So I’m saying that even in the most hopeless places one can find little amusements. If you wish to find them, that is. We arrived to St Nectaire Monday evening and left it Friday afternoon. So I only had to entertain myself for three and a half days.
Of course many would know that “cave” in French is not the same as “cave” in English. Many, but not me. We arrived to St Nectaire and I was just about getting exited counting the signs saying “cave” along the street. Little I knew at that time that it was not the cave I imagine it would be. But cave was how these strange French call their cellars. Never mind, it could’ve been worse if I’d turn up for the tour of the wine cellar fully equipped with the safety helmet and a pocket torch.
However, they do have real cave too. It called the Cornadore Caves and it was in the past a Roman Thermal Bath “built in” into the rock. There they have some mineral water springs still picking out of the rocks. The place was discovered by romans when they were passing by in their European tour. The romans used to take great care of their health so they turned the caves with the springs into a thermo bath and used them to cure whatever they thought it would cure. Nowadays the caves become a tourist attraction and for 6 euros they would pull tight on your head a builder’s helmet, take you inside a grotto and show a couple of stalactites and stalagmite and few basins filled with the lukewarm mineral water. The tour is obviously in French, I was deprived of all the glorious details of the guide’s story, but I’m sure it was fascinating. I just saw the cave, the water, bumped my head few times at the cave’s low ceilings and watched the process of making artistic souvenirs with the help of the same mineral water. The process involved putting a plastic mould under the dripping water and wait for few weeks until the minerals envelop the mould with the crystallized layer thick enough to be detached from it.
Actually, the thing this place is famous for is not springs, not rocks, not Belle Époque buildings, but…cheese. The cheese has been made in Auvergne since at least the 17th century. Its name comes from Maréchal de Sennecterre, who served it at the table of Louis XIV. So in a way the St Nectaire is a sort of “royal cheese”…Giving all this I just had to have an exiting journey to the cheese making cellars. Well, it was advertised as the one. In reality it was a cellar with the shelves with the ready made wheels of cheeses, a small cinema room, where they show us a movie about cheese making(in French of course! Duh!) and two tiny pieces of local cheese for “free cheese tasting”. All for just 5 euros! Pure bargain!
And finally, since this week was an organised conference week for some, the organisers took care of our entertainment too. One of the days we were taken to the real excursion. I mean - we had buses to take us somewhere outside the village. As the region is called the Volcano Country for a reason, the volcano was the place we visited, of course. Unfortunately, all the volcanos in the area were too old to be functioning and looked more like green hills, you would never tell it was a nature fury once. So locals did their best to get the feeling of the real thing. They built a theme park in the crater of the old volcano. So we were taken to the site of what used to be a volcano some 40 000 years ago. And with a bit of imagination and a lot of technological wonders we’ve got to see what’s going on in the heart of the awaken volcano, to swim in magma and get our brains shaken off on the earthquake simulator. Well, still better then nothing, I guess. At least I’ve learn few things I never knew about volcanic activity (though can’t think of where I can apply this knowledge in practice). Besides, they did re-use the real volcano’s crater to build this park, so there were few rocky places outside where you can still see the remnants of volcanic tuff. (And where I was pleased to find a small rock – a personal souvenir from the Auverge - a piece of the old European volcano)
As I said before: even in the most hopeless places there is always something to be remembered fondly. You just have to work harder to find it, I suppose. Which makes the discovery only more exiting. Among other little joys of our French trip (trap?) I can mention an exiting 10 min climbing to the top of the nearest hill to see a local megalithic tomb – dolmen – a rocky formation from pre-historical times.
The conference final day’s ceremony where the local council or mayor performed a “cheesehood” initiation for the Project leaders – a cute little spectacle where he smacked them with a huge cheese knife and pronounced them to be a “Magister of Fromage”, all ended up with wine&cheese tasting first and then a luxury meal for all 200 of us in the French château. The chateau was very real and the current owner who apparently invited the conference participants for that meal kindly let us play a bit with the family’s 15th century weaponry collection he had on display on the walls.
