A paddle wheeler on the Loire

Consider a new way to see the heart of France.  In April, the European river tour company, CroisiEurope, began offering voyages along the Loire.  Its brand new Loire Princesse, with very comfortable looking accommodations for about 100, promises travelers views along the river from Saint Nazaire on the Atlantic up to Angers and its famous chateau, a distance of about 150 km or just over 90 miles.

Map: Ouest France

The ship, built in the Saint-Nazaire shipyards, was specially designed to accommodate the often shallow and unpredictable river.  It’s 90 meters long by 15 meters wide (about 300 feet by 50 feet), but draws only 80 centimeters (2.6 feet) of water and, rather than propellers, is driven by side paddle wheels.  The Loire Princesse may be the first passenger ship on the river since the early steam-powers ships of the mid-19th century, the curiously-named inexplosibles.

Photo: Bernard Biger

But this year, according to an mid-summer article in the Nantes newspaper, Ouest France, the river turned out to be even more unpredictable than CroisiEurope anticipated.  An especially dry summer meant a shallower river than anticipated, so much so that several times even the 80 centimeter draft was too much and the ship ran aground.  And it was discovered that dealing with the current, when squeezed between bridge footing, required more push than the paddle wheels could manage.  The company had to call in tugs for an occasional extra push.

Contacted by Ouest France, environmentalists in the area seemed mildly bemused.  Tourism in the river isn’t necessarily a bad thing they said.  It could build appreciation for the area's natural beauty.  They’re concerned, though, that as the ship's difficulties get resolved that it be the one to adapt to the river and not the reverse.  That makes good sense.  Meanwhile, it will be interesting to follow how this all works out.

World Heritage "curse"?

Later this summer I'll be biking through a part of the Loire Valley that's been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  The designation, which only occurred about ten years ago, is meant to help preserve, and at the same time draw attention to, the remarkable chateaux along the middle portion of the river, and to their history.  I suppose it's not unexpected that these two objectives should end up creating tensions.  The people who want to draw in tourists and the people who want to preserve sites aren't necessarily the same.  And once the UNESCO designation has been achieved, they aren't likely to have the same interests.  In fact, they may well end up in conflict.

A recent example of this is the Loreley Plateau, a site along the middle portion of the Rhine River, about 80 km west of Frankfurt, Germany.  (Hat tip to M. McDonald)  The plateau is at the top of a nearly 400 foot-high rock at the narrowest point of the Rhine.  The rocks below and the turbulence in the river have caused numerous accidents over the years and helped give rise to local legends.  In 2002, the rock and the plateau were included in a 65 km stretch of the river receiving UNESCO World Heritage designation.

Google Satellite identifies several hotels, restaurants and a sizable camping ground on the plateau, all of which feature great views above the river and probably benefit from the UNESCO designation.  But it seems that a recently-constructed summer bobsled run was one thing too many. 

http://www.spiegel.de

Just this week, the World Heritage Committee issued a statement declaring that the run was "not compatible with the outstanding universal value of the World Heritage property" and calling for its removal.

I'll be on the lookout for tourism run amok when I'm riding past the Loire chateaux.  But I have to say I have trouble seeing this bobsled run as an example.  The World Heritage Committee seems to be okay with places to eat and sleep and park your camper van.  But the bobsled run seems to strike them as just too touristy, too tackily mass touristy. 

http://www.spiegel.de

 I'd probably prefer a beer on one of the restaurant terraces before I took a run on the bobsled.  But it's a little hard to see, from the photo here, how it has more of an impact on the site than do the other tourist facilities.

Meanwhile, commercial barge traffic continues along this stretch of the river below and a little over two years ago one of them capsized near the Loreley rock spilling 2,400 tons sulphuric acid into the river.  One wonders whether the barges and their cargos are "compatible with the outstanding universal value of the World Heritage property?"

No Big Ships!

