Some are corpulent and can be seen from afar; others, just outlined, can barely be guessed. Whatever their size, the rounded volcanoes are covered with a green and brown forest fleece, made up of the autumn leaves of beech and birch trees and the needles of spruce trees. These cones, somewhere between Saint-Ours and Chanat-la-Mouteyre (Puy-de-Dôme), constitute a confusing landscape.
This unique setting in mainland France can be discovered by bike, and the traveler, incredulous and proud, progresses at his own pace on dirt paths and small asphalt roads, sheltered from motorized traffic. Riom station, in the plain, is only around thirty kilometers away. Athletes looking for effort will appreciate the 700 meter difference in altitude via winding roads and others will climb it comfortably thanks to good electrical assistance.
The volcanic mountains rest on a hummocky plateau at around 900 meters above sea level, made up of fenced fields and their herds of cows, ponds and mudflats, and a few farms which highlight the horizon. In the hedges there are small red berries of rose hips, hawthorns or spindles whose pink fruits evoke bishop’s caps. The villages remain barely visible, because they are hidden in the hollows, where the springs are born.
On the puys themselves, private property, you do not climb with your bike. You have to hang it on a pole then take a long-distance hiking trail. The Puy des Gouttes is approached via a wide passage between two beautiful rows of beech trees with tangled trunks, whose branches meet in a perfect arch. In mid-October, the ground is littered with beechnuts, the beech fruits that wild boars love. But climate disruption is weighing on the ecosystem, warns guide Pierre André, a keen observer of nature in Auvergne: “Due to the heat, the leaves go directly from green to brown and then fall off, without the usual transition to yellow or red. »
After forty-five minutes of walking, here is the crescent-shaped crater, partly covered by rocks resulting from the eruption of its neighbor, Puy Chopine. From the summit, the panorama opens magnificently onto the Puys chain, this collection of eighty domes, 35 kilometers from north to south, 3 to 4 kilometers wide. Behind the Puy Pariou and the Puy de Côme, whose nicely cylindrical cone appears in photos in all the guides, stands out the Puy de Dôme (1,465 meters), which gave its name to the department and dominates the region with its silhouette of camel. At its summit, the television broadcast tower attracts visitors like a magnet, who climb the slope on foot or take the train shuttle. In the mist stands, in the distance, the Puy de Sancy, coming from another volcanic massif, because Auvergne has three main ones, with the Cantal mountains.
You have 60% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.