Travel in the Auvergne / Ardeche

[Cockney Sparrow]

Mrs CS has decided that a holiday is required in a warmer (hopefully) location and I am about to book Eurotunnel for a journey down to the Auvergne (South West of Clermont Ferrand) and then the Ardeche / Cevennes (NW, West and SW of Montelimar).

This is all pretty much last minute - exit*** from some of the ties of school term dates has unleashed the possibilities of spontaneous holidaying...

(***Not retirement - which implies a free choice, but a reluctant, forced exit from class music teaching)

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We usually head for the Rough Guides for travel advice and inspiration but I can't see one for the Auvergne. Googling that turns up "Rough Guide to the Massif Central" on their website but it isn't a book, nor an ebook, but web pages. Googling books or guides to these areas in the limited time I have (we're off to see Clemenza di Tito this afternoon at Glyndebourne....) doesn't turn up much in the form of guide books or travel writing - although I'll follow up a RL Stevenson connection.... We have "The Rough Guide to France" and the similar Lonely planet guide.

So, to get to the point - has anyone any recommendations for other travel guides or writing that may help?

Oh, just to add to my chutzpah in making this request of you kind board members, we leave on Tues next after the Bank Hol Monday. Nothing much in our local library catalogue. But Mrs CS is going into London tomorrow for the theatre so she may be able to take in Stanford's bookshop, if they are likely to have something that will help us during our travels.

(BTW, Mrs CS has non fluent french which she can access from her somewhat distant memory and ski trip refreshers. So we can probably get by if needs be. I only have painful memories of French from school - a casualty of an interrupted secondary career because of ill health... so its a mini dictionary and phrase book for me for emergency situations).

Many thanks, in advance, of any suggestions you may be able to make.
CS

[DracoM]

Rough Guides every time.

[richardfinegold]

I have a recording of Dawn Upshaw singing Canteloube, which is my sole acquaintance with the Auvergne

[Cockney Sparrow]

Natania Davrath on Vanguard is the one for us, but we all have our favourite(s) - familiarity with the Davrath over the years (on long car journeys) its what started the idea of going there.....

[vinteuil]

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... have you looked at the relevant Michelin Green Guides? They can be a bit predictable, but if it's your first visit to the area they might be useful.

But praps you shd tell us the reason for the trip - landscape - walking - pilgrimage - food - wine - kulchur - which might influence choice of guide...


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[vinteuil]

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... I'll follow up a RL Stevenson connection...

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http://walking-holidays-france.com/home/stevenson-trail-robert-louis-stevenson-route-gr70/

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[Cockney Sparrow]

Thanks Vinteuil - Walking for Mrs CS, maybe find a guide or group walk?

Small walks for me, I'm no walker. Visiting historic villages/churches/taking in the land and townscapes. Taking coffee mid morning, and a reasonable (but not gastronomic, well not knowingly) meal in the evening. If we come across a concert or performance that would be a bonus.

Will look at the Michelin, thanks. Got to go now, only just enough time to get to Sussex......

[Stunsworth]

Another vote for the Michelin green guide. It's a part of France that I've only visited once or twice, but one that I intend to return to.

Does anyone else remember the TV series about a Brit's disastrous attempt to open a Chambre d'Hote and Indian restaurant in the Ardeche?

[DracoM]

Yes, sorry, forgot the Mich Green Guides too.

[Richard Tarleton]

Most important of all, don't forget this - a very good price, too

[vinteuil]

So, to get to the point - has anyone any recommendations for other travel guides or writing that may help?

... on a more general note, and of no use at all to the Cockerney Sparrers given their imminent departure - I often find earlier editions of guide books much more informative than those currently published. Early and mid- 20th century guides, whether Michelin, Hachette, Blue Guides, Murray's Handbooks and the like, are often full of quite scholarly info on geology - hydrology - ecclesiastical history - architectural schools - industrial and demographic statistics - political background - etc -- all of which have been dropped in more 'up to date' editions, which are more useful if you're keen on the current nightlife - gay scene - vegan restaurants etc. Of course my 1920s hachettes are useless in this regard, and their maps and town-plans need a bit of historical interpretation. But then I'm a HIPP kinda guy....





