Listen, if you are anything like me, you are:
A: A sophisticated word traveler
B: A trained observer of the human condition and
C: Easily bored.
Plus your ear starts to itch about five minutes after you insert one of those thingies so you can listen to your tour guide. After which time you yank it out and are inclined to make stuff up.
Not to worry, folks. I’m here to help.
Having embarked on a five (or six, or maybe seven, not sure) AMA boat tour down France’s Soane and Rhône rivers, it has taken me next to no time at all to learn pretty much all there is to know about where I am and what I’ve seen.
And I’m more than happy to share my expertise and observations.
So let’s talk about the quaint village of Shallon Sur Soane.
Which squats on both sides of the Soane.
During World War II, one side was in Vichy France, and the other side in Occupied France.
Which apparently made for some very tense family Sunday dinners.
But never mind that. Here’s what you can see in Shallon Sur Soane today:
This village is best known as the place where the guy who took the first photograph lived. Can’t remember his name but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t Kodak, Polaroid or Nikon.
Left: The village market.
Right: A really tall church.
Left: The House Of The Four Seasons.
Right: A wire basket full of rocks.
Left: A mural of Moliere, a writer to whom generations of tortured French lit majors were forced fed.
Right: Posters in French.
Left: An empty town square on account of it was raining.
Right: The unique and unusual lamp posts that some former village mayor decided were really cool but which, I am reliably informed, villagers hate with a passion.
Left: A wire basket containing a view of the village on the other (Vichy) side of the river.
Right: The resistance is alive and well.
Village square still empty because it’s still raining.
Left: The Shallon Sur Soane Scrabble Society.
Right: A big ball with stairs in the middle.
Left: Two guys flirting amid some ruins.
Right: Our boat preparing to cast off for ports as yet unknown.
Stay tuned for more fascinating travel tips.
And, no, please don’t thank me.
FreeGNV 
Does that boat require the services of rusty former quartermaster?