Villages of Saint-Martin-Cantalès

This was an easy and more scenic hike (11.15K in 3h 10mins, D+/D- 308m) starting from the little village of Saint-Martin-Cantalès, and passing through or by several others. There are no pictures of them since they basically consisted of just one or two houses, and there was nothing particularly remarkable about them. Most of the time we stayed in the shade of trees, which was good since it was a warm day, but also bad, since some rocky sections of the trail were very muddy and wet; they resembled more a river bed than a trail.

Salers and driving by Puy Mary (without seeing it)

This is the only completely cloudy day we had on our two-week vacation, so we decided to take time off  hiking, and visit Salers, a town known for  the Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée (AOC) cheeses Cantal and Salers, and the Salers breed of cattle, large reddish brown cows with lyre-shaped horns.

We drove back to Aurillac a very scenic route passing the volcano Puy Mary (1783m), classified as a “Grand National Site” and attracting nearly 500,000 visitors every year. We were not among those this year. We stopped to take some photos at the parking lot where the paved walking path to the summit starts. The wind was brutally cold — maybe +4°C, and we were dressed to +15 – 20°C — so we did not stay long. There were a couple of parked vehicles, so apparently someones had braved the wind and the chill. Besides there was not much to see since the mountain was covered in clouds.

The Fall foliage in Cantal was certainly at its peak, bright and beautiful, and much more advanced than we saw in Ardèche or here in Isère when we left.