White Water Canoeing in Southern France

As nine of us met at Vichy en route for the French Alps in 1984, I still did not really believe that wet suits would be needed in July in the south of France. After all, it had been a heat wave last summer when four of us had sampled the area and our previous experience of alpine canoeing had been two wet and mild weeks in Austria.

Anyway, we were warned that the French alpine rivers in June, at the height of the snowmelt, would very cold, so rather than risk an immediate ice cold dunking, we congregated at the artificial slalom course by the Allier at Vichy for some much needed practice. The water was a warm grade II (on the international scale used to rate the difficulty of navigating a stretch of river) so, after a few runs, some of us decided to swim down – the technique being to lie flat on your back fending off the concrete walls with your feet. Having survived with only minor cuts and bruises we drove on to Briancon where the municipal campsite provided us with a base in the Durance valley for the next two weeks.

Battling through a stopper on L’Onde

L’Onde was a short but technical river, more difficult than indicated by the grade II rating in our guidebook.

All the rivers in the area relied on snowmelt and were at their best in the afternoons, which provided some with a good excuse for not getting up early.  The downside was the sun was burning down on us as we slid into our wetsuits.  We started with some relatively easy paddling on the Upper Durance – a grade II stretch from Briancon to Prelles.  Despite temperatures in the mid 30s, a few splashes of water from freshly melted snow soon cooled us down for an enjoyable paddle.

Judy on the Upper Guil at Aiguilles

Next day the lower Durance was quite a contrast, although just as cold, it was much broader with grade III rapids, mostly comprising large standing waves.  The famous Rabouis (madman) rapid was very powerful, the main part being a series of three standing waves. Running it was just a matter of keeping upright, as there are no rocks to avoid on this part of the river. However, when anyone did fall in it usually meant a long swim due to the speed of the water and the breadth of the river. With as many as nine on the water we found that rescues could become congested, so we adopted a buddy system – groups of two or three to look after themselves, with a gap of 100 metres or so between each group.

Upper Guil

The tributaries of the Durance offered a great variety of canoeing conditions. The Guisane and the Claree were both fast, narrow rivers, technical in parts. Boulders were not much of a problem, as most of us were using polypropylene boats, but the trees were particularly nasty on the Guisane with the shallow, fast flowing water continually undercutting the banks and causing pine trees to fall across the stream. However, we particularly enjoyed the big waters of the rocky grade IV rapid of 200 metres at les Guibertes, which was followed by 10 Km of continuous grade II-III.  Further afield, the Guil and Ubaye were different again. These had excellent pool/drop rapids of grade III/IV cutting through steep gorges and some of the best canoeing of the holiday.

Guil Gorge

The Drac was well worth a fairly long drive for a 16 Km stretch of continuous grade III, which one of us paddled in a white water racer.

White Water racer

Between canoeing trips we found time for high-level walks up to the snowfields and to explore the fortified town of Briancon.

Hiking in the French Alps

Here we joined the celebrations on Bastille Day, when the crowd happily set off fireworks in all directions, and had an excellent group evening out in a local restaurant. Before leaving the area, we saw the Tour de France riders on a gruelling hill climb up to the Col du Galibier at 2642 metres and they didn’t even look tired.

King of the Mountains Robert Millar on the Col du Galibier

We left Briancon, with the sun still shining, to visit Bourg St Maurice and watch the Europa Cup championships on the Isere.

Folk dancing in Bourg St Maurice

The slalom course was closed during the competition, but we were able to paddle down the white water race course after the event.

C2 on the slalom course at Borg St Maurice

For the third week we planned to paddle some rivers in the Jura Mountains, but took the opportunity, before leaving the Alps, of taking a cable car trip over Mont Blanc.

Jon, Warwick and Judy on Mont Blanc

Climbers start here on Mont Blanc

This was an unforgettable experience with views of huge snowfields and glaciers. There was then no problem in understanding where all the icy water in the rivers had come from.

Chris on the Doubs

The Jura provided some spectacular thunderstorms, but they came too late to swell the Ain to the winter grade III-IV. It was still an interesting river and we had to dodge around large boulders, which choked what was now a very technical grade I. Here and in the Doubs we found heron, trout and warm water – quite a contrast to Alpine conditions. The rain held off until we passed through the village of Dampritchard – aptly named for Ken Pritchard’s benefit.

Montreuil-sur-Mer near Boulogne

It was then time to disperse home, but not the end of the excitement. Of our four vehicles one remained in France following clutch failure, while the occupants returned home courtesy of Europ Assistance, taking three kayaks strapped to a roof rack as hand luggage on the ferry.  Our own motor caravan suffered a fuel pump failure, which we remedied ourselves (not without difficulty) using a spring a friendly mechanic found for us.  Another vehicle filled up with diesel instead of petrol and had to call out a mechanic to drain the tank.  We’re not sure how the fourth vehicle got on, but that was returning during a dock strike.

Photo album