In my past holiday we've travelled through France in three weeks. We have been in three different places. The first week we stayed around Fréjus. A nice area with beaches, sun, nice cities like Monaco (which is actually a country, I'll make a seperate blog about) and Cannes.
Quite a touristic area. And how different was the next week. In the second week we stayed on a campsite close to Clermont-Ferrand, a city in the Auvergne. This area is very well known as the vulvan area. There is a chain of puy (which is translated as vulcan) in that area. The vulcans are dormant for many years, so there is no big chance of an eruption.

The area is really beautiful. Compared to part of France where we were in the first week, the Auvergne is far less touristic. The campsite we were mostly had French campers, which wasn't a problem at all. Sometimes we visit camping where there are more Dutchies than people from other countries. Being on a more French camping does give you more of a feeling you traveled abroad.

And if the people didn't give us that feeling, the environment did!
And when you are in such an environment, you should really go for a walk. At least, that is how I think about it.
So we decided to go for a hike in the area. I used Komoot to find some nice hikes in the region that weren't too long (teenagers hate to walk) and didn't have too much elevation as well. While scanning the area with Komoot I found a nice hike that went over the Puy de la Vache and Puy Lassolas.

The vulcan region is really special. The combination of the colors of the brown rocks, black sand, green trees and blue sky is really beautiful.

The rocks are quite light because they are very porous. They often look like rocks that came from outer space, like comets or something.
The climb of the Lassolas was kind of gritty, which made it quite tough to climb. There were some steep parts where you could easily slip away.

But the tough climb was really worth it. Just look at the view we had over the area. Everywhere around us were trees and other nature.

After a 20 minute climb we were able to see the top of the vulcan, which was the spot where we had planned to have our lunch today.

Here are some more shots from the beautiful environment. There is not really more to add. Just check out the pictures!

The trip down was more easy because they made a staircase in the path, so that took us way less time than going up.
We finally managed to do the tour in just over one hour (I paused during the lunch). It was quite a tough hike with 230 meters of elevation, but having the beautiful views during the lunch made it all worth it.

Friendlymoose

I'm an amateur photographer with a love for indoor gardening, craft beer, and cycling. As the owner of the Cycling Community and the creator of the Topcomment initiative, I focus on fostering engagement and bringing like-minded people together.
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