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Go straight to: 1 - Introduction | 2 - Puy de Dome/St. Nectaire | 3 - Nissan-lez-Enserune | 4 - Cote de Vermeille
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| 2 - Puy de Dome/St. Nectaire
After stopping in Montlucon for a couple of days we headed for an area both of us had wanted to visit - the Chaine des Puys. The Puys form a small area of very recently extinct volcanoes immediately to the west of Clermont Ferrand, a major city within the Massif Central. Leaving Montlucon before dawn in a rain storm, we drove the hour or more to Clermont Ferrand and slowly but surely the weather changed for the better - for, as we noted at the time, we were driving south! So, by the time we reached the foot of the Puy de Dome itself, the sun was shining and a blue sky welcomed us. Many years ago, some enterprising Frenchman built a train track round and round the Puy de Dome, rising at a steady gradient. Later it was turned into a road and for about 4 Euros we drove up to the top of a volcano! The highest point in the immediate area, the Puy de Dome doesn't look like a volcano, but more like a plug. Which is what it is. The latest episode of activity was apparently quite cataclismic, of Pelean proportions, even. And it only happened a few thousand years ago, possibly when early man was already living in the vicinity. |
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The View from the summit is spectacular. A real 360º panorama is revealed as you take the well constructed footpaths around the enormous telecommunications structure that sits on the very summit. An excellent visitors center explains vulcanism and is obviously there for the education of each busload of French students who make the journey as part of their curriculum.
The Roman ruins of a temple to Mercury are being restored and offer an insight to the former glory of the site - until quite recently (1751), most people believed the Romans built the entire mountain! Perhaps the most interesting phenomena, however, are the constantly changing cloud patterns as cool air mixes with warmer air. Although we did not see it, the inversion of warm air over cool air can create a wonderful sight of the Puys sitting like islands in a sea of clouds. |
| Nearby Puys have a more conical volcanic shape, complete with craters that have hardly been eroded - well, they are very new, after all!
The nearest thing we can think of that compares to the Puys is in northeast new Mexico, between the Texas Panhandle and Raton. Perfect volcanic cones attest to a similar age of formation, i.e. geologically only yesterday. An interesting consideration - it is to be expected that the final "puffs" of volanic activity in an area will be on a small scale. Hence the relatively small size of these volcanoes when compared with giants like Mount Cameroon, Mount Fuji or Mount St. Helens, all of which are very active and in their prime. |
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| Our itinerary for this day involved little driving as our destination would be the town of St. Nectaire, near the slightly older volcanic center of Mont Dore (which form larger if more eroded mountains, consistent with the theory espoused above that volcanoes rage when active but eventually go out with a whimper!) On the way, we stopped at a small village and bought the necessary ingredients for a roadside French pique-nique. |
| So, here we are, apres le dejeuner enjoying the afternoon sunshine with a view of a ruined castle by a babbling mountain brook, soaking up warm rays of sunshine before driving down to a lake where we conveniently fell asleep on a grassy bank until it was time to seek out our B&B for the night (given our previous experience, we knew we should start out the search while the sun was still high in the sky!)
We need not have worried too much, though the final few hundred meters were a little difficult to navigate as the neighboring farmer assumed we were looking for a different chambre d'hote. |
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Our B&B, located in the village of Sailles several hundred feet above the town of St. Nectaire, had several incredible features. The accommodation is more a gite than a B&B room, complete with kitchen and washing machine (had we needed it). Our hostess, Monique, is a vivacious lady who enthused about the region and was happy to discuss all manner of things (she and her husband ran a small hotel in a chateau in the Loire valley before retiring to the area they loved.) Finally, the view from their garden is breathtaking, and we sat and relaxed for at least two hours while the warm sun slowly sank behind Mont Dore. See below. |
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Evening on the left, morning on the right. Whichever way you look at it, a fairy tale view! |  |
| St. Nectaire is rightly famous for its cheese (and we can buy it in a fromagerie in Stratford) but it also can claim to be a spa town. Well, it used to. The spa closed down in 2004 and this has proved to be quite a blow to the town's fortunes. We had dinner at the casino and it was interesting, to put it mildly!
The view (right) is of Haut St. Nectaire from outside our B&B! |
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Go straight to: 1 - Introduction | 2 - Puy de Dome/St. Nectaire | 3 - Nissan-lez-Enserune | 4 - Cote de Vermeille
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Le Shuttle - under the English Channel/La Manche
French Autoroutes
Bed & Breakfast (Chambre d'Hote)
Self Catering
Beaches
Guides and Maps
What about public transport?
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