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The Rhône Valley is enclosed between the mollasic hills of the Dauphiné foreland and the granite slopes of the Ardèche. The corridor-like effect is heightened by the presence on each bank of a major road and rail line.

The small area of the high-water channel is divided among commercial zones, residential zones, orchards and poplar groves. Natural vegetation is limited to a few isles on the Rhône.

This valley is the largest French and European transit way between the Mediterranean and the North Sea.

It forms the boundary between the Isère and the Loire from Chasse-sur-Rhône to Sablons, and likewise between the Isère and the Ain from the East Lyon Plain up to Avenières. But the images of the landscape could not be more different. The valley has been taken over by residential and industrial buildings of every sort, to the point that they have practically overrun all the small plains of the left bank, and sometimes have even filled up the hills and the length of the small valleys that border it to the west. The impact is heightened further by the fact that the right bank is occupied by the "Vignes d'Or" of the Côte Rôtie.

A great number of the most extreme superlatives and metaphors have been used to describe this valley and the river. It is acknowledged today to be the most powerful, quick-flowing and majestic of all our major rivers. But there is no consensus about the valley. Some feel that "it is constantly revealing its beauties" (Michelin). For others, however, it is simply the Rhone corridor, a common-place metaphor that reflects its narrowness and its role as a transit artery, which, though age-old, it is difficult to compare with the Loire, the royal route to the Atlantic shoreline, from the point of view of the landscapes.

The truth is undoubtedly found in another metaphor, proposed by Deffontaines, who, in his Atlas Aérien, speaks of the "Port of the Rhône" . AThe Rhône does indeed give France "the only real land port on the Mediterranean" leading to the English channel via Paris and to the North Sea via the Belfort Gap and the Rhine. In this sense, it is "the most typically French route", which evokes one of the main activities in France. It is here that the influence of the Mediterranean has pushed furthest northwards, speaking not only its climate and vegetation, but especially economic activity and culture . As Deffontaines concludes, "how extensively Mediterranean influence has thus mounted along the Rhône! It is the path for the penetration of Christianity, Roman law and the classical arts. The Rhône is more than simply one of France's major transit ways, it is also one of Europe's main arteries : how many invasions and armies, how much devastation and catastrophe, but also how much prosperity and glory have succeeded one another along the banks of this river. The privilege of being located along this historic passageway has often been paid very dearly!".

It is in light of the exceptional role that this river and its valleys have played in our history, and especially in that of the Isère, that the value of its landscapes must be measured. The stage front is thus not occupied by ecological viewpoints and motifs, but by the symbolism of the places served by the river , whether these are located in the foreground in the landscapes of the left bank or are part of the horizons of the right bank. It is also very common along the river to encounter twin cities facing each other from the opposing banks and forming part of the same landscape, even though they have gone through different historic development under different systems of rule, due to their belonging in the past to the kingdom on the right bank or the empire on the left. Such is the case of Vienne and Saint-Romain-en-Gal , which have been part of the river's history since the Roman epoch. This is also the case of Roches-de-Condrieu and Condrieu itself, whose name evokes the days of river transport along the Rhone. Finally, this is also the situation of Sablons and Serrières, which were well known in the river transportation days on the southwestern edge of the department.