France/Italy roadtrip – Pérouges and Chateau de Cormatin | alison richards

I left the campsite early and headed west towards Lyon. The loop from Briançon to Annecy meant that I was quite close to Grenoble, as well as Charmonix and Mont Blanc. I would have liked to go to the mountains more, but there didn't seem to be too many places to camp around there.

My first destination for today was to be Pérouges, a medieval walled town that was given the Plus Beaux status as one of the most beautiful villages in France. I was slowly trying to visit them all! I got there about 10:30, parked in the ample parking area (I was surprised there was lots of space, as it wasn't particularly early), and wandered in. Pérouges used to be a wealthy village dealing mainly in textiles and it showed, as the houses and buildings are grand and built in stone. It really was pretty.

Inside the church. The church is the first building you see of the city after passing through a gate. It was built in 1479.

This hole in the wall serves one thing, Galette Perougienne. I came back after I’d looked around.

Most of the shops here were artisan stores. I popped into one that was a hand-made paper shop.

The image above is of the lower gate or Langlois gate. Langlois is the name of a general who commanded troops during a siege of the town in 1468 in which the Pérougians won. The inscription in Latin says "Pérouges of the Pérougians, impregnable fortress, those rogues from Dauphiné wanted to take it but failed. Yet they took the gates, the locks and the hinges and run away with them. The devil takes them!". Pérouges is the only city in the region to have resisted and they were rewarded by being exempt from paying taxes for a whole 20 years!

I kept on following the road I was on, which went all the way around the walls, then stopped off in the main square to have a look around. The stone buildings were just so gorgeous, glowing golden in the sunlight.

I arrived back at the church then went inwards to the main square

I went back to the shop selling the Galette Pérougienne and bought a slice. It's essentially a sugar-coated lemony dough that is cooked in a very hot oven. It was delicious too! I found a recipe here if you're curious!

It was time for me to move on but I didn't really have anywhere to be so I just set my GPS for my next stop and decided that I would stop on my way if anything struck my fancy. I ended up following brown "tourist trail" signs to a place called Ars-sur-Formans. I found a park and got out to look around.

I had no idea what made this place worthy of a brown sign so I had a bit of a wander until I spotted it - a giant church. It wasn't any old church however, it was the place where a French saint had lived and worked, and is now lying in a glass casket. I am not kidding.

The church itself was beautiful, and the site was interesting, despite me being an atheist. The parish priest was canonised in 1925, Saint Jean-Marie Vianney, also known as Curé d'Ars. Up to 20,000 pilgrims used to visit him each year in the 1850's, and he spent 18 to 20 hours per day listening to them in confession. If I had to spend that long listening to people, I'd want to be made a saint too!

I was starving by the time I left the church so I popped into a boulangerie. They didn't really have any sandwiches left, just half ones, so I ended up buying a little quiche, a half sandwich and a pear tart for later. However, I will always remember that bakery fondly for being the one that introduced me to the best ever sandwich combination: butter, saucisson and cornichons. Oh my, it was delicious! The quiche was also nice too but not in quite the same way. And I kept the pear tart for later.

I walked back to the camper and hopped in, and drove quite a long way to my next stop, the Chateau de Cormatin. I had actually been here before in 2016, but they had been closed for lunch and I didn't want to wait 2 hours until they opened again! This time, I got there at 4pm and, being summer, they were open late so I bought a ticket and went inside.

This was another place that you could only go inside on a French-language tour, but they did actually give you a guidebook of the chateau in English that you could read as you went through with the tour group. This was a really great idea, as I was the only English-speaker and, while the guide said I could ask questions, I didn't want to annoy the French.

I'm so glad I went back to that chateau though, as it was truly beautiful inside.

The painting that inspired Matisse’s painting “The Dance”

Inside the apartment of the Marquise d’Huxelles. This room was so exquisitely decorated!

The cabinet of curiosities. I always love looking at these and what people have collected.

After the tour, I took a look around the gardens, which were also beautiful... of course! But it was getting on and I wanted to find a campsite and settle down for the night as I'd done about 5 hours of driving today.

The chateau from right at the back of the garden

I remembered from last time I was in this area that there were quite a lot of campsites around. The one I chose was just down the road the from chateau. I turned up and the lady in the reception was just so lovely and helpful! I picked a spot under an apple tree and with a sheep paddock behind me and just relaaaaxed. It was truly one of the loveliest campsites I've been to.

Campsite: Le Hameau des Champs

Rating: 10/10. As above, the owners were friendly, the sites were cheap and set in the most beautiful little gardens (for a campsite!). They were also fairly private, with tall hedges in between. The facilities were super clean and well organised.