We have spent seven days in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comte region of France. It is a truly spectacular part of the world with a diversity of countrysides, cities and villages. My frequent partner-in-crimes organised a walk that almost killed me, but also provided visual and culinary rewards that made the near death experience worthwhile.
The 14km walk is one of many that emanate from the village of Baume-Les-Messieurs. This achingly beautiful village sits in the valley of the Jura Escarpment and is surrounded by 200m tall limestone cliffs. After a pulling a heartstring early my comrades urged me to keep going and despite thinking that my lungs would come out my throat I completed the trek. The reward was lunch in a charming restaurant that served beer from a nearby brewery – La Rouget de Lisle.
After ripping into two “Biere Pression” or tap beers – “La Rouget Blond”, I treated myself to a Baume-Les-Messieurs Blond – a beer brewed especially for the town by La Rouget de Lisle. Blond beers in Europe are far different to the Pure Blondes of Australia and are on a wide spectrum both in ABV and flavour. This variety weighed in at 7.5% and was a delightful chewy sipper. A village this beautiful deserves its own brew.
Fortuitously our route to and from Baume-Les-Messieurs (I’m glad that is the last time I’ll type that) went through the town of Bletterans and 50m from the front door of La Rouget de Lisle. Now the composer of our woeful and dirgeful National Anthem is never going to inspire a brewery to be named after him. The composer of the stirring La Marseillaise is a different story. Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle was a French Army Officer, who wrote La Marseillaise in 1792. A year later he was in prison after refusing to swear allegiance to the new constitution. Go figure.
I can’t be sure why the brewery chose to name itself after Rouget, as he doesn’t appear to have links to the region – but who cares. It is a great name. And they make great beer. And a ton of different varieties.
Untappd (of which they weren’t aware) lists 61 different brews that they’ve made. I reckon there’s been many more as they came into existence in 1994, well before Untappd started in 2010. They have 20 taps and are pleased to do tasters. We tried everything from a cherry beer to a honey flavoured spring beer to a meaty Tripel and a very biere Noel – their 2023 Christmas drop.
So two tips if you are in this part of the world. Visit La Rouget de Lisle. And if you do the walk I did – get a mate to drive you to the village of Vevy and start the walk from there!
back of the ferry 