The Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region covers a diverse area in France. From the mountains where you can find ritzy resorts like Chamonix to the gastronomic city of Lyon to the sloping vineyards of Beaujolais and the Rhône Valley – there’s loads to do for skiers, hikers, wine and food lovers and cyclists.  

Parts of the Rhône Valley, particularly around the town of Saint-Maurice-l’Exile has a lot of chemical, energy and maintenance industries that are  part of the extensive Roches-Roussillon chemical platform. We tried to find the charm in this area but it was mostly pretty industrial.

Chic Chamonix:

The most famous resort town in this area is undoubtedly Chamonix – at the centre of which is the grand towering Mont Blanc, which draws visitors to the area in all seasons.

We visited the resort in winter 2024 and you can read about our week skiing the beautiful mountains including our trip up the Aiguille du Midi cable car to ski the Valees Blanches.

Deliciously lovely Lyon

Lyon on the confluence of the Rhône and Saône rivers, is the third-largest city in France. This city was our hub-city during our year in France in 2024 and we found ourselves going in and out of Lyon on several occasions to meet friends, catch a flight or train or visit our friends who live there. We loved the delicious food market for grazing, the glorious Grand Hotel Dieu once a hospital now a splendid hotel) and the super cute cobbled streets of the renaissance era Vieux town which is so complete it is now UNESCO-listed.

Lyon, is France’s culinary capital with 17 Michelin-starred restaurants, as well as the more hearty local Bouchon’s a more casual pub like restaurant that serves traditional Lyonnaise cuisine, such as sausages, coq-au-vin, “salade lyonnaise”, duck pâté or roast pork.

Magnificent Mirmande

This medieval fortified village is perched high above the Rhone valley in the region of Drôme’. The whole village is built from the local limestone giving it a crumbling consistency as you walk around the streets, ramparts and up to the old cathederal. There are many terraces, orchards and garden plots peppered among the streets which has made it a member of ‘the most beautiful villages in France’, and is a member of the ‘botanic villages of the Rhône region.

The gardens, old buildings and far-reaching views across the valley, has inspired many artists to take up residence and paint from the village – we even saw some creating their watercolours as we visited.

Saint-Maurice-l’Exile and Condrieu

We had a home stay in this town, which sits above the Rhône river, about 4 kms from a little town called Roussillon (full name Roussilon-en-Isere). At the time of reserving the home stay I thought we were going to our favourite town of Roussillon in the Luberon (Vaucluse) region (over 100 km south). On the afternoon we arrived we were a bit confused and decided to take a walk into town to see if we could find our favourite ochre hills but instead we found a nuclear power plant and a few other chemical factories. We made the most of our time by exploring towns around the industrial town and at least the smoggy sky gave us some beautiful sunsets.

We walked through the Foret de Bonnevaux which we could access out the back of our house and also drove down and across the Rhone river to the far side to Condrieu, a town know for its prestigious French wine AOC in the Northern Rhône Valley . Geologically, the terroir here is a patchwork of mica schist, gneiss and light-colored sand, so Syrah and Viognier thrive. Despite the sheer slopes, vines have grown here since Roman times, and we enjoyed a couple of walks along the narrow paths that snake between the vines to a lookout over the valley below.

Remarkable Vienne

This incredibly old yet still intact Roman town is about 35 km south of Lyon in the Isère department along the Rhône River. It is labelled a “City of Art and History,” as it features2,500 years of Roman ruins like the Temple of Augustus and Livia and an ancient ampittheater that is still used today for an annual Jazz concert. We climbed up to he Chapelle Notre-Dame de Pipet for panoramic views over the ampitheatre, the city and the Rhone River and also visited the splendid Cathédrale Saint-Maurice, with a very ornate facade that combines Romanesque and Gothic styles

Hiking above the Rhône and the vineyards in Tupin-et-Semons

This tiny village was relocated to its current high vantage point after powerful floods devastated Tupin-et-Semons in 1684. It is really just a cluster of stone houses around the catherdral and it is the journey as much as the destination for this place! You can take the 3.5km walk Le Sentier de Grande Crues which includes the educational trail with information on the viticulture, legends, and ecosystems. The walk has a stop on the protected haven of Île du Beurre before ascending up to a belvedere Iwhich overlooks the vineyards and the Rhône Valley.