Yesterday's post turned out to be more timely than I knew.  More or less while I was drafting it, demonstrators were winding up a weekend of protests against the large cruise ships passing through the Giudecca Canal.  On Sunday, supporters of No Grandi Navi (No Big Ships) lined up at the Stazione Marittima at the port of Venice to block passengers' access to the ships.  Later, dozens of small boats occupied the Giudecca Canal to prevent one of the ships from leaving. 

© Giornalettismo.com

Ultimately, darkness, rain, and wind ended the small boat blockade and the ship departed about three hours late.  

The demonstrators' larger purpose had been to send a message to Venice mayor, Giorgio Orsoni.  Orsoni is due to meet later this week with Minister of Infrastructure and Transport, Maurizio Lupi, to discuss new docking arrangements for the ships.  One option would be to develop new basins inside the lagoon at Maghera.  No Grandi Navi, however, wants the ships kept completely out of the lagoon and favors an off-shore facility from which visitors would be ferried into the city.  Anna Somers Cocks, in her NYRB article (see link in yesterday's post), suggests that the real power in the lagoon is not the mayor, but the head of the Autorità Portuale di Venezia (Venice Port Authority), Paolo Costa.  And, she says, he favors arrangements that would remain within his jurisdiction, i.e., something inside the lagoon.

Venice inundated

I touched on the problem of large cruise ships invading Venice once before.  These floating multi-story hotels, crowding into the Giudecca Canal, bringing thousands of passengers up close to the Doge's Palace and the Campanile in Piazza San Marco, are part of a larger complex of issues connected to how to save the city from tourism and from rising sea waters.  

© Andrea Pattaro/AFP

 Anna Somers Cocks, in a recent issue of The New York Review of Books, discusses all of this.  It's an excellent and unsettling article.

In 1987, Italy sought, and was granted, designation of Venice as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  As part of the designation agreement, Italy promised to develop and implement a management plan for the city and a buffer zone around it.  The French chateaux in the Loire Valley are protected by such a plan.  Only in November of last year did the Venice City Council publish a plan, 25 years after the original World Heritage designation.  Cocks, a former chairman of the Venice in Peril Fund and now the editor of The Art Newspaper, is deeply critical of what they produced for failing to address the critical threats to Venice.  Without significant changes in governance and political will, she fears that the city will be overwhelmed by tourists and rising sea water.

The Gerbier is free

Among the world's rivers, France's Loire must have one of the most clearly marked starting points.  This is le Gerbier de Jonc, a volcanic mound in the department of the Ardèche, where several springs emerge from its base, quickly join, and head off for the Atlantic some 600 miles away.

© Richard Mounts

Despite being rather remote, it's estimated that the site draws nearly a half million visitors a year, many of whom pay a euro or so and push through the turnstile to hike to the top for the impressive views.  

© Richard Mounts

© Richard Mounts

Not withstanding its status as a kind of national monument, le Gerbier and the surrounding land is privately-held.  But starting this summer, the admission charges will be dropped and access will be free.  This comes as the result of a 30-year agreement between the land owners and the department of the Ardèche.

I worry about too many people climbing over an already fragile ecology.  But apparently the department plans new protective measures, along with programs to highlight the unique characteristics of the setting.  I may have to go back.

Dredging off the Brittany coast

Brittany and its coastal areas are among the most popular tourist destinations in France.  Besides the history and charming small towns, people are drawn to the coasts to see all manner of sea birds and marine life.  Tour companies organize multi-day explorations along coastal areas like the Rose Granite Coast in the Côtes d'Armor department.  In fact, we're planning on hiking in that area later this year with friends.

At the moment, people living around the Lannion Bay feel all of this is under threat.  The Bay, as the map shows, is just off the coast of Côtes d'Armor and neighboring Finistère.  Le Monde reports that a company based in nearby St. Malo wants to begin dredging shell sand out of the bay.

© Le Monde

The Companie Armoricaine de Navigation (CAN), a subsidiary of the Group Roullier, has a request pending to extract 8 million cubic meters (282.4 million cubic feet) of sand from an underwater dune.  If granted, the concession would extend for 20 years.  CAN's request has been filed at the Ministry of Industrial Renewal, headed by Arnaud Montebourg.

