Welcome 2002 the fédérale Week of Cycle Tourism
Welcome to Cantal (fill up with nature and oxygen)
Located in the heart of the Auvergne
Volcanoes Regional Park, the Cantal departnent offers a well preserved nature
and landscapes of great varwety. It is a volcano bursting... of many activities.
Overlooking the Cantal Mounts, the pyramid-like
Puy Mary rises like a ship's prow over the sleepy sea of basaltic volcanoes. Renown
"Great National Site", the Puy
Mary attracts more than 400 000 visitors each year. The exceptional
natural environment offers great tourist activities like pedestrian hiking, horse-back
riding, mountain biking, fishing, climbing, jet-skiing, paragliding, canoeing
and kayaking, railway cycling and the other "ourdoors" sports.
Region
of authenticity, the Cantal departement combines rural traditions with wealthy
cultural heritage and modernity.
Land of agriculture,
the departement of Cantal is famous for its meat and dairy quality products :
the tasty meat from the Salers and Aubrac cattle breeds, the five quality guarantied
and labelled cheeses, Cantal,
Salers ,Bleu d'Auvergne, Fourme d'Ambert, Saint-Nectaire, dry meat
products (sausage, tripoux, ham ...) makes farm-producing the main industrial
activity of the department. Many of the local festivities have been created around
these products : gentiane, salers, chestnut, apple, encalade...The medie val town of Salers,listed as one of the "most beautiful villages of France", has also been solemnized Remarkable Site of Taste. What is there to say about gastronomy, where our chefs excel in ther creativity and succulence.
Famous for its cheeses, Cantal is also the birth-place
of a pope and a few presidents (Gerbert, the Pope of Year
1000 ; Paul DOUMER ; Georges POMPIDOU). Great cultural events also take
place, like these various festivals : International Street Theater in Aurillac
(300 theatrical companies, 140 000 visitors), Dance and Music of the World in
Murat, rock in Saint?Constant, Blues in Vic sur Cère, Boogie Woogie in Laroquebrou,
Rural Cinema and Music in Chaudes?Aigues, ~anfarama in Riom es Montagnes, Highlands's
Encounters in Saint-Flour ....
The architectural heritage is remarkable : more than 160 castles, manors, roman churches have been counted and the villages contain many priceless cultural tresures.
Make a detour so as not to miss the Viaduc
de Garabit, built by Gustave EIFFEL in 1884 over the Gorges de la Truyère,
wonderfully illuminated in the summer, and the Source du
Par in Chaudes-Aigues with its hot water springing up at a temperature
of 82°.
