Auvergne is placed in the heart of Massif Central in the centre of France and is known as the largest volcano area of Europe.
In Auvergne, you can see the grand nature in the volcano mountain ranges and beautiful lakes. The great, unspoiled area offers fantastic sightseeing and any thinkable outdoor activity. Here, you will find more than 500 Roman churches, close to 50 castles and numerous exciting museums, medieval castles and renaissance palaces, which will be a great pleasure to the ones interested in art, history and architecture. For the bonvivants, there are good, powerful regional dishes, a wide selection of delicate cheese and lovely local wine.

The landscape of Auvergne

The volcanic mountains and wild river ravines characterise the dramatic landscape of Auvergne. Here, there are three large areas of extinguished volcanoes, great green valleys, rivers and lakes between small, authentic villages.
After each mountain is a valley with a river in the bottom. Whether you choose Allier, Loire, Cère, Truyère, Maronne or another river, nature is wild, rough and undisturbed.

Large cities in Auvergne: Clermont-Ferrand

Clermont-Ferrand is a vibrant and busy business and student city filled with exciting shops, cafes and restaurants. Place St-Pierre is Clermonts-Ferrand’s largest marketplace with a daily foods market that tempts you with first quality ingredients. The pedestrian street ”Rue du Port” offers many small, nice shops.

Tourist attractions in Auvergne

When you are on holiday in Auvergne, there are three volcano areas, Mont Dômes, Monts Dore and Monts du Cantal that are interesting to visit.

Mont Dômes is the youngest line of volcanoes in Auvergne. They are about 4,000 years old and consist of a total of 112 extinguished volcanoes in a 30 km long line west of Clermont-Ferrand. In the centre, you will find Puy de Dôme, where, on the peak, you will find the remains of the Roman Mercury Temple.

Monts Dore consists of three gigantic volcanoes of which Puy de Sancy with its 1,885 metres is the highest point of Central France. The peak can be reached by a cableway from the city Le Mont-Dore followed by a walk through open terrain. The area is enriched by dark green, tight forest mountains interrupted by roaring rivers and beautiful lakes.

The Cantal Mountains were originally the oldest and largest volcano of Europe. The two highest peaks today are Plomb du Cantal and Puy Mary which are surrounded by keglerande, deep river valleys and lush meadows.

Sports activities in Auvergne

In Auvergne, there is a wonderful, varied natural landscape which in many places encourages outdoor activities, such as rafting, paragliding, canoeing or kayaking, alpine and cross-country skiing, horseback riding, swimming as well as trekking in the beautiful volcano areas of Mont Dômes, Monts Dore and Monts du Cantal.

Gastronomic characteristics of Auvergne

There are several famous regional specialties of Auvergne, for instance, Falette, which is stuffed veal breast with braised cabbage, salted pork cooked in wine with small, green Puy lentils and aligot, which is a potato and cheese pure spiced with garlic.
The regional products comprise salty ham, pork, potatoes, cabbage and grey-blue lentils. In Central France, they also produce the country's richest selection of cheese, try for instance some of the AOC labelled cheeses St-Nectaire, Salers, Cantal, Bleu d’Auvergne and Fourme d’Ambert with a good piece of farm bread and one of the local wines, for instance Auvergne Saint-Pourçain, Châteaugay, Madargues, Boudes or Corent.

The climate of Auvergne

The up to 1,000 metre high volcanoes in Auvergne characterise the climate and make summers warm with chill nights and winters cold with snow and frost.
In the springtime and autumn, it rains regularly, and it is often foggy.

Some of the photos are kindly lent out from Maison de la France. Photographers: Pierre Desheraud and Joël Damas.