Auvergne Region, France

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June 25, 26, 2008

Auvergne Region, France

Our journey from Geneva took us across a small mountain range through some very beautiful countryside to Clermont-Ferrand. We were pleasantly surprised. This is a very nice city known as the geographic center of France. The city is in some very nice farmland and crops of all kinds are grown here.

We took our usual “walk about” from our hotel to the town center. Bad idea !! The start of a major summer SALE had begun and every store had everything ( almost ) at 50% off ( off what we don’t know, but 50% off just the same ) The whole town was very busy !!

The centerpiece of the town is the usual Cathedral and this one is spectacular. I still find it very hard to believe the size of these churches in almost every town and city. This one is very big and very beautiful. This is a very nice small city and a great break on the drive from east to west in central France.

Thursday morning we continued our trip to Bordeaux with a stop at a collection of old volcanoes that are very close to Clermont. A short drive up one of the mountains takes you to “ Le Puy de Dome “ and some very nice panoramic views of the countryside around Clermont-Ferrand and a great look down at the very old crater-tops of many old volcanoes. There is a very nice interpretive center there as well that explains the history of the area.

The trip continued with the seemingly never ending parade of Chateaus. Hundreds of them !! About every 10 - 15 KM all the way there is a sign posted for another chateau. Quite frankly we have seen enough chateaus !!!

This is a very nice drive, 3 ½ hours, on excellent freeways through a good variety of scenery with small mountain ranges, farmland, fruit and grain crops and a considerable amount of bush and forest. As you get closer to Bordeaux you begin the area of never ending vineyards. We are looking forward to a couple of days in Bordeaux.

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