Chaponnay, France
Member since
2016The member has not specified any exchange dates
A nice house near Lyons
Our home is a recent, sunny, comfortable,3 bedroom house. It is situated in a quiet estate in the center of a pleasant, residential village about 15 kms from Lyons.
It is 140 sq. meters. It consists of a fully equipped kitchen, utility room, a dining-room and sitting-room, a study and a bedroom downstairs (double bed, two bedrooms upstairs, one with a double bed and one with a single bed and a baby cot, plus one bathroom upstairs and a shower room downstairs. II has all the modern conveniences. We often have our grandchildren with us so there are toys and basic baby equipment.
It also has a garden with tomatoes and other summer vegetables that you'll be welcome to eat if you wish to. There are two terraces, one facing full south (too hot in the summer) and one north east that we use more often. We usually park one car in the garage, the other, bigger one sleeps outside in the yard.
We have a Chartreux cat who will stay at home: she is quiet and friendly and never seems to wander out of our property. If you agree, you will just have to feed her.
Our village (4500 inh.) is mostly a residential one. It has enough shops and services for everyday use, 5 doctors, a dentist's, a chemist's, two banks, a big supermarket outside the village. Our house is 5 mns from the center on foot and 100m from the village park. There's a well-equipped sports ground and a number of walks in the surrounding countryside,.
Lyon, the second biggest city in France, is about a 30 mn drive, depending on the traffic, which is often heavy, but in fact we often use the tube to go to the city center. The nearest metro station is a 15 mn drive from Chaponnay.
Lyon has interesting Roman monuments and a whole medieval district. There's a rich cultural life, great museums and a large number of shops, cafés and pubs. The city has a reputation for gastronomy and boasts a large number of restaurants, some of them really excellent.
Another city of interest is Vienne, 15kms south of our village, with great Roman and Renaissance heritage. We also live near famous wine areas like Beaujolais (1h) and Côte-Rôtie (30 mns).
Other interesting sites are les Dombes, a lake area about one hour from Chaponnay, and the Alps are are about 1h30 away, Grenoble only 1h. There is also another mountain called "Le Pilat", about 45 mns away, with pleasant hiking paths. Annecy and its lake is 2 hrs away. A smaller, very clean and warm lake is Aiguebelette, 1h away. The Mediterranean sea and Marseilles are 3 hrs away.
In short, our village, though quiet and unremarkable, is pleasant and centrally situated to visit Lyons, Vienne and other cities as well as the wine areas and the mountain areas.
Lyons international airport is 30 mns away and the A46 motorway 3kms from our house.
Our Family
- 2 Adults
- 0 Children
- 1 Exchanges made
Occupation
- Retired teachers
Our Home
- House Type: House
- Floor: 2
- Environment: In a small town
- Bedrooms: 3
- Bathrooms: 2
- Sleeping Capacity: 5
- Living Area: 140 m2
References
In my house
- Pets - Not allowed
- Small children - Allowed
Exchange Types
- Home exchange
Indoor
- Free internet access
- Computer available
- Baby equipment
- Toys and games
- Washing machine
- Dishwasher
- Television
- Piano
- Guitar
Outdoor
- Garden
- Terrace or deck
- Park / playground
- BBQ
- Garage / private parking
- Bicycles: 2
Facilities
- Non-smoking house
- Car necessary
- Use/Exchange of car
- Pet care wanted
Our Destination Wish List
- Open to any destination
- Ireland
- Europe
Spoken Languages
- English
- Français
Our Neighbourhood
Nearest Airport: Lyon Saint Exupéry - 30 mns
Chaponnay is a quiet, residential village, or rather a small town, since it now has around 4,500 inhabitants.
Here is the village website :
http://www.mairie-chaponnay.fr/
with quite a lot of photos of local life.
Vienne : http://www.vienne-tourisme.com/
Lyon : http://www.lyon-france.com/
Grenoble : http://www.grenoble-tourisme.com/fr/
A medieval village 1h from Chaponnay : http://www.perouges.org/
La Dombes, not very far, with a very good bird park in Villars-les-Dombes : http://www.ain-tourisme.com/decouvrez/pays-ain/dombes/landing
Le Pilat : http://www.parc-naturel-pilat.fr/
le Beaujolais (wine area) : http://www.beaujolais.fr/index.php?codej=france&page=DT1199375185&time=20160302060251
La Côte-Rotie (wine area) : http://www.cote-rotie.com/
St Antoine l'Abbaye (medieval village and abbey, 1h30 from Chaponnay :
http://www.saint-antoine-labbaye.fr/
Occupation
- Retired teachers
Children
- We do not have children.
Pets
- One Chartreux cat called Nouchka, a stay-at-home pet
About Our Family
We are retired teachers : André, 75, former PE teacher, and Jacqueline, 72, former English teacher.
We have two grown-up children, Floriane and Nicolas, and six grandchildren.
We have done 4 home exchanges through Intervac, and they all went well. We did 2 in Britain, (1988 and 1995, before the internet), one in Canada in 2005. We are now retired and we got back to home exchanging again with the Netherlands in 2019.
Lifestyle
Our children have their own family and live nearby. We spend quite a lot of time looking after our grandchildren aged 3 to 15.
We also like hiking, reading, travelling, and we do yoga and music. André likes gardening and we have a small vegetable garden. He also likes drama.
We like sight-seeing and visiting museums and monuments. We are rather quiet but we love meeting people and talking about the country we are visiting.
References
This member has completed 1 home exchanges. Those referenced below may contain feedback/impression from its exchange partners: