Belleville - Beaujolais & Dombes region & to Lyon - Tuesday 22 August

This morning we arrived in Belleville on the Saône River, just north of Lyon. Today David and I did different tours again. I wanted to do something completely different than one of the many wine visits on this river cruise, and I was in a 'select' group of just 24 people who took a tour into the Dombes region to visit the picturesque town of Chatillon sur Chalaronne (where Vincent de Paul had lived for a year). We had a short tour of the town, followed by the opportunity to taste the regional specialty of frogs' legs (Cuisses de Grenouille) at a local hotel restaurant. I had four leg portions that were cooked separately, just fried in butter. But in this region, these are typically dusted with flour before being fried. They tasted exactly like chicken - in fact, it was a bit like eating a chicken wing. Only the upper joint of the hind leg is served, which has a single bone. We had a small glass of wine with these. Frogs have recently been declared a protected species in France, so today they are mostly imported from Eastern Europe or Asia.

We then travelled further into the Dombes region, passing by huge fields of corn, or sunflowers; and also a few of the thousands of ponds the area is known for. These often get drained by farmers during particularly hot and dry conditions, as they have this summer.

We then arrived at a snail (escargot) farm. These are known to be high in protein, low in fat, and rich in fatty acids. This farmer was cultivating around 160,000 snails on his medium-sized farm. But because of the heat wave, he was expecting a bad year, losing around 40,000 snails. We heard about the process involved in farming these (from the snail eggs), and saw the farm area set aside for this. We heard how the snails are killed by boiling them alive for 10 minutes. Then they are put into a 'soup' to tenderise them, and then these may be used in this form, or mixed with a garlic sauce, or Provençal style tomato sauce, and made into something rather like a pâté to spread on toast. I was only able to sample one such pâté with a plastic spoon. The other samples were all on toast or in small pastry shells. It tasted fine, but someone else reported that the tasting of small pieces of snail was a bit rubbery.



David did the tour that involved visiting the medieval village of Oingt and a Beaujolais vineyard. The drive in the bus was picturesque through the rolling hills of Beaujolais. The climate is ideal for growing grapes with lots of sunshine and granite-based soils that add structure to the wines. Three wines were sampled, a rose, red and Chardonnay. All were very pleasant and the Chardonnay went very well with the goat's cheese and bread.

Back on the buses (noting the temperature was 33C) we were heading back to a 1pm lunch on the boat. I did see a race track on the way back - David would have been interested. For lunch I enjoyed soup, a beautiful piece of sole rolled around some salmon mousse, and a specially made gluten free cheesecake.

At 2:45pm, the boat turned around, and headed back down the Sâone towards Lyon. It was a very serene and picturesque journey, stopping just before 7pm at L'Abbaye de Collonges - the Michelin-starred restaurant of Paul Bocuse, a French chef who is famous for the high quality of his restaurants and his innovative approaches to cuisine. He is apparently one of the most prominent chefs associated with nouvelle cuisine, which is less opulent and calorific than traditional classic cuisine.



We walked the short distance to the restaurant, on what was a gloriously warm and still evening, for our decadent feast and evening entertainment. We arrived to the sound of lovingly restored fairground organs. We sat with the Todds and the Barrows, and a nice couple from the UK, and enjoyed a multi-course menu, served by rather stern waiters (all men...) in white jackets. We had crayfish, and veal, and cheeses, petit-fours, and then dessert (the latter served by some of the waiters racing downstairs carrying multiple plates at once - a health and safety nightmare). A lovely evening was had by all. At 10pm David and I were amongst the first to head the three minute walk back to the boat. Shortly after, the boat set sail for the hour and a half journey back to Lyon.