Valentine's Weekend

We love the Michelin Green Guides!  There are so many little excursions that you can follow and there are always some interesting finds along the way.  We wanted to get away from the city so we decided to head just south of Clermont-Ferrand and follow the route Dauphine d'Auvergne.  It was a fun way for us to celebrate Valentine's Day early.

We made a wrong turn heading out to the autoroute, so we just decided to take a round about way to the starting point.  We had the whole day ahead of us and were not on any schedule.  We were delighted to get some gorgeous views of the Mont Dore area with Puy de Sancy off in the distance.

Our first stop along the way was at the Grottes de Perrier (Caves of Perrier).  These are man-made caves carved out in the side of a mountain where people lived from prehistoric times through the end of the 1800's.  They were used as shelters during WWII.

So come explore with us! 

We climbed all through the "houses" and wished our children were with us.  When we lived here before, they loved climbing around in the ruins.  Even as adults, they would still have enjoyed it!

This would be a little bit different type of "house hunting" than we just recently did.

 

The views from the top were beautiful!

We picked up jambon & fromage croissants (ham & cheese) to eat as we drove through the next town of Tourzel-Ronzieres on our way to a Roman church built at the end of the 12th century. 

Roman Church of Ronzieres



We continued along the route to Eglise de Colamine-sous-Vodable.  It's amazing how old everything is in this area.  This church was built in the 11th century and is still standing.  I don't think anyone attends there from the looks of it, but they do occasionally have concerts there.

As we drove closer to Boudes, we began to see vineyards on the southern slopes.  This town is the only one in the region that did not lose all their grapes to disease in the 1800's as most of the local vineyards did.  I took pictures of the vineyard with the dormant plants.  We hope to go back and watch the changes through the seasons.

The next stop was to see a castle - Chateau de Villeneuve

We just walked around the outside enjoying the views and walking through the old town - all build around the 15th century.  The church was open so we took some time to look around in there.

 

The moat

The church

Inside the church


 Our final stop was to see the medieval fortified village of Mareugheol.  Some of the town was crumbling while 2 sides of the walls are still inhabited.

Proof of life still in the old city - cute "guard" dog.

It was a great day to spend together, exploring our part of France.  The countryside is beautiful and the little roads we traveled on were fun winding roads with very little traffic.  It made us both look forward to when we can buy a motorcycle and really enjoy the travel part.