Flowers are Châtillon-sur-Chalaronne's calling card. In summer every bridge over the little River Chalaronne is hung with geraniums, and the town has won national prizes for its displays year after year. Underneath the colour sits a fine old centre: half-timbered houses, a brick Gothic church and a huge covered market hall whose oak roof timbers were rebuilt after a fire centuries ago and still shelter the weekly market.
The town has a saintly connection too. In 1617, a young priest named Vincent de Paul was posted here, and it was in Châtillon that he founded his first charitable confraternity, the seed of the Daughters of Charity and the vast network of works that followed. A small museum and chapel recall his stay.
Around Châtillon spreads the Dombes, a plateau of shallow fishponds, farmland and woods, where the light on still water is soft and silvery in the morning. The roads are mostly flat, crossing between ponds with occasional sharp bends at farm corners, and traffic is light outside the towns. Herons, egrets and grebes are everywhere, and the bird park at Villars-les-Dombes, a short ride south, holds one of the largest collections in France. To the west, the land drops towards the Saône and the vineyards of the Beaujolais rise beyond.
Châtillon has fuel, bakeries, cafés and restaurants, and on market days the hall is full of local produce, including Bresse poultry and Dombes carp. It is a lovely place for coffee or lunch on the way south towards the Alps. Ride gently through the old centre; the streets are narrow, and pedestrians, especially on market mornings, have priority.