My home town Clermont-Ferrand, Part 1 : A city of landscapes

You might thought I was just gonna tell you about Cardiff, but no no no, you are in for the full Lucie-package ! Here is what you need to know about where I come from.
(actually there is much more to say than I thought, so it is going to be a series of articles – this is part 1, enjoy !)

Ah, Clermont-Ferrand. Most of the time, we just call it Clermont (or « Clf », which is shorter to write and longer to say, but it makes it kinda hyper). Let’s start by the common views about my city. See France ? Well there is a saying that France is crossed by a diagonal, going from the North-East to the South-West (if like me you have terrible orientation skills, just check the article pic at the top of the page 😉 ). Well right in the middle of this lovely line is Clermont. And do you know how we call this line ? THE EMPTY DIAGONAL ! Can you believe how rude French people are ?? (Oh wait … hum, let’s just pretend I’m half Welsh now !). I have actually been asked several times if I ever rode a cow to school… Most of the time I answered that no, I didn’t, because cows were not a very convenient mean of transport ! Ponies however … (I love the look on people’s before they realise I’m just pushing their own joke further, like they really believed me!). Anyway, to set the records straight, just because there are more cows than human beings in the area doesn’t mean that Clermont is not actual city ! We have 141,569 inhabitants, and Clf is even granted the term « metropolis ».

As you may know (and if you didn’t, hey you’ve learnt something here, so can I say my blog is kinda educative ?), France is divided in several regions, themselves divided in departments. Until 2016, Clermont has been the capital of the region Auvergne, which gathered four departments : the Allier, the Puy-de-Dôme, the Cantal and the Haute-Loire. However, in 2014, the French parliament passed a law reducing the number of metropolitan regions from 22 to 13 effective 1 January 2016, and Auvergne merged with the Rhône-Alpes former region. You probably have already heard about the city of Lyon, well Lyon was the capital of Rhône-Alpes before the reform. No need to say that when the two regions merged into one (Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes), Lyon was appointed capital over Clermont… But in our hearts, we (Auvergne) still are an independent region, and the changes were mainly administrative. Just to show you how people feel « auvergnats » (from Auvergne) even more than they feel French, there is a famous sign in France when you enter the former Auvergne region that says « Here Auvergne begins, here France ends ». This sign, originally created in 1942 and located at the Col de Saint Thomas is quite famous ! Unfortunately, it is not the original sign anymore, it has been replaced. If you want to see what it looks like, just check out this article (it’s about the sign’s history, and although it is written in French you can still at least have a look at the sign picture – or learn French, that’s your call !) : https://gitelivradoisforez.wordpress.com/2014/04/12/au-col-du-saint-thomas-la-limite-puy-de-dome-loire/

Clermont is located in the Puy-de-Dôme department, named after the famous volcano of the Massif Central, a highland region in the middle of Southern France, consisting of mountains and plateaus. It covers about 15% of mainland France, its larger city is Clermont.
The Puy-de-Dôme volcano is easily recognisable thanks to the dish at its top (a FM and TV transmitter), and you can see it from the city, it is kind of our symbol ! Every time I drive back to Clermont from holidays trip, I really feel at home as soon as I can spot the Puy-de-Dôme in the landscape ! It is a 1,465 meters high lava dome created some 10,700 years ago. It is ideal for paragliding, and you can reach the summit via two pedestrian paths, it actually is quite a nice hike ! And for the laziest, the city decided to build a toothed rack railway taking people to the summit in 2012 ! From there, you have quite an impressive view on the Chaîne des Puys, a 40 km (25 mi) long volcano chain, including 48 cinder cones, eight lava domes, and 15 maars and explosion craters. Fortunately for us, all of those volcanos are asleep, and I can still brag about living at the foot of a volcano !

The Auvergne region is known for its breath-taking natural landscapes, and it would take me a whole book to show them all to you, so I guess you’ll just have to come and see for yourself ! However, I still wanted to share some of these beautiful places with you.

Here are pics of the Lac de Guéry, a mountain lake at an elevation of 1,244 metres (4,081 ft). Located in the Massif Central, it was created by a lava flow coming from a nearby volcano.

And here is the Lac d’Aydat, a lake quite close to the city, it’s only a 30min drive away from my home ! We use to go there when the weather is fine, for a picnic with a nice view. You can also go for a swim, for a hike around the lake or just lie in the grass and enjoy the setting ! The mountain in the background of the picture is the Puy-de-Dôme, do you recognise it ? 🙂

There you go ! And if you go a bit deeper into the Auvergne region, you can visit the Cantal, the adjacent department. I will probably write an article about it, part of my family comes from this beautiful part of France !

Part 2 will come soon 😀