Life of Do: Clermont-Ferrand

So Matt and I hopped on a train to Clermont-Ferrand this morning; our day, unplanned; our bags, unpacked. There was a light but tolerable sprinkle early that day when we wandered our way into the city with neither a destination in mind nor a map in hand. Every now and then we would come across interesting street signs that would point us toward an interesting destination. For example:

Literally "Other Directions." There were several of these in the city. In particular, one was preceded by "Toutes Directions," which translates as "All Directions."

We did find the monument dedicated to France's fallen in our goal-less escapades.

We eventually made our way toward a very noticeable cathedral in the middle of the city, evading the ever-so-clever ninja guard post:

Standing 96.2 meters tall, the black lava stone spires of Cathédrale Notre-Dame-de-l'Assomption de Clermont Ferrand tower over the other buildings in the city. Its detailed Gothic architecture is hard to describe and my pictures here won't do it justice.

The inside was awe-inspiring, and the grandeur and size of the building just can't be captured with my tiny point and shoot.

We walked around town; toured Jaude, the shopping district; and then made our way toward Blaise-Pascal to meet up with Alyssa as she finished her last test. I couldn't resist but take some photos from the exactly the same angles that everyone does when they go to Clermont-Ferrand.

The graffiti reads "Why art?" to which someone responded "So that we ask ourselves that question."

We saw a group of Cosplayers at Jaude.

After lunch, Alyssa took us on a tour of her dorm room and all of the places we had already visited. In addition, however, she took us to a very nice park, which, had I seen it in the States, I would have mistaken for an arboretum.

The flora was supposedly even more beautiful a few weeks earlier before the cold hit France.

Oh, and we saw the Cosplayers again. This time they were larping.

We went through a children's bookstore and FNAC, an electronics/media/books store, to help Alyssa find some souvenirs before her flight tomorrow. For dinner, we had truffade, a cheese and potato dish served with cured pork and an Auvergne (the region I'm in) specialty. We arrived at the restaurant at 6:30, hoping to get dinner before our train back at 8:30. As it turns out, most restaurants here only serve their main dishes at certain times, so we had to wait until 7:00. We ate our food in good time, but still had to book it to catch the train.