A Beaujolais wine day is mostly tastings, but it passes a medieval tower, a château circuit, a hilltop chapel and two viewpoints over the crus. Here is what each sight is, where it sits, and which day stops there, so you can match it to a Beaujolais booking.
The region runs 55 km north of Lyon. The golden-stone villages lie in the south, and the ten crus in the north. You rarely see both halves in one day, so decide which sights you want before you choose a tour. The shared days leave from Place Bellecour in Lyon, and the private days collect you.
Oingt is one of the Plus Beaux Villages de France, about 30 km from Lyon in the south of the Beaujolais. It is the best-known village of the Pays des Pierres Dorées, and its houses are built of the local golden stone.
The Musée de la Tour
Built: 12th century
Inside: the village's history
At the top, a panoramic terrace with an orientation table gives you a 360° view.
The mechanical music museum
Collection: 60+ instruments from Europe
Visit: with a musical demonstration
A stop for children and anyone who has had enough of cellars.
The Maison du Terroir
Address: 76 Place de Presberg
What: a tasting room for the Pierres Dorées
You taste the local wines there if you come without a tour.
Most shared half days in the south pour at a family winery near Oingt rather than in the village itself. If you want to walk its streets, the full day through both halves gives you 30 minutes there after the first tasting. The private day with Pérouges spends three hours around the village.
Pérouges is another of the Plus Beaux Villages, about 30 km from Lyon. It overlooks the plain of the Ain, east of the city, so it is not a Beaujolais village at all. You come for the medieval streets, not the wine.
One private day pairs the two. You spend the morning in the Pierres Dorées around Oingt, taste four or five wines at a family winery, then drive east to spend an hour and a quarter in Pérouges. Your ticket to the town is in the fare, and lunch is at your own expense.
The Château de Pizay sits on the wine route in the crus. The wine route half days start there with an oenosensory circuit, a sensory tasting of twelve of the estate's wines. You leave with an amateur-oenologist diploma.
After Pizay, both days drive the wine route past Fleurie, Morgon and Moulin-à-Vent, then pour five more wines at a family winery. On the morning version the circuit lasts about an hour, and the entry is in your fare. You book it as part of a half day, not on its own.
Two hills give you the view over the crus, and both have a chapel on top.
La Madone, above Fleurie
Height: 425 m
Tour: the afternoon crus tour
Inter Beaujolais calls it a panorama of all the Fleurie vineyards. You get ten minutes there, between a Cercié winery and a Chénas château cellar.
Mont Brouilly
On top: the Notre-Dame aux Raisins chapel, since 1854
Tour: the wine merchant's day
The summit viewpoint is a Geopark geosite. The wine merchant's day stops there for 30 minutes between its morning wineries and the picnic.
The afternoon tour and the Signature day also drive past Mont Brouilly, and the full day through both halves lunches near it. So you see the hill on most days in the crus, even when you do not stop on it.
The Beaujolais became a UNESCO Global Geopark in 2018, and the label was renewed in April 2022 for four years. It covers 121 municipalities and about 1,550 km² north-west of Lyon, on the edge of the Massif Central. It is a geology label, not a World Heritage listing.
The golden stone, the pierre dorée, is an ochre limestone laid down in the Jurassic, about 174 million years ago. Iron oxide gives it the yellow, and fossil crinoids give it the sparkle you see in a sunlit wall. Villagers once called it the poor man's stone.
In the Renaissance, rich Lyon families chose it for their town houses. Then the phylloxera crisis and cheap stone brought by railway ended the trade in the late 19th century. Since the 1960s the stone has become the look of the southern Beaujolais again.
If you have only two hours, the blind tasting stays in the city. You sit for two hours in a 19th-century silk workers' loft at 12 Grande Rue de la Croix-Rousse, one flight up, five minutes on the flat from the metro C Croix-Rousse stop.
A sommelier pours five glasses blind: a Crémant de Bourgogne, a Beaujolais, a Burgundy, a Northern Rhône and a wildcard. A board of local cheese, charcuterie and bread comes with them. It costs $114 a head, and you see no vineyard.
The private days reach places no shared tour does. Each of these is a stop on one day.
Find the sight you want in the left column. The next two tell you where it is and which day takes you there, and the last how long you get.
| Sight | Where | Days that stop there | Time there |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oingt | The south, about 30 km from Lyon | The full day through both halves; the Pérouges private day; a winery near it on the south half days | 30 minutes in the village, or 3 hours around it |
| Pérouges | East of Lyon, in the Ain | The Pérouges private day only | 1 hour 15 |
| Château de Pizay | The crus, on the wine route | The two wine route half days | About 1 hour, twelve wines |
| La Madone above Fleurie | The crus, 425 m | The afternoon crus tour | 10 minutes |
| Mont Brouilly | The crus, the chapel on the summit | The wine merchant's day; passed on the afternoon tour and the Signature day | 30 minutes at the viewpoint |
| The Croix-Rousse loft | Lyon 4e, no vineyard | The blind tasting | 2 hours |
| Château de Corcelles | The crus | The private winter day | 45 minutes |
| Régnié-Durette chapel | The crus | The vintage Land Rover day | A stop on the day |
The shared half days leave Place Bellecour for one half of the region, and the private days build the stops around you.
The villages come from the Plus Beaux Villages de France, the Geopark and the stone from the Geopark's own pages, and the viewpoints from Inter Beaujolais. Every stop on a tour comes from that tour's booking page. Check hours with each sight before you travel.
A private day from your Lyon address at 9 am: three hours in the golden-stone villages around Oingt with one family winery, then the medieval town of Pérouges, east of Lyon.
From $950 per group, up to 4
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A 2 pm start from Place Bellecour for the crus: a family winery in Cercié, the La Madone viewpoint above Fleurie and a château cellar in Chénas, back in Lyon at 6:30 pm.
From $126 per person
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The Golden Stones half day at the start time you pick: an hour at a family winery in Montmelas-Saint-Sorlin, then an estate near Oingt that pours with a mâchon, and back to Place Bellecour.
From $114 per person
Check AvailabilityNext: follow the vines north to south on the Beaujolais wine route, find your kerb on how to get there, or compare every day on Beaujolais Tours.