Auvergne

The railway journey from Nimes(30 Gard, Languedoc-Roussillon)  to Clermont Ferrand (63 Puy de Dome, Auvergne) offers you a different perspective on the Massif Central than most of us experience using the main north-south artery down the Autoroute du Soleil. Whilst the newer A75 route from Beziers to Clermont-Ferrand also offers some spectacular views, the train gives you more time to admire the landscape and takes you to places which the car cannot.

Crossing the wild country of the Cevennes in southern France this line passes through 106 tunnels and over almost 1,300 bridges, including the impressive 41 arch Chamborigaud Viaduct.

Easily reached by TGV from Paris, Nîmes is the starting point of this leisurely journey through the remote, wild country of the Cevennes. Though only 303km long, the line burrows through 106 tunnels and crosses almost 1,300 bridges, including some of the most impressive viaducts on French railways, such as the 28-arch edifice at Chapeauroux and the 41-arch near-semicircle of Chamborigaud Viaduct.

The southern plain of vineyards, Lombardy poplars and Aleppo pines gives way to a few miles of hilly post-industrial landscape with occasional traces of mining activity gradually being reclaimed by nature. The long climb into the Cevennes and the summit at La Bastide (1,023m above sea level) is flanked by woods and the occasional agricultural terrace etched into the hillside. Running across a plateau, the train offers panoramic views across hills stretching to the horizon. Lonely stations in the middle of nowhere make one wonder at the optimism of the railway’s builders. But perhaps the finest stretch is the long section of track built on a masonry ledge above the River Allier with glorious views along the sinuous valley.

The journey takes about 5½ hours, yet fares start at  just £34 - the 300km route passes through Ales, Chamborigaud, Villefort, Chapeauroux, Langogne, Langeac, Brioude and Issoire.

For more details see www.raileurope.co.uk

See map

Another acclaimed scenically beautiful rail route is in the French Comté - see http://frenchduck.com

The Independent (2 Aug 08) has another of its “50 Best…” series, this time on Railway Journeys - and includes 2 French ones.

Clermont Ferrand-Beziers

The less well-used of the two lines from Clermont Ferrand through the Massif Central (the other goes to Nimes), this switchback route traverses some of the wildest country in France. Near St Flour the line crosses Eiffel’s Garabit Viaduct and follows the Lot and Tarn rivers to reach Millau and Norman Foster’s viaduct, the world’s highest road bridge.

The journey takes 5 hours and costs about €50. It has to be said that the road journey is pretty spectacular too, whether you opt for the new autoroute A75 or quieter side roads as the route crosses the Auvergne and the Causses before descending to the Languedoc (see www.frenchduck.co.uk/travel)

Eurostar London - Paris

Okay, most of the scenery between London and Paris or Brussels isn’t going to inspire a modern-day Edward Thomas, but the pleasure of using the magnificently restored station at St Pancras and the blissful ease of Eurostar makes it a great experience. Treat yourself to first class and enjoy champagne and a pretty respectable meal at 186mph.

Personally I would also recommend the route from Brive-la-Gaillarde to Montauban via Gourdon and Cahors - it cuts through the dramatic limestone landscapes and valleys of South West France offering unmatchable views of the countryside, the Lot River and the town of Cahors. Time: about 2 hrs, cost about €25.
With RailEurope you can book your rail journey to any destination within France, including Eurostar services, TGV and local trains

See the FrenchDuck article on Tourist Trains in France

Anthony Peregrine in the Times (27 July 2008) embarks on a cheesey tour of France and this would be a great way to have a themed trip - maybe getting you into corners of France which might otherwise be missed. Furthermore there is increasing pressure both from EU bureaucrats, big commercial dairies and undiscerning consumers, which threatens the future of traditional artisan cheese-making.

….It’s good to visit them, too, to get to grips with the subject properly. They need all the allies they can get in the battle against industrial dairy plastic. They’re also to be found in some of the remotest, greenest and loveliest bits of France. Here are five of our favourites. All have an AOC (Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée), which, as with wine, means that the item has to come from where it has always come from and be made as it has always been made. All will be glad to see you (and your money). Naturally, they might still drive you crackers with purple prose. You’ll just have to live with that. We’re travelling north to south.

