Sunday, September 6, 2009

Pérouges


Pérouges is an ancient walled city about 20 miles outside of Lyon. Originally founded by Italians about 900 years ago, it became part of France in the 1600's and hasn't changed much since. The walls are still mostly intact, and the buildings and streets are all stone and tile.

George and I had been here before. A few months ago we were invited here by some friends to attend a Tibetan music concert, but the concert was late and we didn't have much time to look around. What little we did see though was cool, so we knew we would have to come back--but certainly not for the next Tibetan music concert. We essentially just paid 20 euros to listen to 4 white guys hum for an hour, and then a Tibetan guy yelled at us and occasionally played a drum for the remaining hour. The 4 hummers had me struggling to stay awake though, so the drum banging, yelling guy was a welcome change.

The rooftops of Pérouges


Pérouges isn't a very big place--6 or 7 restaurants, 2 hotels, a handful of souvenir shops, and a couple hundred residential buildings. Only about 1,000 people live there, although I think the number of people in the village trebles each day (especially on weekends) with tourists. There is one slightly interesting museum and a couple awesome restaurants, but other than that you just walk around and marvel at the outstanding picturesque buildings and roadways. We got there super early to take lots of pictures before the tourist buses started dropping people off, and then hit the museum and George's favorite restaurant (favorite, because we have been there twice now!).

George waiting for her favorite restaurant to open


After lunch we enjoyed a couple pieces of Pérouges' famous Galette de Pérouges, a sweet, slightly pizza-ish dish which mostly tastes like sugar with a splash of lemon. I like it, especially when it is served hot, but to be honest I think there are a lot better pastries to be had in France.

For more pictures of Pérouges, click here. I'll leave you with this typical shot of small town France.