Hiking Volvic

After Paris we traveled to central France to Marsat. You probably haven't heard of it. Neither has anyone else in France. It is near Clermont Ferrand which is generally considered the center of France. Marsat is a tiny village with no restaurants, shops or really anything else. Our walk to the grocery store took us through farms and tiny dirt roads. For me, it was a really nice change from all of the big cities that we've been in.* Marsat is a few kilometers away from Volvic, the town where Volvic mineral water comes from. There is a castle on a hill overlooking Volvic called le Chateau Tournoël. We hiked up there on a glorious sunny day via Notre Dame de la Garde, an impressive statue of the "guard of their city." Made of the volcanic stone of the area, it dominates the hillside at 55m tall.

The hike up made it evident just how out of shape we have become on this trip, it was a little embarrassing. But we made it, and it was so worth it to be able to look out on the French countryside in the fall. It was all just beautiful. From there it was a short walk to Chateau Tournoël. There was one point during the walk, I'll post the picture because I'm going to butcher describing it, but it is basically straight out of the scene from Lord of the Rings where Frodo first encounters the "Black Riders", we were waiting for the road to stretch out and distort as it did in the movie!

We made it to the castle and then took our lunch sitting on a stone wall in front of the castle. At this point it was getting just a little chilly (because we needed no long sleeves that day!) so we decided to head home via Le Clerc. Le Clerc is probably the closest thing to America that we've seen on our travels and is basically a Walmart. It was so strange because one second you are walking on a deserted road with horses on one side and a field with grouses on the other and then BAM! You are on this giant strip of road with massive stores on either side. It was pretty overwhelming to be in Le Clerc after we haven't seen anything half so big this whole time but in a sad way it was comforting too, proof that we are totally absorbed in American culture. But then you walk 100 meters and you're back on that country road with the horses that you feed apples to from the nearby apple tree. It really was so nice. And the smells! Every other step was a new earthy, smoky, woody smell all of which sent me waves of nostalgia from a time I couldn't quite remember. I suppose I truly am a country girl at heart (despite my previous sentiment for Walmarts and other superstores of the like!) :)

Cheers,
Liz