Gare de Lyon’s tropical garden

I wrote on The Journey’s the thing that I missed getting a shot of the underground tropical garden paradise on the Paris Metro (Line 14, platform on the Olympiades direction side). But I got it on the way back.

Here it is…

Around the Cantal in 10 dishes

‘In France the conversation always comes round to food’ – which is no surprise when the food is of such high quality and presentation as we saw this week.

The payback is that I found the red meatiness, full flavours and multiple courses too rich for my English constitution and, at night in my bed, I frequently couldn’t sleep for the long slow digestion process. Meanwhile the winding mountain roads twisted the knife of queaziness.

But there is no doubting that French food is a gourmet treat (at the time) and so I recorded some of the meals on our ‘Cantal in winter’ trip.

Fell in love with a dog at La Roussiere

La Roussiere is a luxury chambres d’hôte B&B in the Siniq valley in the Cantal. It is ranked top of TripAdvisor for B&Bs/Inns in St Clement.

Christian, the owner, had just taken us on a walk to the Capat waterfall…

A mountain refuge in the Cantal

It took about an hour to walk up to Meije Coste – one of Cantal’s small, old mountain refuges at 1440m up, near Le Lorian and with views over the Plomb du Cantal highest peak.

I ran low on battery and was huffing and puffing with the effort so I ended up taking stills (more pics below) – but you get the idea of the beautiful natural surroundings.

Le Lioran ski resort and Chez Lucy’s choc pud

I can’t ski so I took the opportunity to film life at the top of the cable car at Le Lioran ski resort in Cantal. This little film features a mountain rescue, some aerial skier shots and the cable car ride back down to the valley.

Resort info: Le Lioran

Trip notes:

• Chez Lucy near the car park at Le Lioran is run by a friendly English woman. Lucy is originally from Cornwall, has a big smile and looks quite a bit like the former model turned Emmerdale actress, Lorraine Chase.

• Lunch at Chez Lucy was reasonably priced with plenty of stodge to fuel the skiing. Cheese soup! (Soupe au fromage) – grated cheese and stock (5’50 euros). Tartiflette Auvergnette au St Nectaire, cheese and potatoes (11 euros). Fondant au chocolat – like a Gü, melted brownie (4’80 euros). This choc pudding, though not the fanciest, was the tastiest of the whole trip for me.

• Decor was fairly functional but also cosy, cottagey and warm.

Snowshoeing Cantal: Europe’s biggest volcano

This is the one-line pitch that got my commission to write on the Cantal region of France. Unfortunately, one crucial element – the snow – has been a no-show this week with none falling in this area of the Auvergne since December.

The result is hard, compacted snow and snowshoeing that delivers maximum noisy crunch over ambient soft tread. Turn up the volume of this one-minute video of our hike to the Puy Mary peak to appreciate the full effect of our snowshoe (aka raquettes) experience in Cantal.

So what happens when there is no snow?

• The PR lady gives a Gallic shrug (or garlic shrug, as my phone’s auto-correct has it) and says the following a lot: “Imagine this with snow…”
• The auberge owner gives a slideshow of absolutely stunning images of snowy nature. We then go outside in the drizzle and fog.
• The local ski resort Le Lorian puts on their artificial snow-making machines at full blast to cover the lower pistes.

Things I have learnt about snowshoeing

• Take long steps – or you catch one snowshoe in the other. It feels a little like walking in giant flipflops as the heel end is loose (as shown in the video around 40-second mark).
• Wear layers as it can get quite hot with the exercise. Bring sunglasses and always wear sunscreen.
• If you get the chance to snowshoe at night by the full moon, do it. Walking around mountains in the dark is both beautiful and exhilarating.
• It’s the perfect sport for the non-skilled and not-too-fit – it is pretty aerobic but, unlike skiing with all its advance prep, all you have to do is know how to walk.
• Bring water – walking on raquettes in the high mountains gets your pulses racing but the dry, cool air is like breathing in ice cubes.

Trip notes: Auberge d’Aijean, Cantal

Here is my room:

And here is the view from my window, with the snowy Puy Mary peak far right:

See that mountain opposite? I walked up along that, I did.

Bicephalous Clermont-Ferrand photowalk

Clermont-Ferrand is one of the oldest cities in France and is formed of two towns united over the centuries – bicephalous. This is a new word for me but apparently it means it has two heads.

Below are some recommendations of things to do/see/avoid, crossed with some photo favourites from today’s wander from Clermont (Gothic/Renaissance/Medieval style) to Montferrand (fortified Medieval style) – and back.

The journey’s the thing

As Robert Louis Stevenson said in 1881:

“To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive..”

The journey can be its own reward – unless you’ve ever endured an overnight bus journey in Asia – and I admit, I was very much looking forward to today’s 11-hour multi-rail trip. Here was the route:

Bournville-Birmingham New Street-London Euston-St Pancras International-Paris Gard du Nord-Paris Bercy-Clermont-Ferrand.

I didn’t go by rail for any amazing views, though there were some to be had, but I badly needed the chance to watch the world go by for a few hours and just catch up on ‘stuff’. There is also something of the romance of travel in the variety of rail stations you pass through – something you don’t get with modern airports.

The other thing that fascinates about ground travel is that everything is looked at afresh, eagerly and vividly – from the continuous line of graffiti on the approach to Paris to patterns in the paving stones in historic Clermont. I didn’t manage to snap the unexpected tropical garden, complete with palm trees, beside the No 14 line from Gare de Lyon (update: got it on the return journey) but I snapped all else that caught my eye today.

Below is the story of the journey in pictures and there are more in the full set of lo-fi phone pics is on Flickr.

A trip into the clouds at Mont Caroux

Travel details: this journey to Toulouse and beyond was part-sponsored by Bmibaby.com. More posts here.