Sunday, September 30, 2012

World Rivers Day: The Rhone

It's the last Sunday of September which means its World River's Day, and having come just come back from Geneva I'm celebrating the Rhone.

Flowing from the Rhone Glacier its cold blue waters flow into Lake Geneva and from there rush through the city at slightly scary speeds.

Indeed navigating its rapids has been an issue though the years. Indeed according to Wikipedia (which is never wrong) "most travelled with a painted cross covered with religious symbols as superstitious protection against the hazards of the journey."

Sound's a bit like Tillerman's flight with its faulty hydraulics.

Of course the region is well known for its wine and also the Rhone later flows through Avignon where there's a pont so famous they wrote songs about it.

It also supplies 8% of France's electricity (citation needed)!

Near the Med it splits into two called (wait for it) Grand Rhone and Petit Rhone. One of ancient tribes that lived near it were the Helvetii, famous for their fonts!

Ok, might have made the last bit up, but hurrah for the Rhone.

2 comments:

O Docker said...

And of course, there's that famous French tribute:

Pas de lieu, Rhone que nous!

JP said...

New one for me (had to google it) but a good one