Plazas, fountains, and monumental buildings in Clermont-Ferrand are built from lava rock

The lively back streets

The lava rock public buildings are very distinctive

If you are trying the get across the middle of France you might just end up in the Auvergne, a region of France that doesn’t usually make the tourist circuit. Its biggest city is Clermont-Ferrand, which is surrounded by a chain of volcanoes, called the Chaîne Des Puys. And that’s just what makes the town’s Gothic architecture so distinctive. The cathedral and many other central buildings are built from dark volcanic rock.

The Auvergne is an industrious region, and Clermont-Ferrand is the birthplace of the Michelin tire company and its travel related offshoots. It’s also been a rebellious place, home of the Gallic leader Vercingetorix, who led the rebellion against Julius Caesar’s conquest of Gaul. He’s a ubiquitous hero here today, even though his rebellion didn’t turn out so well. He ended up in a Roman prison for six years until he was assassinated by garrote.

For us, this was a quiet stop in a nice place where you hear virtually no English. It’s also the place where our remarkable weather started to turn into the kind of heat wave that can turn European travel pretty tough in August. The next week or so looks like a scorcher!

After two days here in Clermont-Ferrand, we’ll stop in Lyon for what looks like a couple very hot days. And then we’ll continue all the way east to the French Alps, hoping to find some cooler climes.

The Cathedral of Our Lady of the Assumption looms above the central shopping street in its dark Gothic splendor

Vercingetorix presides over the Place Jaude at the center of town

Lots of red at a steamy lunch

One night we found a Mexican place for a post-dinner sip of mezcal

Jim takes in the Place Jaude

A relaxing cafe break

Does it seem like all we ever do is eat?

The Chateau de Pau, birthplace of King Henri IV

From Biarritz we left the Atlantic coast and headed east, making a three-night stop in Pau, the largest town in the Pyrenees. You’ve probably never heard of Pau, and I hadn’t either before planning this trip. But it was a logical stop to make as we head toward the center of France and eventually across the country to the French Alps.

Pau is a pretty town on a hill above the River Pau, at the edge of the Pyrenees. At the turn of the 20th century it was a favorite wintering spot for British and American expats, and the town today retains some of the grandeur of that time. The Boulevard des Pyrénées wraps around one edge of town, supposedly offering its strollers views of the mountains. But I didn’t see anything that looked like mountains. More like small hills at the very outer edge of what might become a mountain range.

We were originally scheduled to pick up a car in Biarritz, so that we could more easily explore the mountains here. In fact we were going to keep that car for the rest of this trip. But we canceled the car in favor of more train travel. That means we didn’t really see anything resembling a mountain at all, but it was perfectly nice to hang out in this pleasant town, get laundry and some other errands done, and enjoy some surprisingly good food.

Pau was once the capital of the Kingdom of Navarre, and it is the birthplace of king Henri III of Navarre, who would eventually become King Henri IV of France, the founder of the Bourbon dynasty. Henri would spend a lifetime navigating the wars between Catholics and Protestants. He survived numerous assassination attempts, until one Catholic zealot stabbed him to death in Paris in 1610. Henri has a strong presence here in Pau, including the castle where he was born, where you can also see the turtle shell that supposedly served as his crib.

This was a lovely stop, if not the mountain adventure we might have expected. But no worries, since we’re sure to see some REAL mountains in a couple weeks. But our next stop is Toulouse, where we look forward to meeting up some great friends from New York.

We loved the outdoor dining in this pleasant town with surprisingly good food

Walking along the River Pau

Did we mention the exceptional food we kept finding here?

Lots of this kind of thing

The elegant church of Saint Martin towers over the town

Inside Saint Martin

We couldn’t stop taking these food pics!

Ok, that’s the last restaurant pic

Soaking up cafe culture on the leafy streets of beautiful Bordeaux, just steps from our hotel

Our hotel was an imposssibly elegant restored mansion

Bordeaux is kind of a stopover for us — to break up the trip down the west coast of France to Biarritz. But it’s a darn nice place to stop for a couple days. We’ve been here twice before, and it just might be one of our favorite cities in France.

What makes Bordeaux such a great place? It might be the super elegant neo-classical palaces that line the river Garonne. It might be the energy in the sprawling pedestrianized city center — one of the world’s largest. It might be the prevalence of great food, bustling cafes, and lively bars. And it certainly has to do with the wine culture that overlays everything in this city and the region.

Oddly, following our first visit to Bordeaux 10 years ago, we wrote that “We just didn’t get it” when it came to drinking Bordeaux wines. We loved the city and maybe even the presence of wine culture, but we just didn’t appreciate the wines themselves when we tried them. For many years, I’ve said that red Bordeaux wines taste like licking a Band-Aid.

But this time was different! Over the past decade we’ve both learned to appreciate the blends that make up Bordeaux wines a bit more, particularly the reds. And earlier in this trip we’ve begun dabbling a bit in some of the Bordeaux whites. And here in Bordeaux this time we learned a bit more about the geography, the grapes, and the wines by visiting the Cité du Vin, a huge museum about all things wine. All of this has enhanced our love for this beautiful city and its great wine tradition.

We had a lovely dinner just underneath the 11th century Cathedral of Saint André

A tour of the Cité du Vin wine museum helped enhance our appreciation for the local hooch

We’ve also come to appreciate the super plump and mildly briny Gillardeau oysters from the West coast of France

This amazing park was about a block from our hotel

Another world class dinner in Bordeaux

A grand fountain on the way home from dinner

We watched some of the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics with locals in an atmospheric pub

A gorgeous street scape in Bordeaux, including our Olympics pub on the right