Lyonnais like to escape to the hills on Sundays, and the Yzeron valley is one of their favourite exits. It lies to the west of the city, in the Monts du Lyonnais, a range of rounded, wooded hills that reach about nine hundred metres at their highest, and the roads here, little more than lanes, climb out of the suburbs into a landscape of meadows, chestnuts and old stone farms. The village of Yzeron gives its name to the stream and the valley, and it has been a weekend retreat for generations.
The Monts du Lyonnais are an old, worn-down range, geologically a western neighbour of the Alps and not part of them, made of ancient granite and gneiss, and they are home to a quiet rural life of dairy farming, orchards and woodland. Signs of an older life remain: dry stone walls, wash houses and small chapels, and now and then a hay barn or a stone cross at a crossroads. Thurins, Courzieu and Saint-Martin-en-Haut are typical small towns of the area, with a few shops and a Saturday market in the larger ones.
The ridge roads are the point. Narrow, winding and often steep, they follow the crests of the hills, with views over the Rhône valley to the east and the Pilat massif to the south, and on a clear day the Alps, with Mont Blanc a faint white shape on the horizon. The surface is variable, from smooth to patched, and gravel and mud on the bends need attention. Traffic is light, apart from cyclists, who treat these hills as their training ground.
In winter, the heights can see snow and ice, and the roads become hazardous, while in summer the hills are green and cool, a relief from the heat of the city. Fog often fills the valleys in autumn, and you can ride above it into clear sun.
For fuel, fill up before leaving Lyon's outskirts, since the villages have few stations. Craponne, about eleven kilometres away, has everything, and Saint-Martin-en-Haut is the best place for a coffee and a pastry along the way.