Puy de Dôme

Orcines

A trachyte dome rising sharply above the Clermont-Ferrand plain, the Puy de Dôme is the most emblematic of the roughly eighty volcanoes that make up the Chaîne des Puys, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2018. Visible for tens of kilometres around, its silhouette made it a major place of worship as far back as antiquity: in the 2nd century, the Romans built one of the largest sanctuaries of the ancient Empire here, a temple dedicated to Mercury whose remains — rediscovered by chance during the construction of the weather observatory in 1872 — still hint at its monumental scale. The summit is also a landmark of science: in 1648, Florin Périer, brother-in-law of Blaise Pascal, repeated the barometer experiment here to demonstrate that atmospheric pressure varies with altitude, laying the foundations of modern meteorology — a vocation the observatory inaugurated in 1876 still carries on today. In 1911, the aviator Eugène Renaux pulled off the wild feat of landing a biplane here to win the Michelin prize, a feat still remembered locally. Between drifting mist and panoramas stretching across the whole of Auvergne, the Puy de Dôme remains a summit where a single climb takes in the entire religious and scientific history of central France.

Getting there : Private vehicles are barred from the summit; go up on foot via the Chemin des Muletiers (GR4 trail) or by the Panoramique des Dômes rack railway, paid ticket

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

Ambient sound