Clermont-Ferrand

Our travels today took us to the home of Michelin - Clermont-Ferrand, a metropolitan area of almost 500 000 inhabitants, nestled in the heart of the Auvergne highlands.

Before leaving Le Puy en Velay, however, we set out to get a look at the other monumental hill in town we missed yesterday, Aiguilhe, The Rock And Chapel of St. Michael. We got not only that view but also and nice look at all the monumental sites.

On the edge of town, was another impressive site, the perched medieval city of Polignac.

Not far from Clermont-Ferrand, we made a stop at the St. Verny vineyard that produced the wine we had at dinner last night - a blend of Gamay and Pinot Noir - not a full bodied Rhone style, but enjoyable nonetheless. Here we found a nice unoaked Chardonnay, to be quaffed later.

It was an easier drive than yesterday, but the views coming out of the Le Puy hills, were equally stunning. We got to our hotel, the Hotel Clermont-Ferrand Estaing, too early so we decided to head up to the Panoramique Train station for the trip to the summit of Le Puy de Dome volcano, last active over 10 000 years ago. There was a lot of low cloud cover and the rain, which started last night in Le Puy by the way, began again giving us only a look at the train station and zero summit.

Giving up on a possible ascent of the volcano, we headed to the historic centre of Clermont-Ferrand. There was a nice panorama above town showing both the hilliness of the area and the heart of the old town.

So, we made our way to the cathedral square for a closer look. This is a classic gothic cathedral.

Then we made our way down to the La Jaude Square featuring fountains, the Galleries Lafayette store, a look out to the volcano and currently a sporting recruitment display.

This city features a light rail tram and because of the Michelin presence, an impressive stadium. Michelin still has headquarters here, but most manufacturing has moved off shore - surprise!

The weather continued to be a little uncertain for the remainder of the day, but we knew we needed to have dinner in the old town. By the time we left, the sun had broken through. We used the GPS to find our way from the hotel to the restaurant, which was handy, but there was no parking to be had. They need an app for that. I finally dropped off the girls and set out on a quest. After numerous circuits I ventured further afield and finally found a nice tight spot only 250 metres away.

This restaurant, La Cassolette, specializes in, oh cassolettes, and we had lamb and pasta for Brigitte, seafood for Dawn and chicken, potatoes and forme d'ambert gratin for me.

With that we had an Auvergne red - 100% gamay. The dishes were huge and super filling but that didn't stop a dessert of tiramisu for Brigitte and chocolat fondant for me. Just when we thought the meal was over they dropped a bottle of Calvados on the table - gratis - and we had a little snort of that.

GPS once again successfully got us out of the warren and back to the hotel. Nowadays, what would we do without it?