The weekend
Four days in Tain-l'Hermitage, a modest working town on the Rhône with one of the greatest vineyards on earth rising directly out of it. Hermitage hill is a single steep granite dome, terraced since Roman times and entirely covered in Syrah — you can walk up it from the main street in twenty minutes and look down on the river.
This is the connoisseur's pick. Chapoutier, Jaboulet and the excellent Cave de Tain are all within a few streets of each other; the ViaRhôna cycle path runs flat along the river through the middle of town; and the Valrhona chocolate factory — whose Cité du Chocolat runs tastings and workshops — is five minutes from the station. Chocolate and Syrah pair far better than they have any right to.
A little history
The hill is named for a crusading knight, Gaspard de Stérimberg, who returned from the Albigensian wars around 1224, was granted the hill by the Queen of France, built a chapel and lived as a hermit — planting vines to support himself. The Romans were there long before him: Pliny and Martial both praised the wine of Vienne, just upstream. In the 18th and 19th centuries Hermitage was among the most expensive wine in the world, and Bordeaux châteaux quietly strengthened their clarets with it — a practice known as 'hermitagé' and never officially admitted.
What it costs
Per person for the whole weekend, priced for a party of four — two twin rooms, or one whole place between you. Everything but the bed is fixed, so where you sleep is the only row that moves and the only one shown as a range.
| Per person | |
|---|---|
| Getting there, both ways | £174 |
| Three nights | £90–130 |
| Bikes and getting about | £53 |
| Eating, drinking and tastings | £175 |
| The weekend, per person | ~£490–530 |
Where to sleep
| Option | Per person |
|---|---|
| Hotels — two twin rooms | |
| Domaine d’Agrippa and similar, just out of town | €35 a night £90 for three |
| Hôtel Le Château, across the bridge in Tournon | €50 a night £130 for three |
No published market data for Tain-l’Hermitage. Worth checking the listing sites — April rooms drop by about 43%, and rentals likely follow.
Eating and drinking
| What | Each |
|---|---|
| A menu du jour | €16–28 |
| Dinner with a bottle of Crozes-Hermitage | €40–70 |
| Tastings at the big houses on the quay | €10–25 |
| Valrhona chocolate, which is also made here | as much as you like |
The £175 above assumes the middle of this list: a cheap lunch, an ordinary dinner, one good one over the weekend, and wine throughout. It does not change with the room.
Day by day
Friday Arrive, and up the hill
- Morning flight to Lyon; train south down the Rhône, into Tain by mid-afternoon.
- Walk straight up Hermitage hill from the town — a steep twenty minutes through the terraces to the chapel at the top, with the whole river valley below and the Alps on a clear day.
- Late afternoon: M. Chapoutier's visitor centre in the main street for a first tasting.
- Evening: dinner in Tournon across the bridge — Rhône cooking with a Lyonnais accent.
Saturday Upstream to Condrieu and Côte-Rôtie, train home from Vienne
- 67.0km with 126m of ascent, one way, ending at Vienne station. Ridden north, upstream, which is the whole point: it puts the three great appellations in the last fifteen kilometres instead of the first fifteen.
- Straight out of Tournon onto the ViaRhôna (EuroVelo 17), surfaced and largely car-free the whole way.
- Serves-sur-Rhône at 11km, tower on the rock, where the granite gorge is at its narrowest. Saint-Vallier at 17km, then Andance at 25km and its suspension bridge.
- Serrières at 35km is halfway and lunch — an old Rhône boatmen's town, with the museum in the church.
- Then the wine, all of it inside eight kilometres. Château-Grillet at 53km: an entire appellation of about three and a half hectares in its own natural amphitheatre, and you ride past the gate. Condrieu immediately after, home of Viognier, where Domaine Georges Vernay is the house credited with saving the appellation when it was down to a handful of hectares in the 1960s.
- Ampuis at 59km, and Côte-Rôtie. The terraces above the road are among the steepest worked vineyards in France, held up by drystone walls and worked by hand. E. Guigal is here in the Château d'Ampuis — La Mouline, La Landonne, La Turque. By appointment, and worth arranging weeks out.
- Vienne at 67km. A Roman theatre cut into the hillside and the Temple of Augustus and Livia standing complete in the middle of the town — a good hour before the train, and the best non-wine thing in the weekend. Home in about forty minutes.
- The catch is the wind. The prevailing wind in this valley runs north to south, so riding upstream you are likely to be into it. That is the price of having the cellars at the end rather than the beginning; on a still day it is a very easy 67km.