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[french frank]

although I'll follow up a RL Stevenson connection....

I was going to suggest Travels with a Donkey which is lovely, and packed with useful information about what equipment you'll need, how to buy your donkey and sell it again when your holiday is finished, &c.

[Alain Maréchal]

I will do my civic duty at once and suggest you visit Vichy, but it is perhaps too far east for your itinerary.

May I presume to say I consider your planned itinerary an inadvisable way to get to know any region? Much better to pick a town and stay there for some days, visiting the area around, stopping for lunch, shopping for pic-nics at markets, perhaps trying some of the driving tours suggested by Michelin but leaving out the parts that look dull. I realise you want to see as much as possible, but it will all be here next time. Weather is going to be reliably warm to hot (Vichy tends towards stifling), for the next week or two, but Auvergne, especially the mountainous areas, is notorious for sudden storms that appear with little warning. Do check the weather every day.

Michelin guides are reliable, as long as you remember that their primary duty is to encourage motorists to drive long distances, wear out their tyres and buy new ones made by Michelin, so they tend to enthusiasm (incised stones are very rarely vaux le detour). I prefer Guides Bleues but I am unsure if they are still available. (3 on Amazon.fr, one with a ridiculous price). Rough Guides are for undergrads on a budget, Lonely Planet for those with no interest in local culture (I despise it for sneering at Moulins). or vice versa.

My advice would depend on your interests. Auvergne is littered with châteaux, the manorial ones usually intact, inhabited by the noble family and stocked with ancient tapestries and lovely gardens (e.g. Cordes), the châteaux-forts usually ruined on whose walls the splendour fell centuries ago (eg Murol).

There are five quite unmissable Romanesque Basilicas (very much my taste), N.D.du Port in Clermont, Saint-Saturnin, Saint-Nectaire (try the cheese), Issoire, Orcival (which shelters quite the best Virgin and Child in Auvergne).

La Bourboule is a Spa which has seen better days and is all the more charming for it (you could take the waters, famed for the health-giving properties of the arsenic). Le Mont-Dore is dull. All the Spas have seen better days but have astonishing architecture, usually Second Empire or Art Nouveau. Other towns you might overlook are Riom, Billom, Ambert. Further south Brioude, St-Flour, Aurillac and Le Puy-en-Velay, but Cantal and Haute-Loire aren't really within my "daytrip" range.

Also, do not miss the chance to ascend Le Puy de Dome on the funicular railway (technically a rack-and-pinion I believe). The view of the Chaine des Puys is quite astounding. You could visit Le Plateau de Gergovie and see where Vercingetorex defeated Julius Caesar - if JC was correct in naming the site of his defeat, and if the plateau currently called Gergovie is indeed correctly named. So much is lost in the mists of antiquity and eagerness to attract tourists.

I expect I will think of other recommendations as soon as I log out. If you ever see a book called "Portrait of the Auvergne" , in English, 1975 by Peter Gorham, seize it. A splendidly opinionated travel guide - it needs updating and I am very tempted to try. Auvergne is secretive and very different - there are several locally made signposts at the regional borders: "Ici termine La France, ici commence L'Auvergne"

[Alain Maréchal]

Most important of all, don't forget this - a very good price, too

Some may even not have been shot.*

*I have tried to rephrase that into grammatical English, and failed. I think it is clear what I meant.

[Richard Barrett]

Other towns you might overlook are Riom, Billom, Ambert. Further south Brioude, St-Flour, Aurillac and Le Puy-en-Velay

Yes to all of those. In Ardèche you also have the Chauvet Cave with its Palaeolithic paintings, or at least a highly painstaking reproduction of it, which is absolutely worth visiting.