	Home > France by Area > Auvergne > Auvergne

Auvergne

View our villas in Auvergne >>

Tourist offices and related websites

Allier

The ancient forests that once made much of Europe almost impassable survive in the département of the Allier in the Massif Central, in the region of the Auvergne. You can still become hopelessly lost in the Tronçais Forest, part of 11,000 hectares of forestland, in what in every sense is deepest France. But the Allier has much more to offer, including the vineyards of Saint-Pourçain, the gorges of Sioule and almost 600 châteaux, built between the 15th and 18th centuries.

Les Volcans d'Auvergne, a huge natural park with rivers, ravines, lakes and volcanic craters, posses a unique range of flora and fauna. They include lilies, saxifrages and anemones; and mouflons, chamois, sheep and peregrine falcons among a huge list of birds, insects and reptiles. The park offers an exceptional opportunity for cycling, horse riding, walks and water sports.

Moulins, formerly the capital of the dukes of Bourbon, forefathers of the royal dynasty, has a gothic cathedral at the heart of its medieval centre. Its stained glass windows were the advertising media of its day, portraying the story of Christ for peasants unable to read the bible. Vichy, full of fine shops and stately mansions, has been a spa town since at least the 2nd century AD. Its waters, rich in sodium bicarbonate and carbonic acid, were first recognized by the Romans for their healing properties. However the barbarians had no use for baths and the spa fell into disuse. It was rediscovered in the 17th century and became popular with Parisian high society. Today the spa is strongly orientated towards mass-market health tourism and produces its own highly successful mineral water, Vichy-St-Yorre.

Puy-de-Dôme

The Puy-de-Dôme is an area with eighty extinct volcanoes, from an age long before man or even the dinosaur inhabited the earth. A £60M theme park, called Vulcania, just west of the regional capital Clermont-Ferrand, is devoted to explaining how they came about, with many exciting inter-active displays. To fully appreciate the scenery, however, you can take a special flight from Clermont-Ferrand in a small aircraft across the huge natural volcanic region.

The Puy-de-Dôme mountain itself can be accessed by car, a narrow road with multiple twists and turns that encourages some tourists to leave their vehicles halfway and instead take the direct route on foot, an old mule track. Despite the fierce and unpredictable winds, the ruins of the Gallo-Roman Temple of Mercury still survive at the top.

North of Clermont-Ferrand stands the ancient seat of justice, Riom-es-Montagnes. Dubbed ‘Riom the Beautiful’ in the 13th century, it still has many prestigious mansions with elegant inner courtyards. To the south-west, the old Renaissance bourg of Besse, once owned by the powerful Florentine Medicis family, has paved streets that have hardly changed since the Middle Ages.

Your travels might take you to one of the five main Auvergne style Romanesque churches (Orcival, Saint-Nectaire, Issoire, Notre-Dame-du-Port in Clermont-Ferrand and Saint-Saturnin).

The Auvergne is renowned for its cured meats, mushrooms and its cheeses, especially the Bleu d'Auvergne, Cantal, Salers, the cylindrical and veined Fourme d'Ambert and the creamy Saint-Nectaire. The region has five highly successful wine-producing areas: Boudes, Corent, Madargues, Châteaugay, and perhaps the best known, Côtes-d’Auvergne.

Loire

The Loire département in Rhône-Alpes, which stretches the length of the river that shares its name, has memorable scenery: from the Forez highlands at the foothills of the Massif Central through the Roannais hillsides on the outskirts of Burgundy to the Lyonnais Mountains. Ideal for hikers and bikers, it has thousands of kilometres of marked routes. Some of the best are in the Côte Roannaise at the foot of the Madeleine Mountains, the northern continuation of the Forez, with demanding mountain routes designed to test even the most expert cycling enthusiast and gentle bridle paths for the most indolent of walkers. More energetic climbers will find a challenge in the Forez at the Hautes-Chaumes, which peaks at Pierre sur Haute at a height of 1,634 m. Between the Lyonnais Mountains and the Loire are still more trails in what is known as the Matin Mountains, the last spur of the Massif Central. To the south, another 800 kilometres of paths wind their way through the Pilat regional national park.

On the Loire itself are another clutch of fine châteaux to visit. La Bastie d'Urfé is the work of Claude d’Urfé, the French ambassador to Rome under Francis 1 in the 16th century. Inspired by his stay in Italy, he copied many of the finest touches of the Renaissance in completing his château and Italianate gardens. Saint-Marcel-de-Félines could scarcely be a greater contrast. This 12th century château, renovated at the end of the 16th, has fierce military lines and is surrounded by deep ditches. Another imposing castle stands at Couzan, whose warlord Guy II de Couzan was made a Counsellor of the King for having valiantly defended Bourges against the English in 1356. Roanne has one of the most famous restaurants in France, Troisgros, which first saw light of day as a railway snack bar in 1930. Try their Grand Dessert, an extraordinary, gluttonous afternoon tea.

Cantal

The French equivalent of carrying coals to Newcastle should be taking an umbrella to Aurillac, as nearly fifty per cent of all those produced in France are made here in the Auvergne. Not that they are particularly needed locally: this is not an especially wet climate. The local antiquities museum has a remarkable collection of old umbrellas, some of them dating back to the 17th century.

The narrow streets of Aurillac, full of medieval houses, twist and turn parallel to the banks of the River Jordanne, then open unexpectedly into vibrant squares. The Place du Palais-de-Justice, at its very heart, has some friendly cafés where tourists can rest their weary feet, for the only sensible way to see Aurillac is on foot. After dark, however, Aurillac empties: it has little or no night-life.

