[Sept. 2025] Pérouges, France, is a truly small stone village.
The cobblestone streets are part of its charm, but they’re also extremely difficult to navigate.
There was a church near the village entrance, so we decided to go inside.
The map/guidebook we bought listed it as a “church-fortress,” and there seemed to be no name for the church.
It was built in the 15th century and apparently served as both a church and a fortress.
It’s a modest, dark church, but it has a great atmosphere.
It’s the complete opposite of the huge church on Fourvière Hill in Lyon that we saw the day before.
Apart from this, there was nowhere else to go inside, and we quickly found ourselves in the central square, Place du Tilleul.
I thought this tiny village would be like a museum, but it seemed to have its own residents.
In a house on the corner, a group of children were studying, lined up at desks.
There were about 15 of them.
They were children around elementary school age.
On that day, only two restaurants facing Place du Tilleul, the central square, were open, so we went in to try to make a reservation at one of them.
They said it was already open.
It was before noon, but we were both hungry, so we decided to eat.
When we went inside, we found a fairly large restaurant.
It’s called Le Relais de la Tour.
Starters and desserts were self-service, and the main courses had three different price ranges.
We skipped the starter, and for our main courses, my husband chose chicken and I chose duck.
It’s unclear whether the food was particularly regional.
My husband’s chicken was boiled, and he said that the meat was so tough it was difficult to carve it from the bone.
My duck was served with an orange sauce, but it was actually a sweet, cloudy brown sauce.
It was delicious, anyway.
It was accompanied by ratatouille and charcoal-roasted potatoes.
For dessert, we had the town’s specialty, Galette de Pérouges, and meringue with English cream (a kind of custard cream).
The galette was a pizza made with sugar and butter.
I think the meringue was tastier.
With a half-bottle of red wine and coffee, the total came to €63.10.
The restaurant was empty when we arrived, but by the time we left, it was nearly full.
