The Ardèche Gorge, with its limestone cliffs and the great natural arch of the Pont d'Arc, lies about two hundred kilometres to the south, and the place on the map is somewhere far less dramatic: the flat, farmed country of the Nord-Isère, east of Lyon, around L'Isle-d'Abeau. This is a landscape of fields, ponds, low hills and small towns, in the old province of the Dauphiné. L'Isle-d'Abeau itself is a new town, planned in the 1970s to relieve pressure on Lyon, with housing estates, shopping centres and a business park, while the older villages of Saint-Savin, Trept and Salagnon retain their churches and farms.
The district has more history than first impressions suggest. Bourgoin-Jallieu, a few kilometres away, was a textile town, famous for printed cloth, and the river Bourbre, which runs through the plain, once powered mills. To the north lies Crémieu, a medieval walled town with a covered market hall, and the hills of the Isle Crémieu, a limestone plateau with caves and small lakes. The airport of Lyon-Saint-Exupéry is close, so there is a steady sound of aircraft overhead.
The roads here are not exciting, but they are pleasant, and they make a calm contrast to a day spent among gorges. They run straight and level through fields of maize and sunflowers, with a few gentle bends where a stream cuts across, and the surface is mostly good. Traffic is heavy near the motorway interchanges and the new town, and lighter on the back roads. In summer the sun is strong, and afternoon thunderstorms can roll in. In winter the area is often foggy, with low cloud lingering in the plain.
Fuel is easy here, with stations on the main roads near L'Isle-d'Abeau, and the supermarkets are open late. Bakeries in the villages have good bread and pastries, and a local speciality is the Saint-Marcellin, a soft creamy cheese from the Dauphiné, which you can find in most shops. The air smells of cut maize and wet earth, and the sky is wide. It is a good place to end a long journey, with a full tank, a bed nearby and no more mountains to worry about.