… to live within spitting distance of the most beautiful place on earth.
This morning, leaving my hotel, I climbed up out of Besse onto the plateau to the north and was presented with the most magnificent view of the Puy de Sancy that I have ever had.
As you know, I can see it from the Font Nanaud just down the road from where I live, but it never looked like this from up on the Font.
A little further along the road I drove round a bend and was treated to a most spectacular view of the Chateau de Murol down there in the valley below.
And if that wasn’t enough, there was a gorgeous view of the Puy de Dome in the distance, and I’ve never been able previously to take a good photograph of the Puy de Dome from this perspective. I put it down to the weather because it really was a beautiful day out here today.
I found a decent parking place just on the edge of Murol and went for a good wander around. And there was quite a bit to see as well.
The town is pretty much hemmed in here in the bottom of a steep valley with a river flowing through the middle. It’s another place full of stone buildings from another, far richer period but with a few exceptions, what isn’t an antique shop or trendy café is now closed down and up for sale.
That’s a shame because this could really be a nice place.
From Murol I worked out the correct way to Olloix and this took me right up into the mountains.
Up here, the road followed a ridge on the hilltops and had I encountered this kind of road in this kind of situation in the UK I would immediately have said that this would have been a Celtic ridgeway, keeping to the high points out of the marshy valley bottoms and away from the wild animals that might have interfered with travel.
Olloix was almost exactly as I imagined it, except that it has undergone quite a bit of tidying-up and the village now looks quite presentable.
There are also many more Knights Hospitalier remains that we are led to believe, if one knows what one is looking for.
I did chicken out of going down into the Gorge de la Monne, not the least of the reasons being that it was so hot this afternoon and I had no water with me.
I managed to visit a Benedictine monastery too, the Abbaye Notre Dame de Randol. I was totally unaware that it was here, because as you probably know, I do most of my research with ancient guide books, on the grounds that there’s so much interesting stuff that hasn’t made it onto the internet and it’s my aim to add as much as possible.
And so my 1957 Michelin Guide told me nothing about this place, which is hardly surprising seeing as construction wasn’t begun until 1969.
But I wasn’t at all impressed to see that, to visit the monastery, there’s a dress code. No shorts, no sleveless tops etc etc. I don’t understand what is the matter with these religious organisations. Didn’t God create man (and women)? So why would it offend God to see what his handiwork looks like?
But who am I to talk? As you all know, I was a big failure in my time in a Monastery. But it was the monotonous diet that did it for me. There were only two people who worked in the monastery kitchen – the chip monk and the fish friar.
From here, I shot off to Tallende and civilisation, because I needed some diesel.
But never mind the diesel, look at this little lot. A couple of London Routemasters, at least one London Royal Tiger and a couple of other assorted buses from assorted fleets. This is the London Bus sales and service depot in, of all places, St Amant Tallende and it took me completely by surprise to discover it.
From here I went on to half a dozen small villages to take a few pics in case I ever get to feature them on the radio programmes that we do with Radio Anglais, and ended up at the Menhir Couché near Fohet.
The Menhir Couché – the lying-down menhir, is a famous place as it was a resting place for the transport of coffins between churches and graveyards in the Middle Ages – burial was quite complicated in those days.
But it’s not lying down any more. I’ve seen a report that it was re-erected after God Knows how many centuries of lying flat because the damp was said to be damaging the stone. Another report says that a group of kids did it one night, although, at about 4.5 tonnes weight, I’d be intrigued to know how they managed it.
One thing is certain though – it’s been re-erected in the wrong place because there is nothing at all emanating from it in the way of rays. It produces quite a sterile atmosphere today.
Next stop was to have been the Lac d’Aydat, there down in the valley with the Puy de Dome as a backdrop.
But that was a big mistake. A really hot Sunday in midsummer just two days before a Bank Holiday, and the whole place was crowded out with people. it was horrible.
And so I reckoned that I had done enough researching for the radio, and came home. I’ve enough stuff now for four or five months’ worth of tourist programmes and I’m already going to amend a few things that I’ve prepared.
