Volcans d’Auvergne Regional Natural Park

Covering close to 400,000 hectares across the Cantal and the Puy-de-Dôme, the Volcans d’Auvergne is the largest regional natural park in mainland France, and it presents itself as the largest volcanic park in Europe, shaped by more than 12 million years of eruptions. It runs 75 mi from north to south, between 400 and 1,886 metres.

Five natural regions, from the Monts Dômes to the Artense granite

The park is made of five natural regions, each with its own relief. The northern one, the Monts Dômes, is the Chaîne des Puys, which has its own page in this guide. The other four:

• Monts du Cantal: a single volcanic edifice 50 mi across on 772 mi², which the park calls the largest volcano in Europe, cut by some twenty glacial valleys and topped by the Plomb du Cantal at 6,086 ft. It is a Grand Site de France managed by the Syndicat mixte du Puy Mary.
• Monts Dore: 232 mi² formed by two stratovolcanoes nested one inside the other, rising to the Puy de Sancy, 6,188 ft, the highest point of the Massif central.
• Cézallier: more than 193 mi² of plateaux and small volcanic mountains.
• Artense: the exception, a granite plateau, where basalt columns nonetheless surround the puy de Cheylat.

In the Monts Dore, erosion has laid bare some of the volcanic plumbing. The Dent de la Rancune, in the glacial cirque of Chaudefour, is a dyke; the Roches Tuilière and Sanadoire are volcanic protrusions. The word puy itself comes from the Occitan puèi, the Auvergne form of puech, a high place with a rounded top.

Crater lakes, peat bogs and 2,485 mi of streams

Water fills what the volcanoes left behind. The park counts close to 2,485 mi of watercourses and some fifteen natural lakes, and recognises 60% of its territory for remarkable biodiversity.

• Lac Pavin, 6,900 years old, is the youngest crater lake in mainland France: 302 ft deep, 700 to 2,625 ft across, and meromictic, a case unique in France.
• At La Godivelle, the lac d’En-Haut and the lac d’En-Bas lie 164 ft apart but have different origins, one a crater, the other glacial.
• An observatory of volcanic lakes run with the Université Clermont Auvergne follows 14 lakes.
• The park expects the peat bogs and lakes of the Cézallier and the Artense to receive the Ramsar label; the application was still in progress on the pages read.

The park’s pages present five nature reserves, from the valley of Chaudefour, created by decree on 14 May 1991, to the Sagnes de La Godivelle, one of the oldest nature reserves in France. Chastreix-Sancy, the largest national nature reserve in the Massif central, sees more than 200,000 visitors a year.

A park of 147 communes, run from a château of 1820

1. 1977: the park and its syndicat mixte are created; French and German Wikipedia date the creation to 25 October 1977.
2. 2013: the current charter takes effect, adopted by the 147 communes of the park, for the period 2013 to 2028.
3. 2018: the Chaîne des Puys and the Limagne fault are inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list.
4. Spring 2025: works start at the Maison du Parc in Montlosier, with delivery planned for the 2028 season.

The château de Montlosier, built in 1820 for the comte de Montlosier, houses the offices of the syndicat mixte. The park has some 90,000 inhabitants, according to the Fédération des Parcs, and two of its summits, the Puy Mary and the Puy de Dôme, are Grands Sites de France.

• Four sectors carry employment: farming, tourism, forestry and the working of volcanic stone.
• About 1,700 ha of summer pasture in the Chaîne des Puys are grazed notably by 7,000 sheep, most of them of the local Rava breed.