NICE RUN FOREST

We wake to heavy rain but it’s good to be travelling and there is no rush to get up.
Today we originally considered going to Villefranche sur Saone, purely as a convenient stop, but after breakfast we plan a route which will not take us as far but should be enjoyable.
The rain as we we leave St Eloy les Mines diminishes to showers as we drive through a mixture of woods and open farmland.
At Chantelle we stop to buy lunch from a boulangerie, pizza slices and sandwiches.  The town has some elegantly proportioned Napolenic houses and masons are constructing a complicated decorative wall near the boulangerie.

We eat our goodies in a layby near St Didier then skirt north of Vichy onto our scenic drive along the D25
It soon becomes apparent we are in a mountain region;  climbs and hairpins the like of which we haven’t seen since last year in the Pyrenees.  We run through deciduous woodlands and forests of tall firs, at times we are looking at the tops of firs with their trunks stretching below for a hundred feet.  Progress is leisurely as we go slow enough to enjoy the views which sometimes span vast expanses of lowlands towards more mountains.
Climbing steeply into  Chatel Montagne we pull in to view the huge Romanesque church across the valley. 

A noticeboard tells us it was founded by Romans in the 3rd century and the current structure dates back to the 1400s.  The Nicks drive the vans  around into the church square to let Ali and Grete walk across.  Around  the square are modern carvings of animals and fish.  Inside the church is a large skeleton clock in a glass case, with wires reaching up to high pulleys countered by enormous granite weights.  Unusually there is no stained glass but the columns are grey granite with Corinthian tops and roman arches.
We continue along the narrowish D25, never level, rarely straight, through beautiful autumn woods.  Nearing our destination we drive above the valley of the River Renaison finally descending into the town of the same name.  The aire is a quiet spot next to the river and a small weir.
Ali and Grete walk along to a wine shop at Domaine Desormiere, a small vineyard with vines on the roadside.  The grapes are very small.   During a tasting session the owner says they are ‘Gamay’ variety grapes smaller than usual from lack of rain, but good flavour and good wine next year.  They try four wines and buy a couple bottles each.  Not a France Passion but very enjoyable.