Much of the Cantal département lies at the heart of a huge granite escarpment, left after a huge volcanic convulsion many thousands of years ago. Perched on its very edge, nearly 3,000ft above sea level, is Saint-Flour, with an upper town honeycombed with narrow streets and 17th century houses. Its museum, a former bishop’s palace, is worth a visit but not the lower town, separated by three sheer cliffs.

The road from Saint-Flour to Salers goes even higher, crossing at over 5,100ft the Pas de Peyrol, the Auvergne’s highest mountain pass. You can climb another 700ft or so on foot to the summit of the Puy Mary, or Mary Peak. On a clear day, from here you have a magnificent uninterrupted view of thirteen valleys radiating out in every direction from the mountainside.

Salers itself is one of the most beautiful villages in France, perched on a rocky outcrop above the Maronne Valley. Its barons fought in two crusades but were absentee landlords and in the 15th century the town, fed up with constant attacks and being held to ransom, was allowed to build defensive ramparts. Many houses dating back to the 15th and 16th century remain, distinguished by their black lava stone, a reminder of the black volcanic material from which so much of the Auvergne is made.

Haute-Loire

The sanctuary town of Le Puy-en-Velay was one of the wonders of medieval France. Built around three lava peaks, one adorned with a chapel, the others with iconic statues, small wonder that this became a major destination for pilgrims from the time of Charlemagne. It is known as the city of the ‘Black Madonna’, because many of the statues found throughout the area were carved in walnut or cedar wood, reputedly brought back by the Crusaders from the Holy Land. Its Romanesque Cathédrale de Notre-Dame-du-Puy, with multiform Moorish arches and chequerboard façade, sits at the top of a steeply inclined street. Inside, the hanging glass cross was made from the same glass as that used for the pyramid entrance to the Louvre Museum in Paris.

The Haute-Loire’s most attractive village is Lavadieu, with its Romanesque cloister and wonderful display of hanging baskets of geraniums in summer. Saint-Arcons-d’Allier has its own castle and has been sympathetically restored. The small village of Chavaniac-Lafayette, in the wooded hills beneath Mont-Briançon, is the birthplace of the Marquis de La Fayette, the colourful hero who fought beside George Washington in the American War of Independence. His life is commemorated in Le Château Musée Lafayette, a turreted manor house nearby.

The stretch of the River Allier from Brioude to Langeac, known as the Ribeyre, is a particularly scenic route. From Langeac a small tourist train crosses the Allier gorges. For younger children, the Parc de Loisirs de l’Ile d’Amour at Langeac has a beach, miniature golf, tennis and a canoeing centre.

La Chaise-Dieu has a huge Romanesque-Gothic abbey church with an ivory statue of Christ. Behind the tapestries and cloister is the echo room where two people whispering in opposite corners can hear each other perfectly. The effect was deliberately contrived to enable priests to hear confessions from lepers, in days when the disease was rife.

Lozère

Under Charlemagne, Lozère was part of Aquitaine and later, of Spanish Aragon. Its remoteness from the centre of power ensured that local war lords could do almost as they pleased, raiding their neighbour’s territories and protecting their own by building rough and ready keeps. An architectural enthusiast, Father Ouvreleul, counted Lozère’s castles in 1724 and reached the astonishing total of 136. One of those ruins can be found at Castelbouc, Lozère’s loveliest riverside location, where a troglodytic village perches on the rock face of the Causse Sauveterre. Another ruined castle at Tournel, built in the 12th century, is the most imposing in Lozère, standing on a rocky ridge, a stark image against the skyline.

The village of Le Villard is another exceptional site which overlooks the valley of the river Lot. The church, the ramparts and many houses have all been restored and its farm animals, its vegetable garden and its inn recreate the medieval lifestyle.

Sainte Enimie, a pretty village beside the Tarn Gorges, has eccentric narrow streets lined with pebble stone and many restored medieval houses. It takes its name from Princess Enimie, whose leprosy was cured by bathing in the nearby waters.

Midway between Marvejols and Aumont-Aubrac stands the Château de la Baume, an elegant mansion rebuilt in the early 17th century and extensively decorated in the 18th century by artists from Montpellier. Known as the ‘Versailles of Lozère’, it has a grand staircase, ornate chests, fireplaces, suits of armour and gold and gilt panelling.

The largest town, Mende, has a 14th century Gothic cathedral started by Pope Urban V, a native of Lozère. In the 16th century it acquired the largest church bell in Christendom, nicknamed ‘non-pareil’, ‘like no other’. However the town was seized by the Huguenots on Christmas Day 1597 and the bell melted down to make cannons.

Make a point of tasting the culinary specialities of the Auvergne: cheeses, cured meats, mushrooms and other fruity specialities. No visit to the Auvergne is complete without tasting one of the 5 A.0.C wines that the region boasts. Even though the Bleu d'Auvergne is the most famous of the local cheeses, the cylindrical and veined Fourme d'Ambert stands out with a character all of its own. Cantal and Salers range from gentle to strong, whereas Saint-Nectaire is refined and creamy – all are best enjoyed accompanied by a glass of wine from one of the 5 wine-producing areas (Boudes, Corent, Madargues, Châteaugay, Côtes d’Auvergne).

Tourist offices and related websites

www.cr-auvergne.fr www.crt-auvergne.com

www.zest-auvergne.com www.auvergne-centrefrance.com

www.cc-paysdelapalisse.fr www.ville-souvigny.fr

www.cdt-cantal.fr