When we read our newspapers! Yes, people still read newspapers despite the ever growing spiders web of Internet you are sure to find some really talented writers who travel around the world writing about exotic places and expensive hotels. A dream life? For those who do it for a living, probably? But can we do the same thing just by opening the door of our house, getting into the car and wandering off to a nearby historical town? Of course we can. Each country has an uncountable number of places of interest to the would be traveller and it's not just because I live in France that I'm saying that. I used to live in England and in and around my hometown there were so many different things of interest that it made things just that bit difficult to choose which of them I could write about. Just Google “North Yorkshire” and you'll see what I mean.
I now live in the Puy de Dome region of Central France in a small town known as Riom. It's a town loaded with historical interest surrounded by some of the nicest countryside you could ever wish to discover. Right next door is the birthplace of the Michelin Tyre Company and I suppose the birthplace of a phrase I remember using too often when I went out for a drink in the old days "Gordon Bennet!" quite a character and worth tracking down on any interent search engine. Over the next few weeks I'm going to help you discover this region in the hope that you may want to come and have a wander around. However I must warn you that we are in Auvergne which is not the France that we all know and love. Yes, this is a completely different country to those images of the "Moulin Rouge" and the "Eifell Tower" of Parisian fame. Here we are in the real heart of the country? where traditions are more important than imposing glass covered office buildings. Here you can live and breathe the purest air, still hear birds sing, walk at your own pace and take comfort in the warm welcome that can be found if you make the real effort to talk just a smattering of French.
Riom.
A small, some would say “bijou” town situated in the Puy de Dome. Number of inhabitants, everchanging as is the case with any town. The newest inhabitants usually arrive under the glaring spotlights of the local maternity, those that leave without a whisper, in the controlled flames of the crematorium. In between, well there is the rest of the population. At first glance you might think that Riom is full of rather dower and somewhat ageing widows who do little else but shop and drink tea in the brasserie. Don't be fooled, there are a lot of young people here and some very energetic associations.
There is something for everyone young and old alike. I'm between two ages, neither old, nor young so I can benefit from both. The shopkeepers are friendly and the overall impression is one of a sedated market town. There's a Rugby Club and we even held a World Championship for the under twenty ones, if I'm not mistaken? for this particular sport. To be honest you can practice just about everything under the sun here if you are so inclined. You like dancing? How about learning the Flamenco? Yes I know I'm in France, thank you very much! But my town is multi- cultural and something that it should be proud of. We have a nice mixture of cultures ranging from a fairly strong implantation of Portugese to a less impressive, but nonetheless existing English community. Unlike other areas of France, I find that we blend in quite well and our town hasn't been turned into a ghetto for stray Englishmen wanting to play cricket and drink beer. We all keep ourselves very much to ourselves and have more French friends than English ones.
There's a train station if you want to have a trip to Paris. It's not too far away, that's if you work on the American standards of distance. Paris is too far? well the countryside is only a five minute drive away and to be honest, do you know of many places where you can boast about having not just one sleeping volcano, but a whole host of them? Haroum Tazieff did say that they would wake up one day but Riom is about twenty five kilometres away from the dormant peaks, so with a bit of luck we'd escape!