So his tour encompasses Camembert (61 Orne, Normandy), Munster (68 Haut Rhin, Alsace), Epoisses (21 Cote d’Or, Burgundy), Comté (39 Jura, Franche-Comté) and the Auvergne which includes Saint Nectaire (63 Puy de Dome, Auvergne) - all of which are in beautiful parts of France and well worth a visit.

In the Auvergne there is a signposted Cheese route (Route des Fromages) - you can download a map and details at www.fromages-aoc-auvergne.com

In the Jura there is a Cheese Trail - details of creameries and farms open to visitors can be seen at www.lesroutesducomte.com

If you cannot get out to the farm, then these are French Cheese shops we can recommend:-

Fromagerie Marie-Anne Cantin, 12 rue du Champ de Mars PARIS - just off rue Cler in the 7th arrondisement - an overwhelming selection of delicious cheeses - very professional but also very helpful - also run tasting sessions.

To guide you in this wide field of cheese gastronomy Marie Anne Cantin and her husband Antoine Dias offer you tasting sessions.
According to the seasons , they will have you discover the different families of cheeses, their history, their making process , their character and particular flavour. You will learn how to choose your cheeses, eat, present and keep them.

Cremerie Marty Patrick, 160 rue Nationale CAHORS (46 Lot, Midi-Pyrenees) - excellent choice, also includes butter, cream and fresh pasta (see video)

The village of Pailherols (15 Cantal, Auvergne) will be celebrating the local Cantal cheese 31 May and 1 June 2008 with a cheese market, where local producers will offer samples of this semi-hard cheese made from the Salers cows which graze on the mountain meadows and pastures of the region. Just to confuse, the cheese made in the summer when the cows are on the moutain slopes is called “Salers”, whilst that made in winter from cows fed on hay is called “Cantal” In addition you’ll find a collection of tractors from various periods; a cow parade through the village (Salers cows of course) ; children can enjoy visiting a miniature farm.

To balance the rich food you can take a hike on the Saturday to see shepherd’s huts.

Graciously there is also a “guest” cheese-maling region which is the Franche-Comté this year. Cheesemakers from there will reveal the secrets of making Comté cheese (another semi-hard mountain cows mile cheese also known as Gruyere de Comté) and offer a fondue on Saturday night.

See map

For more info on the Cheese Festival see www.auvergne-tourisme.info

The village is situated between Aurillac (15 Cantal, Auvergne) and St Flour (15 Cantal, Auvergne) an area which is not exactly “just off the autoroute”. Consequently it remains quiet and unspoilt -

Life in Cantal is played out against a stunning landscape of immense power and beauty. Home to natural riches as varied as the dramatic gorges of the Lot and Truyère, the ancient woodland of La Châtaigneraie, the wild moorland of the Aubrac and the boundless emerald green pastures of Salers.

But above all Cantal is a land dominated by mountains.

Cows and cheese play an important part in the local economy with Saler and Cantal joined by St Nectaire, Fourme d’Ambert, Bleu d’Auvergne.This is an area full of rich simple food based on the best local ingredients. A wide variety of locally cured and produced charcuterie: hams, fritons, pates, terrines and sausages. Game from the hills and woodland with seasonal hare and rabbit, quail, venison and wild boar. Rustic breads and pastries, nuts, oils, jams and honeys. Famous Gentian liqueur, eaux de vie distilled from plums, raspberries, blackberries, blackcurrants and chestnuts - sounds good enough to eat!

See our customised Google Map

For more info on the Cantal département see www.cantaltourisme.fr

Regular readers will be aware the the Lot Valley in the South West of France features frequently in these pages - in many ways the essence of “deepest France”, it is less crowded than the Dordogne to the north and yet offers a wide variety of landscapes, pretty villages, great cuisine - and is home to the often under-rated Malbec-based wines of Cahors. Hence an essential recent purchase has been the revised edition of Helen Martin’s Book Lot: Travels Through a Limestone Landscape in SouthWest France, which is packed with insights, history and information on the Lot département (46) as part of the River’s journey from the Massif Central to its meeting with the Garonne near Aiguillon (47 Lot-et-Garonne, Aquitaine).

