A guidebook to 42 day walks in the Auvergne. Exploring the volcanic hills of central France, the walks are suitable for beginner and experienced walkers alike.

Walks range from 2 to 16km (1–10 miles) and can be enjoyed in 1–6 hours. The routes are clustered into five different areas, making ideal bases: Cantal, the Chaîne des Puys (Monts Dômes), the Monts Dore, the Haute Loire (Livradois and Velay) and the Montagne Bourbonnaise.

• Sketch maps are included for each walk
• Detailed information on accommodation, public transport and the region’s volcanic history
• Local points of interest are featured including the Livradois-Forez and Auvergne Volcanoes regional nature parks

Overview map   
Map key  

Introduction   
History   
Volcanoes   
Plants and wildlife   
Food and drink   
When to go   
Getting there    
Getting around   
Accommodation   
Difficulty   
Equipment   
Maps   
Waymarking   
Hazards and emergencies   
Using this guide

   
1 The Cantal   
Walk 1    Puy de Niermont   
Walk 2    An Ascent of the Puy de Peyre Arse    
Walk 3    Puy Mary with Optional Excursion to Puy de la Tourte   
Walk 4    Traverse of the Brêche de Rolland from Puy Mary to Peyre Arse   
Walk 5    Around Medieval Murat   
Walk 6    The Plomb du Cantal   
Walk 7    A Rombière Ramble   
Walk 8    Puy Griou   
Walk 9    Up the Usclade    
Walk 10    The Elancèze   
Walk 11    Puy Violent and the Shadow Rock   
Walk 12    Roches Taillade and Roc d’Hoziéres   
Walk 13    Circuit of Puy Chavaroche   
Walk 14    St Cirgues de Jordanne – Southern circuit   
Walk 15    St Cirgues de Jordanne – Northern circuit   

2 The Châine des Puys (Monts Dômes)   
Walk 16    Puy de Dôme   
Walk 17    Puys Lassolas and de la Vache   
Walk 18    Around Orcival   
Walk 19    Puy des Gouttes   
Walk 20    The Crater of Puy Pariou   
Walk 21    The Water of Volvic   

3 The Monts Dore   
Walk 22    The Grand Horseshoe: Puy de Sancy from Mont-Dore   
Walk 23    Up the Chaudefour Valley to Puys Sancy and Ferrand   
Walk 24    Around Lake Pavin   
Walk 25    Connecting the Cascades of Puy d’Angle   
Walk 26    The Tuilière and Sanadoire rocks   
Walk 27    A Tour of the Curiosities of St Nectaire   
Walk 28    Lake Guéry and the Banne d’Ordanche  

4 The Haute-Loire: Livradois Forez and Velay   
Walk 29    Around Chaise-Dieu and the Senouire   
Walk 30    The Gorges of the Loire   
Walk 31    A Circuit of Allègre   
Walk 32    Mont Bar from Allègre   
Walk 33    Domeyrat and the Senouire   
Walk 34    Vieille Brioude and the Ceroux   
Walk 35    Lavaudieu Abbey and the Senouire  

  
5 The Montagne Bourbonnaise   
Walk 36    The Ruins of Montgilbert   
Walk 37    Milling around the Mills   
Walk 38    Around Châtel Montagne and the Puy de Roc   
Walk 39    Rocher St Vincent   
Walk 40    The Cascade de la Pisserote   
Walk 41    The Plateau de la Verrerie and its Tourbière    
Walk 42    Pierre Châtel from St Nicolas des Biefs   

Appendix A    Route summary table   
Appendix B    Glossary of French walking terms   
Appendix C    Further reading   
Appendix D    Useful contacts   
 

Seasons

All the routes can be enjoyed from May to October. The summer months are usually hot and sunny, but the winters see snowbound villages and skiing on the higher Auvergne peaks

Centres

cities: Puy-en-Velay and Vichy; villages: Orcival for the Monts Dore and Dômes, Murat for the Cantal, Mayet-de-Montagne for the Bourbonnaise

Difficulty

Grade 1: Short easy walks with few navigational problems and little ascent; Grade 2: Walks that will not be taxing for a fit and experienced hiker. They may be longer, have moderate height gain or require good navigation skills; Grade 3: Challenging walks for experienced hikers. Steep terrain may be encountered with considerable ascents or longer mountain days

Must See

Fascinating volcanoes: Puy de Dôme, de la Vache and Pariou; high summits: Plomb du Cantal, Puy Mary and Puy de Sancy; magnificent abbeys and churches: Chaise Dieu, Lavaudieu and Orcival; chateaux: Montgilbert and Lavoûte-sur-Loire; attractive bases: Le Puy-en-Velay and Vichy; lakes Guery and Pavin, the Grand Cascade and Volvic spring

For all but the Grade 1 walks in this guide a map is recommended. Detailed topographical maps are available for all the areas covered. A Series Bleu IGN map at 1:25,000 incorporates the entire Cantal section, two cover the Châine des Puys and Massif du Sancy. The Montagne Bourbonnaise walks are mainly covered by the Mayet-de-Montagne map and the Haute-Loire by the Allegre/La Chaise Dieu maps. The full names of the IGN 1:25,000 sheets, if you are ordering online or by phone, are shown below.

1  The Cantal    2435OT Monts du Cantal
2  The Châine des Puys (Monts Dômes    2531ET Châine des Puys
3  The Monts Dore    2432ET Massif du Sancy
4  The Haute-Loire: Forez and Velay    2734O Allègre/La Chaise Dieu2735E Le Puy en Velay2634E Paulhaguet2634O Brioude
5  The Montagne Bourbonnaise    2730O Mayet de Montagne2729O Lapalisse2730E St Just/Monts de la Madeleine
 

Each map is widely sold in the area which it covers but unlike in Britain it can be infuriating getting them elsewhere: you may, for example, encounter problems getting hold of a map of the Cantal from shops in the Monts Dore, despite being so nearby. Indeed, the authors spent an entire afternoon and failed to find a single shop selling maps of the Monts Dore in the major town of Vichy. Supermarkets, hypermarkets and bookshops are usually a good bet for stocking maps of the wider region, but there are no guarantees. Tourist information offices and newsagents usually sell IGN maps of their near area. The IGN maps are available prior to departure in the UK from Amazon, Stamfords, the Map Shop and other good reatilers on and offline.

A word of caution about the IGN maps of this region. Partially due to the lack of a rights of way system which we have in Britain, but also clearly as a result of some lazy mapping, some of the tracks and paths appearing on the 1:25,000 maps in the Auvergne do not exist on the ground. They have probably fallen into disuse, but in some instances we have found ‘disuse’ to equate to decades of absence. Similarly, many other good and long-established paths on the ground are not marked at all on the maps. Added to this, the distinction between paved roads and tracks is often not made. We have tried to clear up this issue and others in our route descriptions.
 

November 2019

Route updates included in 2020 reprint

September 2019

Route updates and corrections

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