Jura Wine Roads and Cascades · part 1

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Fuel stop near Montluel

   Montluel is the kind of small French town that most people only see as a sign on the A42, which is a shame. It climbs a slope above the little River Sereine, on the escarpment that the locals call the Côtière, the step where the Rhône plain to the south rises up onto the plateau of the Dombes. For centuries this was border country: Montluel belonged to the House of Savoy and only became French with the Treaty of Lyon in 1601, and the old centre still has the narrow, defensive feel of a frontier town.

   Read the complete Fuel stop near Montluel write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Jura Wine Roads and Cascades is where the day begins. Next is Food stop near Saint-Didier-sur-Chalaronne.

2. 2. Food stop near Saint-Didier-sur-Chalaronne

   Saint-Didier-sur-Chalaronne sits just above the Saône, where the little Chalaronne river ends its slow journey across the Dombes and slips into the bigger river near Thoissey. From the edge of the village the land drops to the Val de Saône, a broad floodplain of meadows and poplar rows, and across the water the slopes of the Beaujolais rise in neat green ranks of vines.

   Read the complete Food stop near Saint-Didier-sur-Chalaronne write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Food stop near Saint-Didier-sur-Chalaronne is where this day stops to eat. Next is High point near Belleville.

3. 3. High point near Belleville

   Belleville-en-Beaujolais lies on the Saône at the foot of the Beaujolais hills, and it has one treasure that surprises most visitors: an eighteenth-century Hôtel-Dieu, a charitable hospital with great wards lined with curtained beds, a chapel and an apothecary with its original jars. It served the sick for more than two centuries and is now a museum, one of the best-preserved hospitals of its kind in France.

   Read the complete High point near Belleville write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   This is where the road stops climbing. Next is Scenic stretch near Aveize.

4. 4. Scenic stretch near Aveize

   High in the Monts du Lyonnais, Aveize looks out over a rolling plateau of meadows, hedgerows and small woods, where dairy farming has shaped the landscape for centuries. It is a modest village with a church and scattered farms, typical of these hills west of Lyon, where the air is fresher than in the city and the pace of life slower.

   Read the complete Scenic stretch near Aveize write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Scenic stretch near Aveize closes the day.