007