67.0 km · 127 m of ascent · 118–162 m
Bail-out points, and one for the completists
The Lyon–Valence line shadows the river the whole way, so you can stop anywhere and take the train the rest of the way home. What matters is that the wine is all in the last fifteen kilometres — stop before Saint-Clair and you have ridden the quiet half and missed the reason for going.
| Stop at | Ridden | What you have had |
|---|---|---|
| Saint-Vallier | 17km | The granite gorge, and not much else. A weather bail-out |
| Saint-Rambert-d’Albon | 31km | The river; still short of lunch at Serrières |
| Le Péage-de-Roussillon | 41km | Lunch, but none of the appellations — they all lie ahead |
| Saint-Clair-les-Roches | 55km | Château-Grillet and Condrieu. Côte-Rôtie is 6km further on |
| Vienne | 67km | Everything, plus the Roman town |
| Lyon Part-Dieu | 101km | The full length of the valley, if a century is the point |
Riding it the other way — train up to Lyon or Vienne and roll home downstream with the wind — is easier on the legs, but it front-loads the tastings: from Vienne, Condrieu and Côte-Rôtie arrive inside the first fourteen kilometres, leaving fifty-three to ride afterwards.
Sunday The Crozes-Hermitage plateau, and the cellars at the end
- 39.7km with 346m of ascent, a loop from Tournon. Ridden anticlockwise, so the climb onto the plateau happens in the first five kilometres and the three Tain tasting rooms come in the last two.
- Over the bridge and up past Crozes-Hermitage at 3km — the village that named the appellation — and Larnage, where white kaolin clay under the vines was quarried for centuries to line bread ovens.
- East across the plateau through Marsaz at 10km, apricot orchards between the vines and the Vercors on the skyline.
- Saint-Donat-sur-l'Herbasse at 17km is the far point and lunch: a collegiate church with a celebrated organ, and a Bach festival in July.
- The high point is 277m at 20km, which tells you what kind of climbing this is — long, gentle and never steep.
- Back west through Chanos-Curson at 30km and Mercurol at 33km, then down off the plateau to the river.
- The tastings, all at 38km. M. Chapoutier — biodynamic, and Braille on every label — then Cave de Tain, the co-operative founded in 1933 that farms about a fifth of the Hermitage hill itself and sells it at co-operative prices. It is open all week and it is the value pick of the weekend. Paul Jaboulet Aîné's Vineum, home of La Chapelle, is on the same street.
- Back over the bridge to Tournon at 40km. Last dinner with a bottle of Hermitage blanc — Marsanne that ages for decades and almost nobody drinks.
39.7 km · 347 m of ascent · 121–277 m
The chapel is a walk, not a ride
The Chapelle de l'Hermitage sits on top of the hill directly above Tain, and the path up is a steep twenty minutes on foot through the terraces. The reward is the whole river valley below and the Alps on a clear day. Do it on the Friday afternoon or before breakfast — the Sunday loop passes the bottom of the hill without going up it.
Monday Home
- Morning: the Cité du Chocolat properly, or the steam train up the Doux gorge from Tournon if it is running.
- Train back to Lyon; evening flight to Gatwick.
When to go
Spring — March to May
9–20°C. The Hermitage hill greens up, the Rhône runs high, and the terraces are being worked by hand. The mistral can still be cold in March.
Summer — June to August
18–31°C and often hotter — this is a genuinely hot valley in July and August, and the granite terraces radiate it back. Ride early or not at all in the afternoon.
Autumn — September and October
11–21°C, harvest through September on some of the steepest vineyards in France, and the hill turning gold above the river. The most comfortable riding of the year.
When to go
September or May. Both give warm days without the July heat on those south-facing terraces.
Festivals
None of this weekend assumes a festival. The rides work on any weekend of the year, which is rather the point here: the Tain cellars take visitors on a schedule in every season. If your dates land on the Marché aux Vins d’Ampuis in January, it is the serious tasting of the year, and worth a day off the bicycle. The trade is worth stating plainly: on a festival weekend the growers are behind a stand in the square rather than showing visitors round a cellar, so book private tastings weeks ahead or accept that some will be shut, and expect beds to be scarcer, dearer and gone months in advance.
Spring
Marché aux Vins d'Ampuis — late January
The Côte-Rôtie growers' market, and the region's serious annual tasting. Cold, but the wine is not.
Summer
Summer evenings in Tain and Tournon — July and August
Riverside markets, open-air concerts and the Chapoutier visitor rooms running through the season.
Autumn
Harvest on the terraces — September
Hermitage and Côte-Rôtie are picked by hand on slopes too steep for machines; the big houses continue scheduled visits throughout.
Chapoutier and the Tain cellars — year-round
The commercial cellars in Tain take visitors on a schedule whatever the season, which is what makes this destination work outside festival dates.
