A day trip to vineyards and wandering Lyon

Here's where we're staying in Lyon:

We're the blue dot on the map, between the Saone and Rhone.

We went back to the parking garage, me full of trepidation that we might not exit without scraping the roof off the van.  We got out, but not with more than about an inch to spare.  We headed north out of town, avoiding toll highway A6 for the most part in favor of the French countryside.  Our goal:  taste some local French wines.  We headed into the Mâconnais subregion of Burgundy, and the towns of Chaintré, Fuissé, and Solutre-Pouilly.  Because of the holidays, our choices were very limited, but we identified two vineyards:  Domain Mathias in Chaintre, and Domaine Jean-Pierre Sève in Solutre-Pouilly, a few miles down some narrow, twisty roads in the hills of southern Burgundy.

Vineyards in this area are particularly known for their Pouilly-Fuissé wine.  "What is that, besides the name of two towns?", you may ask.  Let's consult Wikipedia:

Pouilly-Fuissé (French pronunciation: ​[pu.ji fɥi.se]) is an appellation (AOC) for white wine in the Mâconnais subregion Burgundy in central France, located in the communes of Fuissé, Solutré-Pouilly, Vergisson and Chaintré. Pouilly-Fuissé has Chardonnay as the only grape variety.

Our first stop was Domaine Mathias.

Domaine Mathias

Tasting room, Domaine Mathias

Tasting room, Domaine Mathias

Tasting room, Domaine Mathias

While they do make Pouilly-Fuissé chardonnay (and it's good), Domaine Mathias also makes some good (and affordable) reds and rose's.  We picked up one of each.

The vines of Domaine Jean-Pierre Sève are now in their fourth generation of management under the Sève family.  They have 18 1/2 acres of exclusively Chardonnay grapes, and their wine is very good.  While we lean toward reds, we picked up 3 vintages of their Pouilly-Fuissé here.

We returned to Lyon and spent the rest of the day basically walking and eating... but most of us did take an evening spin on the Ferris wheel at Place Bellecour.

Ferris Wheel, Place Bellecour, Lyon.

We then crossed the Saone again to revisit the old part of town, where supposedly there are some "catacombs," really subterranean paths between the various streets that are accessible by simply pushing on unmarked doors.  So we wandered around pushing on unmarked doors, to no avail until it was time to eat again.  Our dinner was probably the best I've had in France thus far.  Judy and I both started with a goat cheese salad, a main of fish (looked like cod, perfectly seasoned) with potatoes and veggies, a lemon tart, and a carafe of local red wine... all for about 40 euro.  Fortunately, we're walking more every day than I typically do in a week.

To seat the 8 of us, the waiter took us down a winding stone staircase to the cellar, adding another cool little bit of ambience.  Here we are:

Second dinner in Lyon.  In a cellar.

You don't eat quickly in France.  We were there for well over 2 hours and left after 10.  Then back to our apartment to get ready for a new day.