Exploring Auvergne

Time to head for holidays to the west of France again! One of the places sort of half-way between Nice and Angers, which we’ve wanted to explore for some time, is Auvergne. It’s a part of France that more or less matches that of the Massif Central – a mountain massif of extinct volcanoes. The plan was for us to stay in Mont-Dore, located just next Puy Sancy, the highest point of the Massif Central (at a not-to-be-frowned-upon altitude of 1886 metres).

The drive to Mont-Dore was a pretty nice one, taking us past Montpellier, and past the Gorges de Tarn. We stopped by at a real gem of modern architecture, the Viaduct de Millau (designed by Norman Foster and Michel Virlogeux, it’s the tallest bridge in the world with one mast’s summit at 340 metes).

We arrived at Mont-Dore in the afternoon, giving us a bit of time to explore town before dinner. Mont-Dore is one of Auvergne’s numerous spa town (Vichy, for example, is also located in Auvergne). It’s not the prettiest town in France, but the spa complex looks rather opulent, and there are a few nice Belle Epoque-era hotels to feast one’s eyes on, too. And the location, in the midst of some of Auvergne’s highest peaks (including Puy Sancy, the highest of them all), is rather stunning.

For dinner, we opted for some real Auvergnat cuisine – meaning a Truffade for me, and some “raclettes Auvergne style” for Mathilde. Truffade is deliciously simple, basically some shredded and fried potatoes mixed with some Tomme cheese from Cantal, with a bit of Auvergne ham to go with it. Simple, yet so delicious (not what I would call a light meal, though).

The next day, we got up really early for a bit of hiking. Auvergne is, after all, one of France’s primary regions for hiking. Today’s hike took us up from the bottom of the valley (at just above 900 meters) up to Puy Gros, at the lofty altitude of 1400 meters. We started off early, hoping to avoid the expected 30+ degrees temperatures. It was rather pleasant hike, gently climbing up through the green scenery (that’s one thing that hit us straight away – Auvergne is much greener than the Mediterranean, craggy mountains we have in the south of France). Wildlife-wise we ran into a couple of horses and a fair few cows (again different from the South of France, were we mostly see sheep during our hikes). The hike up to Mont-Dore was certainly worth the effort, the views over Mont-Dore and the surrounding volcanoes was rather stunning.

After a quick pizza for lunch, we jumped in the car to explore the surrounding area. Our first stop was at the nearby lake of Lac de Guery. It was getting pretty hot, so we were hoping for a bit of a dip – but unfortunately swimming was banned. So we continued to Lac d’Aydat instead, where swimming was thankfully allowed. ‘twas very refreshing, and very well deserved indeed.

Our next stop was the pretty town of Saint-Saturnin. It’s a typically cute little medieval French town, with the cobble-stoned streets and picturesque little houses (I feel like I’ve written that sentence before on this blog?). The main reason, perhaps, to visit Saint-Saturnin is the Romanesque church – known as one of the “five major Romanesque” churches of Auvergne. There is also a castle to round off the attractions. After a brief walk around town, we carried on our exploration – ending up at the Plateau de Gergovie - a major historic site in France. This is where the Gallic king Vercingétorix successfully pushed back Caesar’s Roman legions 52 BC. There’s not actually much to see, apart from a monument to commemorate the event, and some quite nice views over the surrounding areas.

That brought an end to our mini-road trip, as it was getting dark, so we made our way back to Mont-Dore, just in time for dinner ;-). We dined at the nice-looking restaurant next doors to our hotel (and it was indeed a nice little eatery, serving typical, not-so-light, Auvergnat cuisine!).

We started the next day with yet another hike. This time the plan was to conquer the mother of all Auvergnat mountains, the Puy Sancy, located just down the road from Mont-Dore. The hike started at the bottom of the Puy, which is actually a ski station. The hike up towards the summit wasn’t perhaps the most spectacular of hikes we’ve done, as the view was slightly marred by the ski lifts… But the views from the summit were absolutely stunning, a vast panorama over the surrounding scenery opening up before our eyes. There were quite a few people apart from us enjoying the view, as it’s actually possible to make it almost all the way up with one of the ski lifts.

We were also treated to the charming sight of two marmots some distance away (I needed my 300mm lens to make out anything – so quite far away), making their charming “marmotty” sound. A first one for me! The walk back was much nicer than the walk up to the summit, snaking its way along the back of the mountains (hence, no ski lifts to mar the view). The walk took us down a lush, green valley with a stream and a few cows to pose in my photos. So, pretty much the perfect hike, then! The nicest one we’ve done for quite a while, it must be said…

It was still too early for lunch, so we jumped in our car and made our way towards Saint-Nectaire, another famous Auvergnat village. On the way there, we stopped by for yet another rather “solid” auvergnat lunch (Truffade, yihaa!) in a most charming country inn.

Saint-Nectaire is a small village, and again, the church is what it’s all about. It is, like the one in Saint-Saturnin, Romanesque, and is indeed very similar from the outside. What makes this church special, though, is the capitol, with its evocative wooden carvings. There are so many nice churches in Italy and France, and we’ve visited quite a few over the last couple of years, so we get a bit saturated… But these wooden carvings were quite intriguing, and evocative. I especially liked the ones with the damned ones, and the horseman of the apocalypse (he was representing all four of them, apparently). So, a church well worth visiting then!

After Saint-Nectaire, the heat was picking up again, so it was time to find a lake again. We found quite a nice one on the way back towards Mont-Dore, Lac Chambon. We decided to walk around the lake, and stop half-way for a refreshing swim. Before heading back to Mont-Dore, we decided to make one more stop, at Orcival, another little cute village with a famous Romanesque church. To be sure, it was a nice little church (famous for its statue of a virgin – apparently sculped by one Saint-Luc – whoever that is !?), but I guess church saturation was settling in by now.

So we decided to push on – instead of heading straight back to Mont-Dore we made our way to nearby La Bourboule. La Bourboule is a spa town like Mont-Dore. The town is perhaps in slightly less dramatically situated than Mont-Dore, but is perhaps a bit more charming, with its faded Belle Epoque era glamour and old hotels. We finished our stay at Mont-Dore with a very nice dinner at “Le bouef dans l’assiette” – very promisingly named restaurant indeed. And we did indeed eat very well!

That brought an end to our very pleasant stay at Auvergne, as it was time to head down to Angers. About time too, as the great weather we’d been enjoying was giving way to rain and clouds… We did decide to make a short stop at Riom, since it was conveniently on the way to Anjou. Riom was the capital of Auvergne until the French revolution, and it did indeed strike us as a prosperous town, with architecture reminiscent of Clermont-Ferrand (the current capital of Auvergne). After a quick visit of the cathedral, and the Tour d’Horloge (from where we had some nice views over the town and the surrounding countryside), it was time to carry on towards Anjou.