Getting there
From London, per person, assuming bikes are hired locally rather than flown. Fares checked September 2026 and converted at €1 to 86p.
| Leg | Time | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| The flight | ||
| easyJet or BA, Gatwick to Lyon (LYS), several daily | 2h 00 | £60 |
| Airport into Lyon | ||
| Rhônexpress tram to Lyon Part-Dieu (€16.90) | 0h 30 | £15 |
| Down the Rhône | ||
| TER to Tain-l’Hermitage–Tournon (€14). The station is in the middle of town, so no onward taxi | 1h 00 | £12 |
| Waiting and one change | 0h 55 | — |
| Door to door, one way | 4h 25 | £87 |
| Both ways | £174 | |
Bike hire
Assumes bikes with low gears, or e-bikes — the hill of Hermitage is a wall.
| Shop | Rate |
|---|---|
| Wine and Ride, at Tain station — hire on its own or with a tasting tour attached. Tuesday to Saturday 9 to 6; Sunday and Monday by arrangement | from €25 a day |
| M. Chapoutier, 18 avenue du Dr Paul Durand — electric bikes collected from the tasting cellar, which is a good way to start a day | rates on request |
Getting about
| What | Cost |
|---|---|
| Bike hire, Saturday and Sunday | £43 |
| TER up and down the Rhône, allow | £10 |
| Getting about, whole weekend | £53 |
The wineries
M. Chapoutier
One of the great names of the Rhône, with a visitor centre and tasting room in the main street. Daily tastings, book ahead for the guided version.
Cave de Tain
Farms around a fifth of the Hermitage hill and sells superb wine at co-operative prices. Modern tasting room, open all week — the value pick.
Paul Jaboulet Aîné
Home of La Chapelle, one of the legendary bottles of the 20th century. Their Vineum tasting space is in the town centre.
Delas Frères
Just across the bridge, with a smart new winery and a strong Saint-Joseph and Cornas range.
The wines
Syrah at its most complete: Hermitage, Crozes-Hermitage, Cornas and Saint-Joseph — black pepper, violets, iron and smoke. The whites deserve more attention than they get: Marsanne and Roussanne from Hermitage age for thirty years, and Viognier makes Condrieu, the most perfumed white in France, a short way upstream.
Eat & drink
| Friday | Dinner in Tournon across the river |
| Saturday | Riverside lunch on the ViaRhôna; chocolate before dinner |
| Sunday | Vineyard lunch on the Crozes plateau; Hermitage blanc at dinner |
| Monday | Pogne and coffee before the train |
The food
Rhône-Alpes cooking with Lyonnais leanings — pogne brioche, ravioles du Dauphiné, caillette, Saint-Marcellin cheese, apricots and cherries from the orchards between the vines. And Valrhona chocolate, made here since 1922 and used by pastry chefs worldwide.
Where to stay
Fac & Spera
Comfortable rooms above the wine house in the middle of town, with the vineyard behind.
Hôtel de la Villeon
An 18th-century mansion with a hanging garden and a view over the river to Hermitage hill. The most charming bed here.
Michel Chabran
A Relais with a serious kitchen, on the old 45th-parallel road — for a group that would rather eat very well than walk to the station.
Practical
- Bikes must be booked onto TER trains in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. From 1 May to 27 September 2026 a €1 reservation per bike is compulsory on every AURA line at weekends and on public holidays, and every day through July and August — which for a Friday-to-Monday trip means all of it. Book at aura.ter.veloabord.fr, separately from the train ticket itself. Without it you will be refused boarding, and a check can cost you €35 or more. Outside those dates bikes travel free and unbooked, space permitting.
- The reservation is tied to one specific train. Catch an earlier or later one and it is void — cancel and rebook instead. The same applies if your train is cancelled; the booking does not roll on to the next service. Cancellation is free up to two minutes before departure, so book the train you mean to take and change it if you must. Five bikes maximum per transaction, and no bike groups of ten or more.
- This shapes the Saturday. The whole day depends on the train home from Vienne, so that is the booking to make first. Folding bikes need no reservation at all; tandems, cargo bikes and trikes are not carried. Take panniers off the bike, and be on the platform ten minutes early.
- France allows cyclists 0.5 g/l of blood alcohol, the same limit as drivers — so one glass with lunch is the practical ceiling if you are riding afterwards. See the country-by-country table.
- The insider pick. Great Syrah within walking distance of the hotel, flat riverside cycling, and a town small enough to feel like a find.
- Watch the mistral. It blows hard down the valley and it is cold. The Saturday rides north into it and takes the train home, which is the trade for having the cellars at the end; on a bad day that wind is the whole story, so check the forecast before committing to Vienne rather than a shorter finish.
- Bike hire is limited in Tain itself — book ahead, or hire in Valence (20 min by train) where there is more choice including e-bikes.
- Hermitage hill on foot is worth doing on arrival day: 20 steep minutes for one of the great views in wine.
- Check sunset before you plan the last leg. Any day that finishes with a ride home wants an hour of light in hand, and that hour disappears fast either side of the equinoxes.
- ViaRhôna — official route — EuroVelo 17 from Lake Geneva to the Mediterranean, with maps and services
- Vins Rhône — official wine board — the appellations of the Rhône valley, north and south
- Valrhona Cité du Chocolat — tastings, workshops and the factory story, in the middle of Tain
- Ardèche Hermitage Tourism — the local tourist office for Tain and Tournon