Puy-de-Dome

19 Sunday 2008
It was a beautiful fall day in Clermont on Sunday, so Matthew and I decided to head up to the Puy-de-Dôme (you can read about the Puy-de-Dôme at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puy_de_D%C3%B4me_mountain ). There were several options to “experience” the Puy-de-Dôme, we chose a walking trail that was 9 km and should take about 3 hours. The trail was the “Walk Around” trail, so I was hoping there would be several spots along the way with breathtaking views of the city below. I did not get my views; it was a 9 km walk through the woods. I say it was 9 km, but I have no idea how far we walked bc we got lost at one point. The signs said to follow the yellow markings. Somewhere along the way the yellow markings disappeared, so we started following the red and white markings…
We ended up on this little road and in a clearing, we realized we were walking straight away from the Puy de Dome. We were still seeing red and white markings, but couldn’t see how this could possibly be right. Praise the Lord, because He sent us a little, old, French angel down the same little road. The man turned us around and we retraced our footsteps back to the trail we had been on. There were several people along the way and we would continue to check that we were headed in the right direction. We eventually made it back to the car (we never did see any more yellow markings).
On the way back down the mountain (I don’t know if it should technically be called a mountain) we pulled over at a lookout point that is at the top of Chamalieres. I finally got my view! There was an amazing panoramic view of Clermont and the surrounding towns.