Archaeology handicrafts and science and technology sites to visit Les volcans d'Auvergne

With the evolution of the automobile and mechanization of agriculture, the place of the yuan in rural society had been reduced as a matter of grief. It's not enough to think of a garage today to leave its tyres, pistons and valves… to build or restore wheels… wooden! And yet Alain Montpied and his wife made this choice and regret it. In a workshop whose tools and achievements would not have déparé a workshop early in the century - from the xxth century - Alain Montpied takes on board the ancestral gestures, the techniques that these craftsmen have been handing over to generations of apprentices, companions and masters. But who may want to make or redo a wooden wheel? It is hard to imagine a market for this kind of product, or rather for these art objects! And yet, roues wheels, first cars, horse cars of all kinds with their country, old drawn pieces of artillery… interest nowadays more and more private collectors or museums, in short you will have understood more and more of them. Alain Montpied's masterpiece as we were saying in the job: the wheels of the famous Fire reconstructed by Michelin for the centenary this year of the Gordon-Bennett Cup. So, Charron in the st century? It is a roule affair!

From Clermont-Ferrand, go towards Pontgibaud on the D941. After the col des Goules, take the D559 on the right. Park on the parking lot. The path starts along a fence, for a loop circuit of about 6 km and 2 hours (blue markings). Through undergrowth and beech forests, the walk leads to the two interlocking craters and allows you to overlook the volcano of Lemptégy. The path goes along the crater of the puy des Gouttes. From here, a magnificent view of the south of the Chaîne des Puys opens up.