The plateau of the Monts du Lyonnais, west of Lyon, is the closest thing the city has to a country backyard, and this spot, near Haute-Rivoire, Saint-Laurent-de-Chamousset and Sainte-Foy-l'Argentière, lies in the middle of it. It is a landscape of rolling pastures, orchards and woodland at around six or seven hundred metres, with small farms, stone villages and long views, and on the clearest winter days the Alps show as a pale line on the eastern horizon. To the west the land drops toward the plain of the Forez and the Loire, with Feurs, a market town of about eight thousand people, in the middle distance.
Ventoux is a very long way from here, and the label merely reflects the ride that ends in this area. What the district offers instead is quiet. The name Sainte-Foy-l'Argentière recalls the silver mines that were worked in the Middle Ages in this part of the hills, a reminder of an industrial past that has left little visible trace. Saint-Laurent-de-Chamousset is a small market town on a crossroads, with a handful of shops, and Haute-Rivoire is a village with a church and a main square.
The roads are good for relaxed riding. They roll across the plateau in a series of gentle bends, past fields of cattle and orchards of apples and cherries, with the occasional steep descent into a stream valley. Traffic is light, apart from the odd tractor, and the surface is generally decent, though patched. In winter the plateau can see snow and ice, with fog in the hollows, and the roads are not always gritted. Spring brings blossom, and in summer the hay is cut and the air is thick with the smell of grass. A good time for a ride is a late September afternoon, with the light low and golden.
Fuel is available in Saint-Laurent-de-Chamousset and other larger villages, but stations are fewer than in the suburbs, so do not let the tank fall too low. Bakeries and small cafes open in the morning, and many close in the middle of the day, for the French lunch. The local cheese, often a small goat's cheese, goes well with the local bread. Take a moment at one of the high points to look east toward the city and west to the distant plain, and consider that you are riding across a ridge between two great river systems.