Another Adventure and A Surprise Trip to Amberieu

Every time we come to Lyon we do our best to factor in a short trip (pilgrimage?) to Tain-l'Hermitage and Valrhona, the maker of absolutely wonderful chocolate.  We also typically have lunch at The Nice, a very nice restaurant on the Rhone River, and make a stop at the Chapoutier tasting room where we taste a few wines and purchase some. Tain is just a one-hour train ride from Lyon.  A very enjoyable way to spend a lovely, sunny day!

View of Tain-l'Hermitage from the river.
The Nice restaurant is just beyond those trees.

So we consulted our calendar, checked the weather in Tain for the days we decided would be best, and went online to purchase our train tickets. We soon had our tickets for the round trip printed and were ready for our trip.  The next day we arrived at the Gare Part Dieu with tickets in hand ready to go.  We checked the reader board to see which track our train would be on.  The reader board said the train would be on track I, since out train was due to leave soon, we walked to track I, and found seats on the waiting train.  Easy peasy – right?  Wrong!

Our first clue that something was amiss came when the train left a few minutes early.  SNCF (Société Nationale des Chemins de Fer Français) trains generally leave at the time scheduled – and definitely not early.  Our second clue came when David determined that we were going north not south to Tain-l'Hermitage.  Before long the SNCF employee came into the car to check tickets.  Fortunately, he was very gracious and helpful when David explained our problem.  The gentleman told us that our train was actually leaving from that same track I a few minutes after the one we were on.  He explained that our next stop was going to be Amberieu where we would get on a train taking us back to Lyon.  He wrote on David’s ticket and also put his official SNCF stamp on it so we wouldn’t have to pay extra.

David's ticket with notation and stamps.

So we were off to Ambérieu-en-Bugey, a town of about 12,000 residents, is about 50 km northeast of Lyon and is known for being an important railway junction and also for being awarded the Croix de Guerre 1939-1945 with citation at the Liberation. Impressive! David had been to the town on one of his bike rides, but this was new territory for Anna. What little we saw of it looked like a very pleasant little town.  We moved into the train station to wait for our train back to Lyon.  

The gare at Ambérieu-en-Bugey

David bought a newspaper for us to read, and we discussed what to do with the rest of our day. We would be arriving in Lyon at around noon so David felt we should have lunch in a restaurant as a mini celebration.  Afterall, the SNCF man was very pleasant and helpful, no one was hurt, and our only damage was that we would have to reschedule our trip to Tain and buy another train ticket.  Sometimes you just have to count your blessings.

La Courtille de Solutré

As you may have noted in previous Blog Postings, eating good food with good friends is a very pleasant pastime for us in Lyon.  We were able to enjoy that last Wednesday.

La Courtille de Solutré is one of our very favorite restaurants.  We discovered it when we were in Lyon for a year (2010-2011).  We had just come down into the village of Solutré-Pouilly after our first climb up the Roche de Solutré.  We were hungry and ready for lunch and our choices were a bar and an auberge with a nice dining area, La Courtille de Solutré.  Luckily, La Courtille had an empty table for us, and we enjoyed a very memorable meal on their terrace.  (Anna proclaimed it the best meal she had ever had.)  We should mention that after our first lunch we discovered that La Courtille de Solutré has a lovely red sign on their door, and they are in the Michelin Red Book. We have made an almost annual pilgrimage up the Roche followed by lunch at La Courtille since.

Roger and David at the entrance

Happy diners on the terrace

We have been touting the restaurant to our good friends, Roger and Dominique, for some years now.  And, this year we were actually able go to lunch there with them.  So David made the reservations, and Wednesday we all piled into their car for the hour plus ride to the village of Solutré-Pouilly. 

The four of us at our table.

We were escorted to our table in their pleasant terrace.  (They also have seating inside.) We sat back and enjoyed beverages while we enjoyed the setting and gazed at the menu. (David and Anna toasted the four of us and the occasion with flutes of champagne.) The menu is presented on chalk boards and gives diners a lot of delicious choices.  Their extensive beverage list is on folders at each table.

The Menu

Roger and Dominique were impressed.  That is really something to say since they have eaten in restaurants in many countries and both of their children are in the restaurant business.  Dominique even announced that they would have lunch there to celebrate their anniversary.

Anna and Dominique
getting ready to make some choices

After lots of discussion and difficult decisions, we each ordered an entrée, a plat (main dish), and dessert.  For our plats David and Dominique both had beef fillet and marrow bones with tapenade and homemade béarnaise sauce, Roger had calf liver with potatoes purée with tapenade and fresh vegetables, and Anna had scallops in the shell with julienne of vegetables, honey, butter, croutons and slices of Basque ham.  All were absolutely delicious!  

Anna's scallops - they were wonderful!

David asked the hostess to choose a wine for us to drink. She made a great choice, and we all enjoyed it. We'll try to find a bottle or two of it in wine shops in Lyon.

Great choice by our Hostess!

We lingered over our coffee with more pleasant conversation. Then it was time to head back to Lyon.  As we walked to the car, we took in a part of the village and surrounding vineyards.  What a very picturesque setting!   On the way back, we made a quick stop at Domaine Thibert, a family-owned and operated estate winery that the four of us had visited before. Each couple took home six bottles to enjoy later. 

Definitely a lovely, memorable day!

One of The Unexpected Finds in a Major Remodel

Anyone who has done major remodel of an older building, as we have, will likely find interesting items oddly buried in the structure of the building.  In our case it was a report card for the builder’s stepson from 1928!  (He was well-mannered, but not a genius.) So, you can just imagine what the renovators are likely to find as they work in The Château de l'Île Barbe. 

