Our visit to Clermont-Ferrand was more for necessity than desire, because our next Workaway assignment was an hour south of this French city, and our host chose this location as the pick up point. Following our travel trend we decided to grab the opportunity to spend a couple of nights in the city to decompress and rest.

The French train strikes are drawing to a close, and we could have traveled from Millau to Clermont-Ferrand by train, but it would have taken us just under 5 hours. But with a quick search on BlaBla cars we discovered multiple drivers doing that route on the day we wanted to travel.

Ema is a midwife who was visiting her grandparents for the weekend in Millau, and returning back to Clermont-Ferrand on Monday. She said her English wasn’t good, but it was a damn sight better than our French, and as well as talking about her upcoming travel plans to South Africa and the different foreign travel trips she takes each year. She was an excellent tour guide and pointed out interesting and historical facts long the route and gave us some pointers for our time in Clermont-Ferrand.

We’d arranged a private apartment via Booking.com, but they couldn’t give us access to our accommodation until 3pm, so we had 3 hours to kill on arrival. Ema pointed us in direction of Columbus Café and told us it was a good place to kill some time. She was right. Great coffee, a good selection of comfy seats, lots of power outlets, and only a 5 minute walk from our accommodation.

Our Clermont-Ferrand Accommodation – almost

We texted our host, Alex, to confirm that we were in town and available to check in at 3pm. No reply. We took it in turns to watch the bags while the other one went off to explore the local area.

By the time we headed to our apartment it was pouring with rain, and so I texted Alex again to say that we were on our way. We ended up standing outside the front door for forty minutes waiting for him. I texted, called via phone, and sent multiple messages via the booking.com dashboard, and we finally got a response. Chaleureux T1

WTF! These two messages were an hour apart. What changed within an hour that they were wishing us a nice stay, and the next one that Alex couldn’t host us?

I don’t think it would have been so bad if we’d just arrived in town, but because we’d been hanging around for nearly three hours, and now we were waiting in the rain, the message wasn’t well received.

Not just because we were without a roof over our heads, but now we were soaking wet through. We went in search of a bar for the consellation/cancellation prize of a beer, while deciding next steps.

I searched and found a hotel nearby, that was within easy walking distance. It wasn’t ideal. If we’re staying in a town for more than a night we prefer a self-contained apartment, so that we can do some self catering and have kitchen equipment and tools to prepare our own breakfast or occasionally lunch.

Alex sent us a message to say he’d contact Booking.com and would refund our money, and I contacted Booking.com via their dashboard to report the host for letting us down. After two days nothing had been resolved. No response from Alex or the other nameless faceless person associated with this property, and no response from Booking. I tried emailing all three, and calling the property numbers. I know things happen but we should have at least had the curtesy of a phone call, text, or email letting us know about our refund. In the end, I phoned Booking.

They advised that the easiest way was for the host to cancel the booking, which would mean immediate refund of the full amount, but we would need to give them 24-hours to respond to my request. They tried calling the host three times while I was on hold, but they didn’t have any luck in contacting them either.

An hour later I got a message from Booking.com that the amount had been refunded, and if my alternate accommodation cost more that the apartment we originally booked, that we should send a copy of the invoice and they would claim the extra amount back from the host.

Up until this point I’d been annoyed by the host and booking.com – but this knowledge that we were going to be refunded and receive additional payment was refreshing to hear. Turns out we could have contacted booking.com as soon as the booking was cancelled and they would have helped to relocate us and charged the original host back any price difference.

You wouldn’t get that on AirBnB. Their agreement favors the hosts, and the host can cancel rooms at really short notice. But with Booking.com the agreement favors the renter. So I’m going to rely on booking more going forward. The good thing is that the properties that used to only be found on Airbnb are finding their way onto Booking.com, and there’s a good selection of self-contained apartments for rent on Booking.com.

Although this thoughtless accommodation host soured our arrival into Clarement-Ferrand, there’s no point dwelling on it and having it ruin our trip, so we settled into our comfy and arty hotel room, and spent two days exploring the city.

I’m writing about this accommodation experience here because when I tried to leave an honest review with Booking, it was rejected it because it doesn’t meet their guidelines.

Only a customer who has booked through Booking.com and stayed at the property in question can write a review.

We’re not eligible to write a review for the accommodation because we didn’t stay there! So no other potential guests will know that we were let down … which I have to say .. is quite frankly a load of bollocks! This loophole in the review process means that the host’s reputation stays in tact.

Dark and Oppressive Clermont Ferrand?

Many of the buildings in town are built with the lava rock from the local volcano range. The darkness of the building exteriors and the low clouds shroud the city with an oppressive blanket, and it can seem like a gloomy destination. But it’s anything but.

