Le Puy-en-Velay
Town Of Volcanic Needles And The Traditional Start Of The Via Podiensis To Santiago De Compostela; Its Cathedral Is Part Of The Routes Of Santiago In France UNESCO Listing · Le Puy-en-Velay, Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes
Le Puy-en-Velay is one of the strangest townscapes in France: a medieval town piled up a hill in a volcanic basin, with sheer rock needles rising out of the rooftops. On one stands a tenth-century chapel, Saint-Michel d'Aiguilhe, reached by a long stair cut into the rock; on another a giant red statue of Notre-Dame de France, cast in the nineteenth century from melted cannons, which you can climb inside. At the top of the old town the Romanesque cathedral, striped in dark volcanic stone and with clear Moorish influence, keeps a Black Madonna and has drawn pilgrims for over a thousand years. It is also the traditional starting point of the Via Podiensis, the GR65 trail to Santiago de Compostela, and walkers gather in the cathedral for a blessing before setting off down the great staircase. The town is known for its green lentils and bobbin lace, and every September the Fêtes du Roi de l'Oiseau fill the streets with Renaissance costume. It feels like a working provincial town rather than a showpiece.
Cathédrale Notre-Dame and the old town, Le Puy-en-Velay, Haute-Loire, Le Puy-en-Velay, Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes, France
The old town, the steps and the outside of the cathedral are open at all hours. The cathedral is open daily from early morning to evening, but tourist visits pause during services, and the cloister and the treasury of religious art are ticketed with their own shorter hours, closing for lunch in the low season in some years; confirm. The pilgrims' blessing takes place at the end of an early morning Mass in the cathedral, traditionally every day in the walking season from spring to autumn and less often in winter; confirm the current time with the cathedral or the pilgrim welcome office. Saint-Michel d'Aiguilhe and the Notre-Dame de France statue are open daily in the main season, on reduced days from autumn to spring, and they close for part of the winter and in storms or ice; last entry is some time before closing. The Hôtel-Dieu museum and the lace centre keep their own hours and may close one day a week outside summer. The market fills the centre on Saturday mornings. The Roi de l'Oiseau festival runs for several days in mid-September; confirm the dates each year.