Clermont-Ferrand: the city born from a volcano

Built in black volcanic stone, Clermont-Ferrand is also the most convenient starting point for Puy de Dôme, a dormant volcano and symbol of the entire Auvergne region.

The center is explored on foot; for Puy de Dôme there's a rack railway.

The Cathedral of Clermont-Ferrand, built entirely from black volcanic stone, remains one of the rare examples of a Gothic cathedral built with this unusual material.

Just steps away, the Basilica of Notre-Dame-du-Port, Romanesque and a UNESCO World Heritage site, preserves carved capitals from the eleventh century with biblical figures and vegetative motifs.

In the afternoon, the cog railway of Puy de Dôme climbs to the summit of the extinct volcano, the highest point in the chain of ancient craters in Auvergne.

From the summit, you observe the entire Chaîne des Puys, a UNESCO World Heritage site, a chain of over eighty now-extinct volcanic cones dotting the plain below.

The black volcanic stone used for the cathedral makes the building nearly invisible on moonless nights, a detail that surprises those who see it for the first time at dusk.

Puy de Dôme hosted a temple dedicated to Mercury in Roman times, archaeological traces of which still remain right next to the modern train station.