Herisson is an authentic French village who has kept its original charm while seeing new activities slowly coming to the village. One of them is our favorite cafe Charles Ville . Based in the old hotel in the center of the village you will find this absolute pearl. The cafe is run by a Belgium couple Luc and Nadine. You enter their fascinating and colorful universe of beautiful antiques. Luc has continued his old profession from Antwerp as antique dealer, and the cafe is also the antique shop. Nadine has a cozy butique in connection with the cafe as well. When we send our guests there, we tell them the password is KWAK KWAK (a Belgium beer...) and they will know you come from ZONE BLEUE.

In the village you will also find the ruins of the fortress from the 12th century nested on the banks of the river Aumance. If you are there in the weekend you might also find the small distillery Monsieur Balthazar  being open, established in 1984 by Olivier Perrier and an intriguing history behind the start of the local Whiskey making. In 2013 taken over by David Faverot who has continued developed the offerings to an amazing gin, rums, vodka and even more....

We love combining walking from Herisson and our own favorite route is a loop to Chateloy and back through the hills along the Aumance and ending with lunch and a KWAK at Charles Ville.

Saint-Pourçain-sur-Sioule is the heart of our local wine district and we love going there in Saturday mornings for the local market if we can find time. You can debate if we are going there for the market or for ending up at the best wine bar in the area Qui L'eut Cru . Stéphane Bourdin the owner of Qui L'eut Cru and Charline are the familiar faces running the winebar, but you realise that there are actually many familiar faces there - people likes to come back....    The concept on Saturdays are different to what you might think. You first go visit the market and find you favorite snacks and local specialities, and then you bring them to the winebar and enjoy them there with wine from Stéphane and Charline. On other days you can have a light lunch, planche with cheese from Fromagerie de la Sioule local charcutterie and fantastic bread from La Cygne , and you can also have delicious pâtisserie from acrosse the square Pâtisserie Pause Gourmande . 

A round trip with Souvigny and Moulins will take you back in history. In the medieval Bourbonnais village Souvigny the Souvigny Priory Museum and Garden is certainly worth a visit, and if you are here during the 9 days of the Souvigny Medieval Festival , normally in end July or early August, its even a better time to go. When you drive towards Moulins you will see the silouette of two cathedrals that from the distance look like they are just next to each other. Next to the Notre-Dame de Moulins Cathedral ,  you will find the The Mantin house donated to the Town of Moulins by Louis Mantin, a wealthy bourgeois who had it built around his collections at the end of the 19th century. Frozen for eternity, you discover magnificent gilded leathers, Aubusson tapestries, antique stained glass illuminating every window, every room... it was designed as a showcase for art. With a pronounced taste for rarity and the unusual, Louis Mantin adorned his entire house with a dizzying maze of paintings, books, photographs, sculptures.

In the old part of Moulins you will see many of the characteristic polychrome brick mansions and when you are on the main square and need a bite to eat you can visit the famous and beautiful Grand Café where Coco Chanel used to go, or around the corner from the square to the wine bar Auvergne Prestige .

Another must see in Moulins is The National Center for Stage Costume . The Nureyev Collection, costumes from the Comédie-Française or the Paris Opera, the museum is the first of its kind in France and abroad, to be entirely devoted to the material heritage of theaters and operas.

Nestled in the heart of the Auvergne volcanoes, the Puy de Dôme, a GREAT SITE OF FRANCE, is a protected and developed tourist site. It is a fragile and preserved natural area overlooking the Chaîne des Puys. The Chaîne des Puys and the Limagne fault have been listed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites since July 2018

You can reach the summit of the Puy de Dome on foot along the Muletiers path, which is the ancient road that, it is said, led pilgrims to the Roman Temple of Mercury at the summit in 1.465 meters. It's a 6km walk with around 500 hight meters and takes around 1,5 to 2 hours to walk. You can also reach it by train Panoramique des Dômes, on a clear day you have an amazing view to the 80 volcanoes of the Chaîne des Puys spread out at your feet as well as Clermont-Ferrand. You can decent in different ways, choose the alternative and more easily accessible other side of the volcano, take the train down or jump on a paraglider and land next to the station of train and main parking area.

A visit to Clermont-Ferrand is an excellent combination to the fantastic nature of Puy de Dome. The cathedral which you see as huge black building from the Puy de Dome is beautiful and the city is full of great restaurants and activities such as L'Aventure Michelin.