Château des Poupets

Southern Beaujolais

The Pierres Dorées

Thirty-nine hamlets built in ochre limestone that catches first and last light — France’s Little Tuscany, still a working vineyard country.

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Why the stone is gold

The limestone is rich in iron oxide. Walls, churches and washhouses glow amber at dawn and deep honey at dusk. Photographers come for that colour; the villages remain lived-in, with vegetable gardens behind the same walls.

Oingt and the hill villages

Oingt is the postcard: alleys of golden stone, a keep, and a view across the south of Beaujolais. Theizé, Ternand, Jarnioux, Pommiers and Bagnols each deserve a slow hour. Park once and walk — the streets are too narrow to enjoy from a car.

Wine at the edge of the Crus

This is mostly AOC Beaujolais and Beaujolais-Villages country, with Chardonnay in pockets such as Le Bois-d’Oingt. After a morning of granite Crus in the north, the south tastes lighter, more picnic than cellar.

From the château

Allow forty-five minutes from Les Poupets. Combine Oingt with a return through Villefranche-sur-Saône, or make it the last afternoon of a weekend before the A6 south to Lyon.

Go late in the day. The name is not marketing — the walls really do turn gold.