So far, it's not clear when and how Montebourg will decide.  But he will need to take into account that all 13 local councils in communities around the Bay have voted against the project.  Also, 31 associations, under the banner "People of the Dunes," have united to press their opposition.

They point out that the proposed dredging area is right between two marine zones protected under the Natura 2000 program.  This is an E.U. program meant to preserve biodiversity in critical areas.  Opponents fear that the dredging will kick up fine particulate matter that will drift into the protected areas, covering the bottom of the bay and threatening various forms of sea life.  They also point out that the dune that would be subject to the dredging is a breeding ground for sand eels, an important link in the local food chain.

© Valéry Joncheray Photographie

The company responds that alternatives to obtaining the sand from the dune would still have environmental impacts.  Getting the sand from places on land, they say, would mean putting large numbers of trucks on the roads to its plants in Brittany.  A spokesman said CAN was prepared to do more studies of environmental impact on the dune if requested by departmental authorities.

Whatever the status of the issue when we're there in August -- still pending or decided -- it'll certainly add interest to the visit.

Cycling made part of EU transportation plans

The map below the stuff of daydreams and maybe some day reality.  The map traces 14 bicycle routes up and down and back and forth across Europe.  Some are more developed than others, but all of them can be used for long-distance tourism or short trips, even commuting if one happens to be along your route to work.  I know something of Route 6, the one running from the Atlantic to the Black Sea.  Most of the route in France follows the Loire River and Lynda and I once rode a rented tandem along a few kilometers.

Even though the routes have been mapped, much work remains.  Surfacing, signage, by-passes, connectors, the sorts of details needed to make the routes accessible and safe, which, in turn, can foster tourism-related businesses, like bed & breakfasts and bike touring companies.  This has already been the experience along the Loire where "La Loire à Vélo" is nearly as familiar a part of the valley's tourist landscape as the chateaux.  The European Cycling Federation (ECF) hopes to see the network completed by 2020.

Earlier this week, network supporters, and day dreamers like me, celebrated a decision by the E.U.'s Transport and Tourism Commission that should help make this possible.  The Commission voted to include the cycling network within funding guidelines for Europe's Trans-European Transport Network.  The vote means that cycling will be eligible for several kinds of EU financial help, including grants, loans, and loan guarantees.  The Commission's decision still has to be ratified by the EU Parliament next year.  And I suspect individual cycling projects will have to fight their way through national and local authorities.  Still, the ECF and others are celebrating because it gets them into the game.

Source: EuroVelo Network. http://www.eurovelo.org/routes/

 

Remember the Costa Concordia

Thinking of taking a Mediterranean cruise, maybe running along the beautiful Italian coast, stopping in at scenic spots along the way?  Not to be a grinch, but remember the Costa Concordia?  Just over a month from today will be the one-year anniversary of the wreck of that sky-scraper sized cruise ship.  On 13 January of this year, the ship, running close to Giglio Island off the west coast of Italy, hit a rock that tore a long hole in the hull, flooding the engine room and causing the ship to run aground against the island.  At least 30 people died.  The ship is still there as an elaborate salvage operation tries to remove it.

Legambiente, the Italian environmental organization, has a short note on its web site today reminding people of the disaster.  The group calls on responsible public officials to proceed as quickly as possible with the removal and with the greatest possible transparence.  Apparently recent storms have caused the hull to shift slightly and to release toxic liquids into the surrounding waters.

The Costa Concordia was a case of a captain’s bad judgment.  But the tragedy focused attention, at least for a little while, on the enormous number of cruise ships running along the Italian coasts and on some of the issues they create.  For example in Venice.  In 2011, some 800 ships anchored in the lagoon bringing in an estimated 2 million passengers.  This was nearly double the number of ships arriving six years earlier with more than double the number of passengers.  These ships may be overwhelming an already fragile historic treasure.  Underwater turbulence from propellers appears to be damaging building foundations.  And it’s estimated that the ships collectively produce air pollution equivalent to 14,000 cars.  Environmentalists and some local officials are pushing to bar the ships from the lagoon and relocate them to an off-shore facility.