Our Snowy Volcano Experience

About 14 km north of Clermont is a place called Volvic. Volvic is one of the extinct volcanoes in the chain of extinct volcanoes that are in our area. Volvic is also famous for its bottled water. Volvic mineral water has been bottled in the town for almost 70 years and is sold all over the world. You can also visit the source of Volvic water and take a guided tour. Matthew and I have not had a chance to visit Volvic yet, so Monday we headed there with Mom, Bertrand, and Claire. After 2 beautiful days with blue skies, we woke up to very gray skies. As we drove to pick up Bertrand and Claire, snow started falling. I was a little apprehensive as we headed up the mountain and into the little town. There was no one around and when we found the Office of Tourism, we discovered it was still closed for lunch. We walked across the street to the church. Fortunately the church was unlocked so we went inside to escape the cold and snow for a few minutes. At 2:00, the Office of Tourism reopened and with the help of the guy on duty, we got directions to some of the trails in the area. We headed further up the mountain as the snow started coming down harder. We decided since it was snowing, and we still had to drive back down the mountain, we would walk the 1 hour trail. Unfortunately, that trail did not take us far enough to see the volcano crater, but we decided that we could come back another time when it was not snowing. We really enjoyed the walk, even though at certain points we couldn't see because it was snowing so hard! The trails were really nice, and very well marked. We will definitely be returning in the spring to hike the longer trail and see the volcano.