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!