Huge region, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes covers 12 departments: Ain, Allier, Ardèche, Cantal, Drôme, Isère, Loire, Haute-Loire, Puy-de-Dôme, Rhône, Savoie and Haute-Savoie. This fantastic destination offers a great variety of landscapes and tourist proposals, from the south of the Drôme with its cicadas and its lavender to the Ecrins massif, the wild jewel of the northern Alps. You have a choice of atmospheres, between Lyon, with its Confluences museum, and Chamonix, the Mecca of mountaineering, the vineyards of the Rhone valley and the olive groves of Nyonsais. Of course, with two national nature parks - the Vanoise and the Ecrins - and no less than seven regional nature parks, including those of the Vercors, the Chartreuse, the Monts d'Ardèche and the Provençal Baronnies, you have ski resorts, large domains or village resorts, high mountain or cow mountain hiking trails and a choice cycling route with the ViaRhôna. Ski in Val Thorens, the highest ski resort in Europe and the largest in France, canoe down the Ardèche River under the Pont d'Arc, stop at the Aven d'Orgnac and its prehistoric museum, a major site in France, and visit the reconstruction of the Chauvet cave with its cave paintings. Then stand in front of the fireplace, you are in the country of the Savoyard fondue and the gratin dauphinois, of the fin-gras of Mézenc and the chestnuts of Ardèche, of the picodon and the abundance of mountain pastures. And don't forget your Petit Futé Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes to find your way!
There are two high tourist seasons for the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region. For the mountain resorts: winter for skiing and summer for hiking. Out of season, the big resorts are empty, their hotels and restaurants close. The mid-mountain resorts make tourist proposals in the off-seasons. For the Drôme and the Ardèche, there is only one tourist season: summer. To visit Lyon, it's all year round with highlights such as the Festival of Lights on December 8, the Nuits de Fourvière, an artistic festival in July, and the Biennial of Contemporary Art, in odd years, from September to January. Ask about the program of the Musée des Confluences. Similarly, Annecy, Grenoble and Valence can be visited all year round. But for Annecy, prefer the 14th of July, during the Fête du lac, a magical moment.
In Nyons, in the south of the Drôme, we celebrate the olive in February and June. And in July, the lavender in Ferrassières, the picodon in Saoû, the lime tree in Buis-les-Baronnies. At the end of June and the beginning of July, you can attend the Jazz à Vienne festival and all summer long the Nuits de Grignan (theater), on the square of the castle where Madame de Sévigné's daughter lived.
As for accommodation and restaurant prices, they are at their highest in summer in the south of the region and in winter in the major resorts. However, all-inclusive stays remain a good compromise. In the remote villages of the Ardèche, if tourism is limited to the summer months, you can take a low-cost off-season stay to live in peace and quiet like the locals. Finally, you should know that in July and August, when the heat wave wears you down in the plain, there is always a high altitude site nearby where you can cool off.
The weather in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes is a real mosaic: continental climate for Savoie and Isère, oceanic climate for Allier, Puy-de-Dôme and Cantal, Mediterranean climate in Drôme and Ardèche. Not to mention the variations in altitude. The Alpine massifs have a mountain climate with cold, even very cold, snowy winters at high altitudes, while in summer the south and cities like Lyon and Grenoble are often in a heat wave.
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