Clermont-Ferrand - 4/26/2024
- sridgway38
- Apr 25, 2024
- 2 min read
We left Mont St Michel heading towards Clermont-Ferrand. We had one more day to visit france and we decided to see some of the roads where the Tour de France takes place. Cleremond Ferrand is hear a mountain called Puy de Dome where the tour traveled in the past at the end of a mountain stage. We drove through the french countryside on our journey and it was beautiful. There were many fields of beautiful yellow flowers called rapeseed which are used to make cooking oil.
We ended up in the town of Clermont Ferrand and were staying at the Mercure hotel. The town was quite busy when we arrived and driving was a little but scary but once we got settled we headed out to Puy de Dome. The weather wasn't great so it wasn't crowded but we took the Cog train to the top anyway.
The puy de Dôme rack railway, journey to the top of the volcanoes !
The mountainside pathway offers a comfortable 15 minute journey and reveals a breathtaking panorama on the chain of Puys, the plain of Limagne, Clermont-Ferrand and the Massif du Sancy. Arriving at the station of the summit, you are left with a few meters to cross to find out the " Giant Dome " mythical site, lighthouse symbol of the Auvergne. Was raining and very foggy when we arrived, but we decided to go up anyway. This is inside the cog train as we go to depart. The reason for our visit is that this mountain was the end of stage 9 of the 2023 Tour De France that the bikers had to climb after an already 100 plus KM stage!!! It was incredibly steep!!! The Cog train offered the best views but once we got to the top we realized that it was fogged in for the most part. We were able to get some pictures right at the end as the fog started to clear.
Once we got back to the hotel we looked for a nearby restaurant that we could walk to and found a funky little restaurant very close to the hotel. The food wasn't great but they had a really intersting appetizer that was made in a heated egg cup type of contraption with cheese and the egg cooked in the cup which was lit at the table. They also had some decent wine.
We are headed back to the airport in Paris in the morning.