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 A

Walk 15 St Cirgues de Jordanne B

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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