Bourgoin-Jallieu is the main town of Nord-Isère, a working place on the old road from Lyon to Chambéry and Grenoble, and it makes a good, unfussy start to a ride. The two old villages of Bourgoin and Jallieu grew together in the nineteenth century around textile mills, and printing on cloth was the town's speciality. The museum in the centre has collections on the history of textile printing, and you can still see old mill buildings along the Bourbre river.
The town has one literary curiosity: Jean-Jacques Rousseau stayed here in 1768, and it was in Bourgoin that he finally married Thérèse Levasseur, his companion of many years, in a simple civil ceremony. Today, the town is better known for rugby. Its club, CS Bourgoin-Jallieu, has a long history in the French top flight, and the sport is a passion here.
As a fuel stop, Bourgoin-Jallieu is easy. There are plenty of service stations on the approaches to town and near the motorway junction, as well as supermarkets, bakeries and cafés. The A43 motorway runs past, providing a quick route east towards Chambéry and the Alps, or west to Lyon. Tolls apply.
From here, the riding options are many. To the south, the hills of the Bas-Dauphiné and the Terres Froides offer winding roads through farmland and woods. To the east, the routes towards the Isère valley and the Belledonne range lead to the high Alps. The roads around town can be busy, but once you are out in the countryside, traffic thins quickly.