Valence sur Rhône

The "fiancée of the Rhône", on the holiday route to the South, offers a pleasant fore-taste of the Midi, and is worth a stop : amble down its pedestrianised streets in search of the memory of the young artillery lieutenant, Napoléone Buonaparte : tarry awhile in front of the sculpted elevation of the Maison des Têtes ; drink tasteful-colourful-aromatic cocktails of a Saturday morning on the "marché provençal" in the place des Clercs ; stop off at the museum to see Hubert Robert's crayon drawings ; and to conclude, a romantic pose under the music kiosk where one day in 1942 Peynet glimpsed a couple of lovers who, with a stroke of his crayon, and bearing the names Valentin and Valentine, were to become the symbol of lovers everywhere.