Puy-de-Dôme

Puy-de-Dôme General Council building in Clermont-Ferrand

Puy-de-Dôme (French pronunciation: [pɥi də dom]; lo Puèi de Doma / lo Puèi Domat in the Auvergnat dialect of the Occitan language) is a department in the center of France named after the famous dormant volcano, the Puy-de-Dôme.

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History

Puy-de-Dôme is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on March 4, 1790. It was created from the former province of Auvergne. Originally, the department was to be called Mont d'Or ("golden mountain"), but this was judged not to be a very egalitarian name.

Geography

The volcanoes of the "chaîne des Puys" near Clermont-Ferrand.

Puy-de-Dôme is part of the current region of Auvergne and is surrounded by the departments of Loire, Haute-Loire, Cantal, Corrèze, Allier, and Creuse.

The department is in the Massif Central and boasts more than 80 volcanic craters. It is three hours from Paris and an hour from Lyon by highways A71 and A72. The A75 links it to the Mediterranean Sea.

Its main cities are Clermont-Ferrand, Thiers, Riom, Issoire, Ambert, and Cournon-d'Auvergne.

See also

External links