So…that was my peu d'aventure française. After which I returned to the Island only to re-pack and fly away in completely different direction
Of course many would know that “cave” in French is not the same as “cave” in English. Many, but not me. We arrived to St Nectaire and I was just about getting exited counting the signs saying “cave” along the street. Little I knew at that time that it was not the cave I imagine it would be. But cave was how these strange French call their cellars. Never mind, it could’ve been worse if I’d turn up for the tour of the wine cellar fully equipped with the safety helmet and a pocket torch.
However, they do have real cave too. It called the Cornadore Caves and it was in the past a Roman Thermal Bath “built in” into the rock. There they have some mineral water springs still picking out of the rocks. The place was discovered by romans when they were passing by in their European tour. The romans used to take great care of their health so they turned the caves with the springs into a thermo bath and used them to cure whatever they thought it would cure. Nowadays the caves become a tourist attraction and for 6 euros they would pull tight on your head a builder’s helmet, take you inside a grotto and show a couple of stalactites and stalagmite and few basins filled with the lukewarm mineral water. The tour is obviously in French, I was deprived of all the glorious details of the guide’s story, but I’m sure it was fascinating. I just saw the cave, the water, bumped my head few times at the cave’s low ceilings and watched the process of making artistic souvenirs with the help of the same mineral water. The process involved putting a plastic mould under the dripping water and wait for few weeks until the minerals envelop the mould with the crystallized layer thick enough to be detached from it.
Actually, the thing this place is famous for is not springs, not rocks, not Belle Époque buildings, but…cheese. The cheese has been made in Auvergne since at least the 17th century. Its name comes from Maréchal de Sennecterre, who served it at the table of Louis XIV. So in a way the St Nectaire is a sort of “royal cheese”…Giving all this I just had to have an exiting journey to the cheese making cellars. Well, it was advertised as the one. In reality it was a cellar with the shelves with the ready made wheels of cheeses, a small cinema room, where they show us a movie about cheese making(in French of course! Duh!) and two tiny pieces of local cheese for “free cheese tasting”. All for just 5 euros! Pure bargain!
And finally, since this week was an organised conference week for some, the organisers took care of our entertainment too. One of the days we were taken to the real excursion. I mean - we had buses to take us somewhere outside the village. As the region is called the Volcano Country for a reason, the volcano was the place we visited, of course. Unfortunately, all the volcanos in the area were too old to be functioning and looked more like green hills, you would never tell it was a nature fury once. So locals did their best to get the feeling of the real thing. They built a theme park in the crater of the old volcano. So we were taken to the site of what used to be a volcano some 40 000 years ago. And with a bit of imagination and a lot of technological wonders we’ve got to see what’s going on in the heart of the awaken volcano, to swim in magma and get our brains shaken off on the earthquake simulator. Well, still better then nothing, I guess. At least I’ve learn few things I never knew about volcanic activity (though can’t think of where I can apply this knowledge in practice). Besides, they did re-use the real volcano’s crater to build this park, so there were few rocky places outside where you can still see the remnants of volcanic tuff. (And where I was pleased to find a small rock – a personal souvenir from the Auverge - a piece of the old European volcano)
As I said before: even in the most hopeless places there is always something to be remembered fondly. You just have to work harder to find it, I suppose. Which makes the discovery only more exiting. Among other little joys of our French trip (trap?) I can mention an exiting 10 min climbing to the top of the nearest hill to see a local megalithic tomb – dolmen – a rocky formation from pre-historical times.
The conference final day’s ceremony where the local council or mayor performed a “cheesehood” initiation for the Project leaders – a cute little spectacle where he smacked them with a huge cheese knife and pronounced them to be a “Magister of Fromage”, all ended up with wine&cheese tasting first and then a luxury meal for all 200 of us in the French château. The chateau was very real and the current owner who apparently invited the conference participants for that meal kindly let us play a bit with the family’s 15th century weaponry collection he had on display on the walls.
So…that was my peu d'aventure française. After which I returned to the Island only to re-pack and fly away in completely different direction
More to come…