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.

What's useful mostly at night?

I am never out of your sight, yet I am hidden from view.
I have hair, and you have two.
I am not very weak, but not very strong.
I am useful mostly at night, and to you I’ll always belong.

Answer below.
















ANSWER: Your eyelids.

A roar from Lyon

I finally have Internet in my room again...but it cuts off every two hours and I have to log in again. It's rather annoying when I'm in the middle of something...for now there hasn't been any damage, but I wonder what will happen in the case of a lengthy upload/download. Let's hope I never have to test that!

I would dye for you...

Here's a good sign for a shoe repair shop:

I will heel you

I will save your sole
I will even dye for you

How touching... lol

From here.

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!

Bears, bears, and more bears!

Okay, just a quick update. The Internet in my room isn't working. However, thanks to two friends, I am able to go to another room in my residence (my friend's) and use the Internet there. And when I'm in my own room, I can use another Internet, which, for some reason, doesn't allow me to load certain websites and doesn't allow me to send ANYTHING. But the upside is that messenger works. Though I can't send any e-mails, even though I can read some of them. Weird! Argh!!

Anyway this post is to share a few pics. I was watching a video on Youtube, and one of the guys had a teddy bear in his t-shirt. I thought, hey, that's cute, so I paused the video and took a screenshot. Then a while later he had two of them in his shirt, so I took a second screenshot. And then...you can see for yourself.

"read" from left to right, row by row

I didn't expect them to keep on adding bears! I initially thought that the guy had just picked up a bear that was lying about and was doing silly stuff with it... (the bears are most probably the ones they're selling...and they did this for some publicity) Which was why I didn't put the pics in separate files...I thought there would be only one at first, then two or three...

The video in itself isn't that interesting, just them talking (especially the guy on the left, the one on the right wasn't talking much, which was why I thought he was bored and playing with the bears!)...but you can click on the link if you want to check out how the bears reproduced ;P

And whilst I'm at bears...here's my happy bear family in Lyon right now ^_^


Okay, I know there's a hedgehog amongst them. Guess he's adopted... (or else it's the mummy and the kids (cubs?) take after their daddy :P )

I want to post up my Clermont/Brussels pics...but I somehow don't feel like doing it when I can't connect to Internet at home... :(