Travel in the Auvergne / Ardeche

[Cockney Sparrow]

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 - thank you for the PM suggesting the Gorham Book using Abebooks I identified a bookseller with a 'phone number, and an astonishingly helpful young lady sold me the book (ex-Library, has to be said) for 51p plus the next day postage. I've also had Amazon 1 day delivery on "Auvergne and the Massif Central (French Regional Guides)" (Grizell). Reviews on Amazon for the Auvergne Michelin Green Guide are condemning. We now have some reasonable info for the Auvergne (which I thought was the area lacking any guides). I may pick up the Stevenson in the library a way away but I had the car serviced so won't need saddling info for a Donkey I trust

With a bank holiday Monday and leaving home for Eurotunnel on Tuesday first thing, my only resource now is Amazon one day delivery and its now the Ardeche for which I am short of info, but we will have to take our chance, use the internet or use local guides with Mrs CS deciphering - I can't find an in-print Michelin Green Guide for the Ardeche/Cevennes but there may be one in French so we can consider buying one when we are there. (Update: that is realistic, Mrs CS' French language skills are a notch or two better than I previously conveyed). I've spent some time trawling through books on Amazon, and elsewhere - its time consuming because I'm not clear on what area is covered from some of the titles using regional (or Departement) or Geographical area names whereas I am looking for Ardeche and Cevennes. I've spent 30 minutes again after lunch, no English language books on these two but (update) I picked up the Stevenson free as a Kindle book. Thats as much as I can do on the book front, I think

We share your lack of enthusiasm, Alain, for Lonely Planet publiications (In the library, so free loan, seemed to be a dearth of other information at the time so it might have been useful) - but it hadn't occured to me that a liking for Rough Guides put us into the eternal student baby boomer bracket ! (We found their Andalusia guide invaluable in May) If there were a Phaidon culture / art guide for the Ardeche / Cevennes we would buy it .........

As to birds, I'm afraid we have a number of Bird books (which we will take, having been prompted) but are unlikely to buy another at the moment as our shelf space is groaning, we are actually weeding out books. (But I will put that book on the Wish list to consider carefully if it will displace our other bird books).

Finally (I have to concentrate on the many arrangements before we can go, now) many thanks for the helpful suggestions and links, present and any added up to Monday. We'll be able to research these over the weekend, as the constraints of delivery services won't apply.

When we get back I'll post feedback and any recommendations for publications.
Many thanks to you all
CS
p.s - Update Edit - we will indeed be staying a few nights at a number of centres during this holiday. And yes, the weather warning is valuable - I'd already thought September can be stormy in Southern France...

[vinteuil]

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... lucky lucky you. Mme v and I are recently back from France - marking a Big Birthday for her, a house to contain her four children plus partners, and various of our 'grown up' friends - she flew in and out, but I drove (all those hat-boxes, dontcha know... ) stopping off at Moulins (hommage to Maigret, among other things) and Rodez en route for destination on the border or Ariege/Aude; back by way of Cahors (lovely - why had I never been before???) and Saumur.

I now feel the need for a holiday in France (as does Mme v).

Enjoy the Ardeche. My brother (a walking fanatic) has taken holidays in the same logis-de-france hotel in Chandolas for the last fifteen years...


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[HighlandDougie]

If you happen to be near it (it's not far from Aurillac), Salers is a very nice small town which is definitely vaut le détour. Surrounded by typical Auvergnat scenery and famous for its very good cheese (Cantal basically but a bit stronger and more Cheddar-like)

[Alain Maréchal]

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stopping off at Moulins (hommage to Maigret, among other things

Ah yes, Saint-Fiacre! Such a charming village! I trust you visited The Painting while in Moulins. Hommage to Coco as well, of course,

[Stunsworth]

...Rodez en route for destination on the border or Ariege/Aude; back by way of Cahors (lovely - why had I never been before???) and Saumur.

Another town I can recommend in the area is Albi. The cathedral is imposing and magnificent both inside and out. Also there are the pigeon eating catfish that featured in the last series of Planet Earth (though I didn't see them while I was in the town). There is also a magnificent Toulouse Lautrec museum - I'm not his biggest fan, but loved it.

i went there last summer on a trip that included the Tarn gorge - itself a wonder.

[Harryleo]

you can to recording to Dawn Upshaw to catalog to improved to accidental to an acquaintance with auvergme

[Dave2002]

you can to recording to Dawn Upshaw to catalog to improved to accidental to an acquaintance with auvergme

Cryptic comment. Is that a reference to Canteloube's "Songs of the Auvergne"?

We went to Le Puy en Velay once years ago. Wouldn't mind going again, though probably not at this time of year.

[Cockney Sparrow]

As the OP, we enjoyed the holiday very much (once it warmed up a bit - the first few days we might as well have been in Edinburgh on a wet Autumn day).

For me, nothing beats Natania Davrath in the Canteloube (Vanguard) although I concede there are other recordings of value.

[Pulcinella]

For me, nothing beats Natania Davrath in the Canteloube (Vanguard) although I concede there are other recordings of value.

And you get the 'other' sets as well.

[Dave2002]

As the OP, we enjoyed the holiday very much (once it warmed up a bit - the first few days we might as well have been in Edinburgh on a wet Autumn day).

For me, nothing beats Natania Davrath in the Canteloube (Vanguard) although I concede there are other recordings of value.

There are others, though. Davrath is here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-iI8tMHrD_c

Gens is here in DVD-A 5:1 surround - from the US - currently $4.99 - https://www.classicselect.com/produc...=8147815858282

or about £12 in the UK - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Chants-Dauv...veronique+gens

The CD versions are cheaper - but some may want to try the surround sound version.

I always thought De Los Angeles was the version to have, but I've not heard those songs for a while.

[Alain Maréchal]

For me, nothing beats Natania Davrath in the Canteloube (Vanguard) although I concede there are other recordings of value.

Madeleine Grey - hors concours.

p.s. if anybody is in the region this weekend you must make your way to Lyon (not, geographically, Auvergne) for the Fête des Lumieres.

[ardcarp]

..and talking of Light Shows (at which the French excel to a mind-boggling degree) don't miss Laval in the Pays de Loire.

http://www.laval-tourisme.com/en/sortir-english/diary/les-lumieres-de-laval-2018-308392

I'll be there on Saturday....probably with waterproofs and thermals if the meteo is to be believed.