Destination: The French countryside

My friend Callie had her entire family over to Lyon for Thanksgiving. They weren’t planning to celebrate the holiday in France, however, their plan was to rent a car and drive to Switzerland, trek through the Black Forest on their way up north, and somehow end up at the well-known Christmas markets in who-knows-where in Germany. Before this adventure, though, they wished to explore a bit of the French countryside. And I was the lucky fifth passenger in their small Peugeot who opted for a free afternoon of wine and cheese over my French class on gender and politics. Who wouldn’t?

Suggestions for a spur-of-the-moment, no-concrete-agenda journey through the French countryside:

-Visit in the fall or spring when the weather is warm and the leaves are out. The colors are magnificent, and you’ll witness romantic hillside villages and beautiful scenery

-Have somewhat of a plan on transportation even if you aren’t completely sure where your afternoon will take you: train or car, and if it’s a vehicle make sure your driver is equipped to drive stick shift unless they specifically rented an automatic

-Make sure you have a GPS, iPhone or map to roughly guide your way through

-Of course keep in mind when it’s going to get dark and when you want to be driving back home

-Take pictures of everything from a small plant, to grape vines or an orchard field

-Walk inside an old church or town hall if it’s open

-Go wine or champagne tasting

-Have a relaxing lunch for at least an hour or two, soak up the view and have a taste of the good life

-Ask locals for their recommendations about what to do and where to go next. It was actually our waitress at lunch who gave us the name of a wine producer and then took us to his home for tasting

-Afternoon snack: try a charcuterie plate with lots of different meats and cheeses, have a baguette or two, and the local wine

Some site recommendations:

-Perouges: and old medieval city, must try a galette (a flat cake, almost like a crepe)

-Oingt: the name is just amusing to pronounce. Another small beautiful town, and this one was covered in buildings bathed in orange and golden colors. We hiked up to the top part of the town where there was a school, courtyard, and old church. The expansive view of fields and fields covered in purple and blue was breathtaking

-Beaujolais: we were fortunate and lucky to be in this region at the time of Beaujolais’s well-known annual festival

-Champagne

-Look for small specialty shops, museums and artwork, the town center or ancient monuments, churches, and local markets or festivals