Nights Out in Clermont Ferrand

We discovered a friendly neighbourhood bar, Le Mayerling, run by a Paris shop owner who relocated back to Clermont-Ferrand to take over his mum’s bar.

He speaks fabulous English and was an affable host. And who can argue with a daily happy hour between 6pm and 10pm?! He loves funk music, and the soundtrack for our multiple visits to this bar never failed to entertain. The only food they serve are charcutiere and cheese platters, and when we asked if he could recommend some good vegetarian restaurants in town – he responded: “Good luck”.

He wasn’t wrong. Most of the menus we read were full of chicken, duck, rabbit and beef. Apparently this area is a hub of meat-eaters, and us pescatarians are left to flap in the wind. Hungry.

We arrived on a Monday, and he told us to hurry and find a place, because it was early closing. We had a delicious crispy salmon pizza and salmon pasta from restaurant which is part of the Lion hotel. The tables were close together and we ended up sharing drinks and conversation with a traveling Brit, in town on business.

The next night we traveled a bit further afield into the old town area. And found an Italian restaurant with plush velvet furniture and a sweeping staircase leading to the upstairs dining room, where we ordered: Salmon pizza and salmon pasta, both ladened with salmon.

Come to France and eat Italian!

The only downside was the service. The waitress taking our order acted like she’d just sucked on a lemon, and the waiter who delivered our food, literally threw the plates on the tables and this lightening quick reflexes were the only thing that saved my salad from landing on the floor.

But we had a good window table overlooking the pedestrian area below, and we didn’t get hurried out while we lingered over our 50cl carafe of local red wine.

This is one of the benefits of traveling in France—inexpensive, good quality wine.

Next day it was was back to Columbus to the comfy chairs to kill time between checking out of the Dav’Hotel and taking a local city bus to the pick up point for our ride to the Chateau.

For my first few years in Los Angeles I didn’t have a car, and loved taking the bus. Even when I had to take 3 buses to get from my home on the Westside to my job at Paramount Pictures, I loved it because it gave me a chance to read (a lot). But it’s a bit different when you have a pack on your back and a small rolling bag, and the bus is packed and you can’t turn around. But I don’t think there’s a better way to experience day-to-day life in a new city, than taking public transport.

We had time for a quick coffee at the New York Bar near the train station before our host arrived to drive us south to the chateau.

Day Time Snack

We discovered a fabulous little Turkish fast food place. No bigger than a hole in the wall. Two Turkish ladies were making Gozleme (thin unleavened bread filled with savory ingredients and cooked on a special rounded dome).

Rather than making them with traditional Turkish ingredients, they’d adjusted the menu to fit the French ingredients, so we opted for a Blue Cheese Gozleme. This was our find of the trip. Don’t know the name, but it was down one of the little back lanes of old town, and you’re bound to stumble across it as your explore that neighbourhood.

What we missed

This area is known for the 80 dormant volcanos, called The Chaîne des Puys, that stretches for 45km in the northern Massif Central to Clermont-Ferrand in the west. You can walk up the 6km from the visitors centre up to the summit of Puy de Dome which has the highest lava dome. It takes about 90 minutes, but there’s also a train that slowly ascends the mountain in about 15 minutes.

Low cloud visibility meant that we wouldn’t have had much of a view from the top. We were still game for an adventure, but as this sight is located out of town and the local transport only runs in the season so we had limited alternatives for getting there. The only option was via a ~50 Euro taxi ride. A bit excessive just to climb a mountain with zero visibility. So we decided against it. But if we happen to be in this area during warmer weather, it’ll definitely be at the #1 top spot of things to do.

I wouldn’t make a special trip to visit Clermont-Ferrand, but if you have to travel through it on your way to somewhere else, it’s definitely worth a night.

Read about our 2020 Workaway and Travel Adventures:

1. French Train Strikes won’t stop us in our tracks
2. Toodling around Toulouse
3. Exploring the Castle at La Couvertoirade
4. Meandering around Montpellier
5. Our Workaway at an 18th Century Flour Mill
6. Chilling in Clermont Ferrand
7. Our Workaway at an 18th Century Chateau
8. Lingering in Lyon’s 1st Arrondissement
9. Our Self-Guided Walking Tour of Lyon
10. Making the most of Montparnasse Paris
11. Our Workaway at a La Rochelle BnB
12. Our Workaway at Ile D’Aix
13. Video: Our Workaway adventure through France
14. Our Memorable Food and Wine Adventures in France
15. …. the rest of our trip TBD because of the virus – but planning Bordeaux, Lille, Bruges, Antwerp, and Amsterdam