On the Road Again . . .

My dad is a hard core Willie Nelson fan so I had to title at least one post this! We were now making our way to Lyon for our third and final Euro Cup match. Of course, we couldn't do this without adding in some sightseeing!

We arrived around lunchtime and since Lyon is the culinary capital of France, we were excited to start tasting its offerings - unfortunately, this would have to wait because the food where we stopped was unbelievably bad. 

At least our day would get better! Our tour was a wine tour of the Côtes de Rhône region of France. I have found over my year and a bit here that anytime I like a red wine, it usually yields from this area and Châteauneuf-du-Pape - enough said. The tour did a quick stop at a church before heading to the wine but what was nice about the location is you got an overview of the area. You could see the Rhone rive sprawling through the hillsides with vineyard after vineyard eating up the landscape.

Belvédère de Pipet

View from the church

The tour was only a half day so there were only two wine stops - one smaller family owned winery and the other larger, more corporate. 

Of course at each stop they give you a lesson on growing grapes, fermentation and how to taste before you get to sample the wine! I won't bore you with these details - you can google it. Instead I will share the few pictures I took.

The road to get there

On the tour there was an American girl who was living in Lyon. She kindly shared some restaurant recommendations so we could experience what the city had to offer and while we ran into a few hiccups - closed at lunch, closed until Sept - we did manage to go to one that evening. The portions were crazy but the food was good - success!! It was called Brasserie Georges - it's the oldest brasserie in Lyon and brews its own beer. It's been brewing its own beer since its inception in 1836. It serves traditional food from the region.