Lyons

Lyons Wine & City

17 - 20 June 2010

Our innovative programme of Wine & City trips is aimed at the more independent traveller who would also like to spend a couple of days in a party being taken to wine visits in the company of a wine expert (invaluable of course on a wine tour). You book your own travel arrangements and meet up at the hotel on the first evening. This gives you the freedom to decide how you wish to travel and the length of your trip.

The excellent value of these trips means that combined with taking advantage of any special travel deals you might find – that you still have the peace of mind that the actual tour part is put together by a fully bonded, professional tour operator. If you book hotel elements etc yourself direct via the web you generally have no financial or legal comeback. The advantage of having a coach for a couple of days also saves on the inevitable argument about whose turn it is to drive!

Lyons, our base for the weekend is the gastronomic capital of France, and has the highest concentration of Michelin starred restaurants outside Paris. Armed with our recommended restaurant list you will be able to select your favourite style of restaurant from haut-cuisine to traditional “bouchon”.

Lyons is one of the most underrated cities in France, with its attractive setting on two river fronts, its magnificent Roman museum set high up on Fourviere Hill and its fascinating medieval quarter, reputed to be the largest in Europe.

Our wine guide meets you on the first evening, and hosts an introductory tasting at the hotel, then leaves you to enjoy the restaurants of Lyons for the evening.

We then go on to visit two very different but very interesting wine regions both within a short distance of the city. To the south, we spend a day in Tain l’Hermitage and visit the great name of the village, Chapoutier. Here we will taste from their range from the northern Rhône including Crozes-Hermitage, St Joseph and Hermitage

Over lunch you’ll taste wines from other great producers in the region, such as Delas and Jaboulet. Lunch will be platters of mouth-watering local cheeses and charcuterie, all of which you can buy after tasting if you wish. You can also visit the Valrhona chocolate shop to feast on the delicious aroma and beautiful chocolate piled shelves!

To reach Tain l’Hermitage, we’ll enjoy the scenic rail journey along the Rhône and then be walking around the village between visits. Tain l’Hermitage is a small town, all on the flat, attractively situated on the riverbank and distances on foot are not great – so this is a pleasant way to discover the town and to move between visits.

To the north we visit the unspoilt villages of the Beaujolais Crus and after our first visit in Morgon or Brouilly we’ll continue to a very beautiful wine Château in Fleurie where you’ll enjoy a picnic style lunch, an event that you cannot organise if you are travelling independently. This will be a day discovering the very best of Beaujolais and a chance to rediscover these delightful, wonderfully affordable wines.