How about a ~33-meter-long roll of 43 parchment skins? (No typing paper back in the 1300s.) The good monks of l'Île Barbe made their most recent entries (mostly legal information regarding deeds, rents, etc.) on it in1372.  We read about this remarkable item in the local paper, Le Progrès, and then visited the Archives of the Rhône when the document was on display. We were surprised that there was no charge to see the display, and no one monitored the entry.  When you look at our photo below, you'll note that the parchment roll is just displayed out in the open - not under any sort of protection.

We’ve also attached a link to a youtube video you can click on that shows how the folks in the Archives unrolled the document, or cartulary. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NpbmMt8VsQ

Just another example of the unexpected experiences we have been enjoyed in our time here. Living in Lyon is really a lovely adventure!  It has enriched us in so many ways.  

An Interesting Bit of History of the Region: l'Île Barbe

 

A View of  l'Île Barbe Today

The history of l'Île Barbe is deeply intertwined with the history of Lyon and the broader region of Gaul. The island's name, derived from the Latin "insula barbara" or "Barbarians' Island," suggests its early occupation as a refuge for Druids and other early inhabitants of the Saône banks. As an island in the Saône River, it provided a certain amount of natural defense and actually became an ideal location for a monastery.

The island's monastic establishment dates back to the 5th century. It was the first monastic establishment in the Lyon region and one of the oldest in all of Gaul. Charlemagne visited it and gifted it with a beautiful library. The monastery, later an abbey, adopted the Rule of Saint Benedict in the 9th century and gradually became quite wealthy. In the year 816, Louis the Pious awarded the monastery the right to maintain boats upon the Saône, the Rhône and the Doubs rivers and to be exempt from taxes for passage. In 861, Charles the Bald confirmed a decree of immunity and protection for the monastery. In 1549, the abbey was secularized and became a college of canons. The college of canons was replaced in 1741 by an establishment for aged or infirm priests. At the Revolution, everything remaining on the island was sold and dispersed.

A Map of the Monastery and the Island

Despite its decline, l'Île Barbe remained a significant place of pilgrimage and cultural importance. In time the island became a protected site with a public part and a private part, offering visitors a glimpse into its rich history and the legacy of its past. We have enjoyed strolling through the park on the island, looking at the remains of the monastery, gazing at the private homes there, and walking around the 16th century "The Château de l'Île Barbe" that became an upscale hotel/restaurant that is no longer in business.

Classified as a historical monument but abandoned for several years, The Château de l'Île Barbe was sold at auction for €1.35 million, twice the asking price, on Thursday, April 2, 2026. Guillaume Langlois, real estate developer with the Palauma company, purchased the château.  “We are going to turn it into a hotel residence on the outskirts of Lyon," Mr. Langlois said. This exceptional property will require an estimated 3 million euros in major renovation work.  Some of that renovation work has already begun.

The Château de l'Île Beard

To be continued…

Back in Lovely Lyon

Good Grief!  It's hard to imagine that we’ve been back in Lovely Lyon for over a month and haven’t published a single blog post!  

So, what have we been doing?  Well, here’s a very brief recap of our activities. (You’ll notice that a lot of our activities revolve around food, wine, and friends.)

We arrived in Lyon the evening of April 1^st.  Our good friends, Dominique and Roger invited us over for Easter dinner on April 5^th.  (We were approaching awake and compos mentis by then.)  

On Tuesday, the 7^th we went to see Laurent (at Estelle and Laurent’s home) to retrieve David’s bicycle after Laurent had stored, taken care of it, and even beautifully detailed it during our absence.   (On the way home, David noticed that the electric bike would cut out randomly – more on this in a later post.) 

(For any of you coming into our blog for the first time, Estelle and our daughter participated in an exchange when they were 15 and 16 years old. Since then Estelle has met and married Laurent and had two sons who are now adults. We have been close friends ever since that initial exchange and are considered part of Estelle's extended family and vice versa.  Paul, her elder son, has actually visited us in the US.) 

Okay - back to eating and friends. On Thursday, the 9^th, Anna went over to Dominique’s and had a quick lunch with her.  

Friday, the 10^th, we went to Laurent and Estelle’s to see Paul who was home on leave from the Army until his next training session, and also to enjoy Laurent’s delicious, barbecued lunch and lots and lots of conversation. 

L to R David, Laurent, Paul, Estelle

Then on Monday, the 13^th, we had lunch with Estelle near where she works in Lyon. 

On Wednesday, the 15^th, Dominique and Roger came to our apartment for lunch. On Sunday, the 19^th, we were at Dominique and Roger’s for lunch again.  Then, the next day, Monday, the 20^th, eight of us gathered at a restaurant to celebrate Dominique’s birthday. 

L to R - David, Dominique (the birthday girl), Elizabeth Juvet (in the bike group), Catherine Zervos and her husband Tony (in the bike group), John Robbins (in the bike group), Roger, and Anna.

On Wednesday, the 22^nd, David went to a men’s lunch.  

On Tuesday, the 28^th, Nathalie and Stéphane, our good friends and current landlords, came to dinner at our apartment. The dinner was preceded by a little surprise drama when Nathalie's car's windshield wipers decided to quit working during a heavy rainstorm. The dinner main dish was fortunately one that could just happily continue to simmer until Nathalie and Stéphane were able to arrive.  It was great to see them again!

And, on Thursday the 30^th, we went to the monthly Del Cano lunch. (Del Cano is actually a group of mostly retired Brits who welcomed us into their monthly lunch group years ago.)

Whew!  Guess we were busier that we realized.  However, we didn't ONLY enjoy various meals.  We promise there will be more info in the next posts.