Team France 2016 

Eight members of the Bideford Canoe Club headed off to meet up just south of Lyon at the manmade slalom / white water course at Saint-Pierre-De-Boeuf  . We arrived late at night in darkness after arranging for the entrance barrier access card to be left hidden for us so we could drive straight to our pitches. The tents were erected by the light of our head torches and we soon settled down for a well-deserved drink before bed.

The morning greeted us with delightful sunshine and a clear blue sky as we headed off to the local bakery for some flutes and pain au chocolate: this became a morning ritual!! After breakfast we booked in and kitted up for the first run down the course.

We had a mixture of Creek, Play and Slalom boats as the water suited all types. St Pierre offers some lovely warm up areas and parts of the river were perfect for practising and improving all of those basic skills that are essential for when you move up to the faster flowing water.

We were all soon bashing down the best of what the course had to offer from grade 3 drops to a gentle paddle along the lake at the bottom. The best feature of this place was the travellator which took you from the lake back up to the top of the course!

After three excellent paddling days we moved camp 1.5 hours away to our second destination, Sault Brenaz . This course offered a twistier route with some slightly more challenging features and drops. The weather was holding at 35 degrees with the water temperature tipping just over the 20 mark so no worries if you took the odd swim. Skills had improved and we soon found our favourite set of play waves. Playtime for some!

Three more days of fun and merriment was enough for some and car by car people started to head off home. Some took a day to explore the neighbouring hills and villages by foot, some with bicycles went further afield…the beauty of the trip was that you could do as little or as much as you’d like, come and go as you please….it was a holiday after all!

Article written by Tommo 🙂