Puy Mary

Le Claux / Lavigerie / Mandailles-Saint-Julien / Le Falgoux

Remnant of the largest stratovolcano in Europe, the Puy Mary raises its perfect pyramid to 1,783 metres, at the point where seven glacial valleys radiate like the arms of a star. But this summit, one of the most visited in the Massif Central with more than 500,000 people a year, also carries a singular Christian memory: tradition links its name to Saint Mary (Marius), a disciple of Saint Austremonius, the hermit evangeliser of Haute-Auvergne. The hagiographical account has him living withdrawn in the solitude of the Montjournal valley, given over to prayer, before the Christians of the neighbourhood associated him with the evangelisation of the country; after his death, a sanctuary rose over his tomb at Saint-Mary-le-Cros, and his relics were transferred around 1050 to Mauriac, where they are still honoured. The mountain, it is said, thus received the name of the hermit whose memory pervaded these high lands — several villages of the Cantal bear it too. His feast is kept on 9 June in the diocese of Saint-Flour. From the summit, reached by a stepped path from the Pas de Peyrol, the eye takes in one of the vastest panoramas in France, from the Cantal mountains to the far reaches of the Massif Central: a lookout lashed by rain — the site is one of the wettest in the country — where the geology and the golden legend of Auvergne meet.

Getting there : Climb from the Pas de Peyrol (1,589 m, the highest road pass in the Massif Central), path laid out in steps, about 1 hour there and back; road closed by snow from roughly November to May. Coordinates given for the summit.

Opening times and access details are given as a guide only: check before you set out.

Ambient sound