This picture has already appeared elsewhere on the site, since it was taken on the way back from the 50th anniversary 3rd 4L International event at Thenay in July 2011. It shows a trompe l'œil mural, a very common sight around Lyon but an artform now growing in popularity worldwide. Here in the small village of Saint Léon in the Allier, the combination of this, the neighbouring church and the dog in the road proved irresistible for my lens. I was driving back with a Japanese passenger who I'd met in the youth hostel at Bourges, and who was appreciative of a lift en route to Annecy.

One month later, I set off on another of several summer weekend excursions with friends around the Rhône-Alpes region, this time to the Beaujolais hills north-west of Lyon. Pictured below is the village of Oingt on the hill opposite. There is a popular quote amongst the Lyonnais that says there are three rivers which flow through Lyon: the Rhône, the Saône and the Beaujolais.

This trip brought about one of those strange life coincidences, some of which I have taken to keeping a log of. We picked this village rather randomly as a spot for lunch and a short walk, amongst the hundreds of others nestled in and atop the Beaujolais hills. Whilst walking back to the car we passed a warehouse belonging to a local wine seller and decided to pay a quick visit. I was particularly interested because there was another Renault 4 sitting outside in the parking area. We sampled a few varieties of red and the rather more rare rosé and white Beaujolais from the counter, and I asked the guy working there if he knew who the R4 belonged to. He said it was one of his own collection of classics, and adjacent to the shop he had another warehouse featuring a mini motor museum, in which sat an old 4CV Grand Luxe very similar to the one I spotted on the way back from Thenay (see above link). Whilst chatting about the R4, it transpired that in fact he had hosted a reception for the recent 4L-R6 Club de France 50th anniversary event held in the region, and awarded all the participants a bottle of his finest red, an example of which he showed me, emblazoned with a special Renault 4 sticker on the rear of the bottle. Of all the villages and all the vineyards in France, I just had to walk into this one!

A couple of photos of his car have been added here in the Mystery Cars section, already marked as 'SOLVED', and you can find out more about his museum here.