The summit
Views of the volcanoes.
missbutterflies — CC BY-SA 2.0 · Dexter Perkins — CC0 · Dexter Perkins — CC0 · CC BY-SA 2.0 fr · Thalia Gylonno — CC BY-SA 2.0
The Puy de Dôme is a lava dome and one of the youngest volcanoes in the Chaîne des Puys in the Massif Central of central France, about 10 km west of Clermont-Ferrand. The Puy-de-Dôme department is named after it, and the volcanic chain joined UNESCO's World Heritage list in 2018. The volcano formed in an eruption some 10,700 years ago. In ancient times it was a gathering place, and a Gallo-Roman temple of Mercury was built on the summit; its ruins were found in 1872. In 1648 Florin Périer, at the urging of his brother-in-law Blaise Pascal, measured a column of mercury at three heights on the mountain, confirming that air pressure comes from the weight of the air. The neat green cone rises above a plain of forest and pasture, surrounded by dozens of other cones and craters of the Chaîne des Puys. From the summit the view sweeps over the line of volcanoes and Clermont-Ferrand, and broadcast antennas stand on the top. Visitors reach the summit by a mountain train or on foot by two paths: the southern Mule Drivers' Trail, once a Roman road, and the northern Goat Trail, which passes the Nid de la Poule crater. Nearly half a million people visit each year, and it is a well-known paragliding centre.
Views of the volcanoes.
A Roman road.
From the slopes.
Orcines, near Clermont-Ferrand, Auvergne, France
By mountain train or on foot.
The 1648 air-pressure experiment was done here.