After a wet night
we continued to large town of St Flour, split in two parts -
Basse Ville at the bottom of a cliff and the older Haute Ville high
above the plain. After finding a free carpark in the
old town which was crowded as it was a Saturday with a
large street market, we walked around looking at the usual
selection of stalls ranging from beds, mattresses and grandfather
clocks to live
chickens and lots of expensive fruit and vegetables. We were given a
town tour
leaflet in English by the tourist office and visited the
cathedral which was built from very dark stone with a sombre interior,
the
highlight being the gilded reliquery of Saint Flour. From there we
drove across
flat almost fen like countryside despite being at an altitude of 1000
metres
to the village of Paulhac, where we found a signposted aire de parking
about 1km to the west with views across to the Cantal hills. After
lunch we walked back to the sleepy village and came across a neat borne
de
camping-cars by the mairie, then followed a signposted walk back
along narrow lanes and woods to the parking place where we spent a
peaceful
evening on our own watching red kites (I think) circling above
the fields. The next morning was sunny but with a cold north wind as we
drove through flower meadows and steep winding and narrow roads
through remote villages to the Prat de Bouc, a small ski
resort and starting place for hikes to the nearby summit
of the Plomb du Cantal (1855m).
Paulhac service borne
Paulhac aire
At Murat we turned south on the main road to the large ski resort of Le
Lioran and over the pass expecting to see good views across the
mountains
but the road was all in forests so we returned to Murat through
the newly opened tunnel and took the road to Dienne and Puy Mary,
arriving at the Col de Serre just before the one-way restrictions for
motorhomes and buses started at 12:15. Parking at the col for
lunch we walked up the hillside which was smothered in wild
violas, gentians and masses of other flowers including a
few orchids. From there we headed down through the
attractive Valle de Cheylade to Apchon with its chateau and
Riom
ès Montagne which was holding its Fête Patrimoniale, basically a
funfair
in the streets and a children's fancy dress parade followed by a
display
by an amazingly versatile marching band with musicians of all
ages who performed complex routines before inviting the onlookers to
join in for a jive! Although there was an aire listed in Riom we drove
across the
grassy hills to Allanche, a rather grey town where there was a
pleasant free aire by the disused station, the terminus of the
velo-rail we had
driven beside for many miles. It wasn't yet open for the summer but was
expensive at
€70 for 4 persons for the full five hour round trip - sounded like hard
work to us. The carriages looked heavy and we wondered what you do if
you meet one coming the other way between stations?