Ambert has a round town hall, and it is not the strangest thing about the place. This small town in the Livradois-Forez, deep in the Massif Central, is also the home of fourme d'Ambert, one of France's oldest cheeses, a mild blue made in tall cylinders. And in a valley just outside town, the Moulin Richard de Bas still makes paper by hand, as it has done for centuries, using water power and old wooden hammers. The writer Jules Romains set his comic novel Les Copains here, and the town has a good-natured, slightly eccentric feel.
Ambert lies in the valley of the Dore, between the forested hills of the Livradois to the west and the Monts du Forez to the east. The landscape is green, with meadows, pine and fir forests and scattered farms, and in the higher areas, the Hautes Chaumes, wide open moorlands with heather and stone shelters where cattle once spent the summer.
The riding here is superb. Roads climb out of the valley in long series of curves, crossing passes like the Col des Supeyres, with views over the hills and the plain. The surfaces are generally good, traffic is light, and the scenery changes constantly. In winter, snow can cover the higher roads, and fog is common in the valleys in autumn. In summer, the hills offer a cool escape from the heat of the plains.
Ambert has fuel, a supermarket or two and places to eat, making it a good base for exploring the region. Try the fourme in a local restaurant, perhaps in a sauce or simply with bread and a glass of wine later in the day. Next, the road continues east towards the Rhône and the Alps.