Inseparable from the chain of puys that dominates it, Clermont-Ferrand, capital of Auvergne, located in its basin, offers, from Gaul to Bibendum, a richly highlighted history.
Day 1
9 o’clock. Black stones and blonde rocks
Can a script change destiny? The day when, the 12thmy century, the two neighboring cities of Clermont and Ferrand adopted one, Clermont-Ferrand was born. This unification desired by Louis XIII moved the court of Montferrand to a city center today dominated by the cathedral of Notre-Dame-de-l’Assomption. (1)a Romanesque church that became Gothic to which Viollet-le-Duc added these two façade towers that spring from the central mound. The Goncourt brothers wickedly baptized her “Coal Miners’ Cathedral”. It is about ignoring the surprising effect produced by this black mass of Volvic stone, oriented, at the end of a long street, towards the Puy de Dôme that rises in the distance.
A little further down, Notre-Dame-du-Port responds (2)an exceptional Romanesque basilica, declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1998 and made of blonde arkose. To get to it you have to cross the Port neighborhood, a group of shops dominated by the shopping centers of the large Place de Jaude. Street art drawings have multiplied there: prehistoric frescoes by the designer Lasco, Lego plates or a large fresco with a cat from Abbé-Girard Street.
Clermont-Ferrand is a city of often hidden beauties: behind austere façades hide extravagant courtyards. Like the Savaron hotel (XVImy century), rue des Chaussetiers, with a spiral staircase, sculpted tympanum, two small bridges joining two buildings… The statue of Vercingetorix sculpted by Bartholdi is, however, clearly visible in the Place de Jaude. (3)the largest square in the city. It responds to that of Pope Urban II, erected in Victory Square: the first raises a triumphant sword to call for national unity, the second points to the Holy Land and preaches the crusade.
12:30 pm Lunch at the Front
Very close to the cathedral, this restaurant with a family atmosphere and for 18 euros the lunch menu allows you to taste local specialties: truffle (potatoes mixed with garlic and fresh tomme), aligot or wild boar leg.
14:30 A breath of compressed air
What if it was Michelin, even more than Louis XIII, who had truly united the people of Clermont? A museum, L’Aventure Michelin (4)mixes golden legend and cultural marketing. After passing in front of the largest tire in the world, the visitor learns about this industrial epic in an educational and fun way. We discover, with the exhibition of an authentic Breguet 14, the company’s role in aviation, including wartime, and then its influence on automobile racing, exploration and railways. One room is dedicated to workers’ housing, still visible today (but normally rented again), which embodied the social side of a company that knew how not to disgrace during the Second World War.
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