Angela and Roland's European Adventure: Friday 7th April

Roland fancied walking up a Puy that had a crater we could walk the rim of, and maybe even walk down into: obviously, a long dormant and extinct one. As this morning was chilly but gloriously sunny, we headed off to the Puy Pariou, a 1209 metre high crater to the west of Clermont Ferrand.
This also gave us the opportunity to drop Angela’s bike off at Decathlon to get a broken spoke fixed.

The walk to the top of Puy Pariou is up through steep shaded woodland and the views from the top are magnificent. We also walked down into the crater and ate our banana, we wished we had brought a packed lunch. It seemed a popular spot to picnic in the sun.

There were quite a few people about but it is obviously much busier in the summer months. As the track up through the woods is quite narrow, a different route is taken for the decent. This prevents people getting in each other’s way and also affords different views. The first part of the track going down is on steps (hundreds of them), then board walks and then across country and through the level ground of the woodland again.

We had the most wonderful walk and were able to recommend it to some other campers who enjoyed it too.

There was a mix-up with our bill at Decathalon when we went to pick the bike up on the way home, but as it was too much trouble for them to rectify we went away a few euros better off - bonus!