Here in Redon

27km up the Villaine River is the town of Redon. The Villaine River that has upon it Arzal Lock, Roche Bernard, Rieux and is considered in some unkind parts as England Sur Mer. But this far up river is a different thing altogether. Proper French France.

 Having travelled up a number of rivers in my life, I have never ever seen a river to compare with it. Two and a bit things made it particularly special - the first is that after Arzal Lock there is no tide and almost, almost no current whatsoever. This means that there is no rise and fall to worry about so the depth is the depth. If you park your boat somewhere, subject to wind there is no drift and so where you leave the boat is where you will find it.

 The second thing is that for a river it is delightfully consistent in depth throughout. Almost 4m depth which makes it an absolute joy to navigate up. The third thing (of two) is that it is absolutely blindingly beautiful, adorable and delightful.As well as being almost entirely unused and so you can traverse the length of it and see no-one. It is therefore assuredly a place where you can travel up it and not need to share it with anyone. I know of nowhere else can you go up a river in a yacht with Willow and Oak trees lining each bank and cows down at the river bed drinking bovinely. Where else can you determine to just anchor within ten feet of the cow feeder! Oh and finally all the gunk on the hull and propeller, all the fouling, snuffs it and drops off. A free scrub off. The river is deep right up to the entry to the Redon port where it reduces to under 2m and so we have to scuff in through the soft mud which has built up there.

Once in the port there are finger pontoons both sides

Port de Redon