Why Clermont-Ferrand needs a local guide
The Chaîne des Puys — a row of 80 dormant volcanoes — is a 15-minute drive from downtown. The cathedral is built from Volvic stone, which is volcanic and turns the whole building dark grey. Michelin was founded here and still has its headquarters. The old town streets are steep and narrow and very, very different from anywhere else in France.
Clermont-Ferrand is the only major city in France built on a volcano, and the Chaine des Puys — eighty dormant volcanoes in a row — received UNESCO World Heritage status in 2018, bringing international attention to a place most foreign visitors had never heard of. To become a tour guide in Clermont-Ferrand is to enter a market that is being born right now. The cathedral, built entirely from black Volvic lava stone, looks like nothing else in the country. The Puy de Dome, the tallest volcano in the chain, held a Roman temple to Mercury at its summit and you can still see the foundations after taking the rack railway up. Michelin was founded here in 1889 and its headquarters still sit in the city — a corporate history that unexpectedly fascinates visitors. The old town streets are steep, narrow, and built from the same dark stone that makes the whole center feel like a different country. Becoming a tour guide in Clermont-Ferrand means combining geological walks on actual volcanoes with a city that produces Saint-Nectaire cheese, Cotes d'Auvergne wine, and truffade — mountain food that warms you from the inside. If you become a tour guide in Clermont-Ferrand, the UNESCO listing has done the marketing for you and the guide supply has barely started to catch up.