We headed up the motorway from Avignon – the autoroute du soleil, which was pretty busy with Belgians and Germans heading home from the South but we made pretty good time and turned off just before Lyons for St Etienne. We chose St Galmier for a 2 night stopover to avoid too long a journey, mainly because it was half way between Avignon and Dijon and because we like the look of the hotel. St Galmier is far enough away from anywhere interesting to make it a good place for a completely restful weekend. Its main claim to fame is that it is the source of Badoit and, since we’ve drunk more Badoit than wine in terms of quantity, we thought it made it worthy of a visit. It was a very ordinary, but nevertheless very pretty little place built on a small hill with a real mix of both modern and medieval buildings and great views from the top of the hill. We spent both days walking up and around the hill, admiring the town and the views.
Our hotel, La Charpiniere, was clearly popular for business meetings in the week and weddings at the weekend, but it seemed as though the whole of St Galmier was getting married the Saturday we were there! On arrival we were told the restaurant was fully booked but they relented and found us a table in a room they’d set up for the few diners as the wedding party were in the main restaurant. The food was delicious (Michelin starred) so we were glad they’d managed to squeeze us in. Sunday lunchtime we headed up the hill for another fine meal in a small local restaurant which was equally lovely.
The hotel itself was well appointed for a 3 star with a great bathroom, full length windows leading onto a fine lawn with red squirrels scampering between the trees, a fridge and satellite TV. All in all it was a perfect weekend and we finished it off on Sunday night by drinking a half bottle of Mercier sitting at our window admiring the garden after really enjoying the small break in our journey.
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