Clermont-Ferrand day out · Maison de la Culture de Firminy

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Clermont-Ferrand

   Clermont-Ferrand is a city of black stone. Its cathedral, built of dark volcanic lava from nearby Volvic, rises over the old centre like a ship in a storm, and the Romanesque church of Notre-Dame-du-Port, one of the finest in the Auvergne, stands nearby, with a carved doorway and a warm, honey-coloured interior. The city's other great monument is rubber: the Michelin tyre company was founded here in the nineteenth century, and its headquarters and its small museum still shape the town. Blaise Pascal, the mathematician and philosopher, was born here in 1623.

   Read the complete Clermont-Ferrand write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Clermont-Ferrand is where the day begins. Next is Vichy.

2. 2. Vichy

   Vichy has been a spa town since Roman times, and it still wears the elegance of its glory days in the nineteenth century, when emperors and aristocrats came to take the waters. Napoleon III visited several times in the 1860s and had a row of chalets built for his use by the river Allier, and his patronage made the town fashionable. Wide avenues lined with plane trees, a grand opera house of 1901, covered galleries and a park of springs recall that age. In the Hall des Sources, visitors can still fill a glass at the fountains and taste the mineral waters, which are fizzy, salty and warm.

   Read the complete Vichy write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Vichy comes up about 54 km into the recorded legs. Next is Maison de la Culture de Firminy.

3. 3. Maison de la Culture de Firminy

   Firminy is a coal-and-steel town in the Loire valley that happens to hold the largest group of Le Corbusier buildings in Europe. The architect was invited here in the 1950s to plan a new neighbourhood, Firminy-Vert, for workers whose old houses were crumbling, and over the next decades several of his designs went up: a housing block, a stadium, a youth and culture centre and, finished long after his death, a great concrete church. The Maison de la Culture is the long, bold building with a sagging roof that looks as if it had been poured from a jug, and it is part of the UNESCO listing given to his work in 2016.

   Read the complete Maison de la Culture de Firminy write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 209 km into the recorded legs you reach Maison de la Culture de Firminy. Next is back through Vichy.

4. 4. back through Vichy

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Vichy write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Vichy, late in the day. Next is Clermont-Ferrand.

5. 5. Clermont-Ferrand

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Clermont-Ferrand write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Back at Clermont-Ferrand. That is the ride.