A Leisurely Drive Through The Bugey Region

     On Tuesday morning we took a drive along the Route de Bugey through several small towns, many of them on or near the Rhone River. We stopped at a few of the towns to view some of the old buildings and churches.

     We also stopped to see the waterfall in the village of Glandieu, then had a picnic lunch along the Rhone.

 One of the most picturesque villages we stopped in was Saint-Sorlin en Bugey, which was high up overlooking the Rhone. We spent some time there walking through the village and admiring the buildings and the view down to the Rhone.

     Towards the end of the afternoon, we drove to the village of Montagnieu, perched high above the Rhone. I wanted to visit Domaine Peillot, a winery that had been highly recommended to me by the wine writer Wink Lorch a couple of years ago. Lorch, who lives in this area of France a large part of the year, has written extensively about the Savoie and Jura regions, and her recently published book about the wines of the Jura will serve as our guidebook for the last week of our trip. Montagnieu has great views of the countryside below, and the wines we tried at Domaine Peillot were outstanding. We bought a bottle of their sparkling Montagnieu (Montagnieu is a "cru” of Bugey), as well as a red Mondeuse Bugey “Montagnieu,” which was rich and very smooth.

 

     At the end of the day we headed back towards our gite in Ambleon and took a walk through the village. We passed by a small farm along a stream that had chickens, ducks and geese, as well as a couple of cats.

    Flowers, trees and shrubs are in full bloom now, particularly lilacs, wisteria and irises.