Helen has kindly allowed us to print an extract of the section on Cahors and its wines…….
Lot: Travels Through a Limestone Landscape in SouthWest France

Chapter 8 The Lot Valley: West of Cahors
Below Cahors, the valley of the Lot belongs to the vignerons and the vineyards of the black wine of Cahors, châteaux-country in fact, but in times gone by it also belonged to the bishops of Cahors, who worked and played but mostly – in that great Christian tradition – fought along its banks.
Downstream of Luzech, the really wild cliffs you see to the east of Cahors become a thing of the past, replaced by gentler, graceful slopes, albeit with a certain grandeur to them, that, even though they may end in cliffs, are less formidable and are called cévennes. The river idles its way through the countryside in deep loops, or cingles, and was used as a major artery for transporting goods from the thirteenth century.
Along its banks grow the vines, and it was mostly the wine from these vineyards which used to be sailed downstream to the Garonne and Bordeaux and from thence to the world. The wine of Cahors may have had its ups and down in more recent times, but the Romans were making wine here in the third century and it had something of a reputation even then, so this river trade is very ancient. Finally, though, and in spite of the efforts of competitive Bordeaux wine-makers, it was phylloxera which put paid to the wine, and thus the trade, in the 1880s. By the time it had revived again, there were better means of transport. But even when the river was at the height of its usefulness, transportation was not always guaranteed. You would be surprised to know how many times the Lot froze right over in winter; the end of the eighteenth century was a particularly critical time – in 1766 it was frozen solid for two and a half months.
In the early nineteenth century, on a river much improved with the passage of time by locks and aids to navigation, 300,000 tonnes of freight was carried down it each year, including an astonishing 90 million bottles of wine – three times the number produced today. However, just as it was phylloxera that killed the river’s wine trade, so it was the coming of the railway that killed the river as a serious form of transport. In more recent years, though, it is coming to life again as leisure craft ply their way up and down, no doubt bringing new problems of pollution.
The villages along this western stretch of the river, unsurprisingly enough, are notable for their wine-producers’ houses – usually big and square with bolets or pigeonniers and sometimes both. You will notice, also, the use of decorative brickwork, the bricks being produced along the valley. [Read more →]

The Telegraph(1 March 2008) offers a list of “50 Spring Breaks” which includes the idea of staying in a modern, well-equipped treehouse in southern Normandy

In the heart of the Parc Naturel Régional du Perche, in southern Normandy, Perché dans le Perche is a treehouse with two bedrooms, a shower, internet access and panoramic views of the countryside.

Situated in the Orne (61 Normandie) not far from Le Mans (72 Sarthe, Pays de la Loire), the Regional Park covers an area of southern Normandie and is a great area for rambling, horse riding and exploring the gentle unspoilt countryside - see www.le-perche.org. For more info on the treehouse see www.perchedansleperche.com

Also included in the Telegraph’s list is www.campbiche.com in deepest South West France on the edge of “le Quercy Blanc” near the quiet but delightful bastide village of Lauzerte (82 Tarn et Garonne), not far from Cahors, Agen and Montauban.  I’m not sure if a glass of wine fits with a health cure, but you have the vineyards of Cahors, Buzet and Fronton and Coteaux du Quercy within easy reach. Then there’s duck, goose, foie gras…..

Stressed? Feeling fat? Try the new boot camp à la francaise: Camp Biche (020 7617 7253, www.campbiche.com), in Lauzerte, Tarn-et-Garonne. Eight hours of exercise – hiking, workouts, Pilates – by day, good food by night. About £2,300 per person a week.

In the Guardian 01 March 08 the Auberge des Liards in the Auvergne (Egliseneuve des Liards, 63 Puy-de-Dome, Auvergne) is one of 10 eco-friendly places to stay (as is the NormandyTree House above)

The property - part of a smallholding - is on the slopes of Puy de Liards, an extinct volcano on the outskirts of the village of Égliseneuve des Liards. The owners, Dutch couple Astrid Ursem and Walter Verhoeve, have created the guesthouse from two ruined farm buildings. The main house has two guest rooms, and a nearby building contains two “ecological” rooms constructed with natural and traditional materials. Insulation is provided by a mix of hemp, chalk, loam and hay - as well as soil collected from molehills, which they use to insulate the floor. The rooms are simply decorated, with natural colours and wooden furniture. Guests are provided with eco-friendly soap, there are low-energy lights and household cleaning products are biodegradable.