Wednesday 5th April - Le puy de Dôme (The Auvergne), France

We left our campsite near Bordeaux on Monday.  As we drove nearer to Clermont Ferrand, the scenery became more and more picturesque.  We reached the campsite near the little village of Orcet late in the afternoon so there was only time to stroll into the village that day. It reminded us a lot of Congenies, a place we had spent a month at in November, as it just had a small cafe and bakery.

We were going to be visiting the area of Clermont Ferrand for a week's walking, weather permitting, so we needed to get our bearings.  Strangely we were directed to the tiny town of Aydat, some ten miles away, for the main tourist information centre for the area.  As is usual in France, it was closed for lunch when we got there. When it did re-open Roland decided that he must buy several maps, in addition to the free information provided and the book containing some forty suggested walks.

The area is famous for its extinct volcanoes and we decided that we would head for Le Puy de Dôme as the most visited, attracting half a million visitors a year.  There was a huge car park at the visitor centre but as yet few people. However, just as we arrived coach loads of school children arrived too, but luckily they headed off to lunch so we were able to ride the train to the top almost on our own.  The top of the volcano may be reach on foot and in previous times by a road (the road is now closed).  We elected to take the train the 1,465 metres to the top, not because we were too lazy, it's just because we like trains. The train costs €13 a person.

Rack and pinion train to the top of Le puy de Dôme

There is a path, originally a Roman road that snaked its way to the top and to the Gallo-Roman temple of Mercury.  The temple was only discovered in 1893 when excavation work took place on a weather laboratory (established in 1895).  Also spoiling the view with the weather station is the TDF television antenna - well I suppose they have to go somewhere.

A project is underway to reconstruct parts of the Temple of Mercury alongside what remains, which, in truth, is just a pile of stones that give very little sense of the original building.

Temple of Mercury
Reconstruction (left) with original stones in foreground
and TV antenna in the background

Path leading to and around the Temple of Mercury.
On a clear day the chain of volcanoes may be viewed from the top,

A sunny but chilly day at the top of Le puy de Dôme

Le Puy de Dôme is famous for the public experiments on air density carried out by Blaise Pascal in 1648.  Additionally it was the landing point for a plane piloted by Eugene Renaux in an extraordinary feat of airmanship in 1911.  This guy must have had some guts when you see the top, but the prize of 100,000 Francs made it all worth while.

We enjoyed our afternoon walking around the top and taking in the view.  It was a little too misty to do the views any justice through the lens of our camera, although the vistas were still spectacular when viewed in real life.

Note: Click on photos for an enlarged view.   Feel free to post a comment on the blog.