Perouges

Perouges made linen, a trade that flourished until the end of the eighteenth century, and when the new roads and the railway passed it by in the nineteenth century the village emptied: from around fifteen hundred people it fell to under a hundred, houses collapsed, and in 1911 the council proposed demolishing what was left. A committee of local figures stopped it and began buying and restoring houses instead, which is why the village survives with its ring wall, two gates and streets of round river cobbles laid in patterns. It has stood in for medieval France in many films. The local speciality is the galette de Perouges, a flat sugar-and-butter tart served hot in the square.

History

People have lived at Pérouges since the Chalcolithic, and the town was perhaps founded by Gauls returning from Perugia in Italy; its fortress is first mentioned in the 12th century, and in 1167 the lord of Anthon shut its gates against the troops of the Archbishop of Lyon. The inhabitants, farmers and linen weavers, won communal freedom in 1236, and on the trade route between Lyon and Geneva the town prospered, its textile trade booming until the end of the 18th century; it became French under Henri IV in 1601. In the 19th century the roads and railways passed it by and its population fell from 1,500 to 90, but from 1911 the town was restored and its houses saved (Wikipedia, Pérouges).

What's there

• The cobbled lanes - round river stones laid in patterns, hard underfoot.
• The ring wall and gates - the surviving fortified circuit.
• The Place du Tilleul - a square with a lime tree planted in 1792.
• The galette - a hot sugar tart served in the village restaurants.

When to go

April to October; the village is compact and busy on summer weekends with day visitors from Lyon. It is quiet on weekday mornings. Winter is largely closed.

Things to know

It is very small, walked in half an hour, and heavily restored rather than untouched. The cobbles are genuinely awkward for wheels and unsteady feet. Most premises are shops or restaurants.

Nearby

Lyon lies southwest; the Dombes ponds are north.

Key facts