The walls of Clermont-Ferrand

Now for the last instalment of Clermont-Ferrand. While walking around in town, I glanced into an alley and saw this:


It was obviously painted, maybe because the day wasn't as fine as the blue sky painted on the wall. But of course I had to check it out ^_^

to the right, the part previously hidden by another building

The door's open, shall we go in? ;P

The dog's already inside...

Fresque Murale Rue des Grands Jours (the name of the painted wall)

The sign also says that this place is under CCTV surveillance. I guess it's to avoid people drawing anything on the walls! I wonder whether the Lyon walls are under surveillance as well...

Even the metal disks I wrote about in the previous posts are on the wall.



The other guy was there as well, but the disk was blocked by the white van (on the left in the second photo) so I couldn't take a photo of it.

On other days I saw a few other walls, but they weren't that spectacular.

this one was all faded

this one too (this one is in the road opposite the building in the last photo of the previous post)

When I was there, there was some promotion going on about the Auvergnat Cola (Auvergne is the region where Clermont is situated), and they had this in the Jaude commercial centre.


Two random photos to end this post:

breakfast at CroustiPain one morning
Those pastries were the best I'd ever tasted! Maybe because they were really fresh...it was really early in the morning, probably before or just about 7am...

a double rainbow I saw one day when walking across the parking lot to go home ("home" as in Mariani's place where I stayed for the time I was in Clermont)

Did I mention that it was rather cold and rainy when I was there? I am so unlucky with weather these days...even for my next trip (which you will read about soon, I hope :P ) the weather wasn't on our side...

Sightseeing in Clermont-Ferrand

Here's more on Clermont-Ferrand. (I previously wrote about the Jardin Lecoq) I think I covered almost all of the sights in a single evening after work.

I went first to the Place 1er Mai (1st of May Square). There were some weird structures on a man-made "island" (it would be an island if there were water in all the "compartments" around it)

the structures closer up

On the square itself, there were summer activities, they called it the Sable Show (sable = sand)

Place Delille, a square somewhere near the town centre

I should mention that I got off the tram at the 1er Mai stop on the way home, and walked towards town. I didn't have any specific location in mind, just a vague main direction. So I went into a rather "busy" (busy as in there were a little more people, Clermont is a small town so you can't really have a really busy street) street which happened to be the rue du Port where there was a historical church.

Notre-Dame du Port

the side entrance giving out to the rue du Port (by which I came in and took the two previous photos)

the front entrance

the stairs going down from the entrance (which is why the doorway looked so small, in case you were wondering)

From the front entrance I went back to the rue du Port (there were no other interesting roads :P ) and stumbled upon a lovely shop :P

La Boutique du Nounours (they have a website for online selling)

inside, downstairs (I didn't dare to take much photos, the shop owner was upstairs but I was afraid he'd notice the flash of the camera)

Place de la Poterne, a square at the end of the rue du Port

the town hall

Usually I don't go inside town halls, but I noticed the greenery inside and decided to check it out.

There turned out to be a garden in the middle.

After the town hall, I found the cathedral. (by the side as well :P )

So I walked to the front (no side door this time)...this is what's in front of the cathedral.

the front view (or façade, if you prefer ;) )

And then I don't remember where I went but I found a Michelin shop :P


I believe it was just beside this square, Place Victoire.

You can check out the, er, carvings if you're interested in that kind of thing.

On the ground there are a lot of these metal disks of three important people from Clermont-Ferrand. Here there happened to be the three side by side. There is Urbain (a pope if I'm not mistaken), Vercingétorix and Blaise Pascal.

Place Jaude, the biggest square in the town centre (I think...it's the most important, in any case)

a different angle, I couldn't decide which photo was better so I put both! :P

in front of the statue, with the opera in the background

Galeries Lafayette

the statue at the other end of the square

On Saturday I walked around town again (that was after going to the Lecoq garden to take photos), and got a few more photos of the Place Jaude.

the other side of the square ("side" as in not "end")

the side of the statue

the church beside the square (amongst others)

one of the pedestrian streets leading away from the square

some roundabout

the administrative branch of Michelin (where I didn't work...I didn't even need to come here)
This was where I met Albin to go to the Puy de Dôme...we needed an easy-to-find landmark :P

some building

And there you have it. Clermont in a nutshell. (if the nutshell is a blog post :P )

There are a few other photos I want to share, but those aren't really the "sights" of Clermont, and this post is already quite long, so I'll leave them for another time.

The nicest place in Clermont-Ferrand

Maybe because I went there in summer, I really liked the Jardin Lecoq (Lecoq Garden).

That's the way to the rose garden, though I didn't know it at that time.

I decided to go the other way first

The little boy was playing ball with another boy, I was waiting for him to run off so that I could take a photo of the "bird" behind him, but he stopped there looking at me instead :s

the other side

Tell me, do you see a dinosaur in the park?

steps down to the pond

I took the bridge instead (this was taken from the bridge)

Look, a castle entrance!
Nah, it was only an "entrance" to the bridge

See?

Did you find the dinosaur earlier? There are actually two!

the Clermont-Ferrand coat of arms?

just scenery

Meet Mister Lecoq (this is the white head in the previous photo...it was NOT on the flowers! :P

a small waterfall

Seems that it's dangerous...so they blocked it with barricades. You can see the waterfall at the back (The previous photo was taken from the "bridge" above, where you can see the red-and-white barricades. There were the same barricades at the bottom, and I was taking the photo through them)

There aren't only dinosaurs in the park...run for your lives! It's the hound of the Baskervilles! lol (I'm joking...but doesn't it look slightly menacing?)

Another photo of the fountain...I think it's left on all the time...I saw it every day going to/back from work!

And this is the rose garden

the pond in the middle

And all the roses!

Will post pics of the other parts of town another time!