Alsace Wine Tour 2023 – Balan to Port de Melay

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Near Lyon to Port Melay

We have breakfast overlooking the Boole courts at Balan after our overnight stay in our motorhome. We sort out the motorhome, and leave Balan by about 9.30 heading towards to Montluel and Intermarché to buy fresh milk. The charcuterie and fromagerie are closed on Sunday, so we could not purchase any  jambon or lomo.

We take D2 to St Andrés de Corcy, then D6 through Reyrieux to Trévoux. Here we cross the river Rhone, very wide at this point, onto D87 to Anse and D338 to Légny.

Between Légny and Tarare we pass through the village of Les Olmes where there is a l-o-n-g traffic line moving at walking speed into the village and we wonder why. We soon see signs for carnival, lots of people and a very large vehicle in front.

They are all ploughing through thick white stuff which is blowing around everywhere… it turns out to be foam. The large vehicle is spewing out huge quantities of it, a foot deep across the road, the children are loving it. We follow at walking pace through the village behind the people and through the foam. The village is small so we are soon out at the other side, but an amusing and timely diversion while travelling!

At Tarare we take N7 (Route Nationale) a good road all the way to Roanne. On the way we stop at Aire de Repos for lunch, a good spot high up in the mountains with shade and a picnic table, but it is too hot at 28°C so sit in the shade. At Roanne we take the D18, a small road that follows the Canal de Roanne á Digoin all the way to Port de Melay, our stop for the next two nights. There are six camper spaces all filled, also car spaces facing the canal. One camper is already parked across a car space and a half, so we join him, later another follows.

There are nine of us here for the night. It is very hot, but we find shade and drink a bottle of Primitivo red wine, which goes down well in the heat with olives and hummus. Alan chats to four of the other campers in French, I make beef burger in a bun, with thinly sliced tomato, mushroom and salad. We sit out and eat as the evening cools and later walk along the canal. It is quiet, rural with Charolais cows grazing in the field and very quiet, with a spectacular sunset.

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