By Geoffrey Ménissier, published on , updated on .
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In short
What to do in the Auvergne for a successful family trip? We stayed in La Godivelle, in the Cézallier, halfway between the Puy-de-Dôme and the Cantal. The goal: enjoy the nature, the food and the volcanoes! 3 summits were on the programme: the Puy de Sancy, the Puy de Dôme and the Puy Mary.
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This summer, we had two weeks off and had just spent the first one camping in the Lot. For the second, we chose to visit the Auvergne, a region we had not yet covered on the blog. We stayed in La Godivelle, in the Cézallier massif, on the border between the Puy-de-Dôme and the Cantal.
I had spotted a chalet on Airbnb, but the service and cleaning fees on the platform were very high. I checked whether the place was available on other websites and found it on GreenGo, which lists eco-friendly rentals with an eco-score calculated on several criteria. In the end, we paid about 100 euros less than through Airbnb.
It is a former barn renovated loft-style, with a large living area and a lovely garden. It is very pretty, and the comfort was a nice contrast with the camping of our first week.
La Godivelle is a small village of about fifteen inhabitants (out of season). It has a church and a large fountain once used to water the herds, the largest in the department. There are also 2 lakes (the upper and the lower lake). The first is a volcanic crater lake, the second a lake of glacial origin. You will find peat bogs there, protected by a national nature reserve. La Godivelle is quite lively during the day, as it is the starting point for several walks.
2026 update: also read our second article, a week in the Cézallier, with visits focused this time on the Cantal side.
We started big on the first day, setting off to climb the highest summit in the Auvergne, the Puy de Sancy (1,886 m). We looked at the different options with a 3-year-old and chose to take the gondola from the Le Mont-Dore resort. You can also walk up from the resort. And if you want an even more demanding hike, you can reach the summit from the other side, from Super-Besse: a route estimated at 5 hours 30 minutes' walk.
After a bit of shopping in Le Mont-Dore to complete our picnic, we started the ascent. The cabins took us up to 1,790 m, where we stopped for lunch. There was then about a hundred metres of ascent left to reach the summit, up a long staircase. Victor managed all 864 steps on his own, up and back down, without being carried, but I could tell he would be too tired to walk down the mountain, so we took the cabin back down again. From the summit, you get a magnificent view over the Auvergne and its chain of volcanoes, including the Puy de Dôme.
We wanted to alternate hiking days with quieter ones, so we decided to visit the castle of Murol and then a farm to buy some Saint-Nectaire cheese.
The little hill up to the fortified castle is no walk in the park, but at the top you get a beautiful view. On site, to the delight of children, you can watch a knights' horse show before visiting the inside of the castle. It dates from the 13th century, and the visit is built around the character of Guillaume de Murol, lord of the castle in 1423. We then ate in Murol, but several restaurants are closed on Mondays, so there was not much choice…
We then headed for Saint-Nectaire, where we visited the Bellonte farm. The same family has been making farmhouse Saint-Nectaire AOP cheese for 8 generations. After a look around the cowshed, we went to the shop to buy cheese (allow €23 for a whole Saint-Nectaire).
We did not have time to visit it, but Lac Chambon is right next door, and unlike Lac Pavin you can swim in it. At the end of the day, back in La Godivelle, we walked to the upper lake to watch the sunset. I went back at night to enjoy the night of shooting stars, which that year coincided with no moon and hardly any clouds: perfect for trying my hand at astrophotography.
We tackled the second volcano of our week, the best known: the Puy de Dôme. It is about an hour's drive from La Godivelle. Once again, with Victor (3), we weighed up the options and decided to go up by train and walk down. For that, you need to go to the “Panoramique des Dômes”. A single costs €14.80, and it is free for under-4s. It takes about fifteen minutes to wind up around the volcano. The station has lots of educational displays about volcanoes, which helped pass the time while we waited our turn.
At the top, we had our picnic opposite the weather observatory and its iconic mast. We watched a paraglider take off, then walked past the ruins of the 1st-century Temple of Mercury.
It was then time to start down the Chemin des Chèvres (Goat Path). The walk is estimated at 1 hour 30 minutes for 6 km and about 400 m of descent; with Victor, it took us about an hour longer. The path first follows the train line, then you take a long staircase before going through a forest and back to the car park. It is a chance to look out over the Chaîne des Puys, especially the Puy Pariou right next to it.
On the way back, we stopped at the Vaucoux waterfall, just outside Besse.
What was supposed to be a “rest” day turned into our longest walk. On the programme: a loop from La Godivelle to Jassy through the Cézallier landscape, which is sometimes compared to Iceland, Scotland or Mongolia. A 14 km route estimated at 4 hours. Knowing that Victor could not walk that far, we had brought the pushchair. That was clearly a bad idea: the route runs mainly across fields, and we had to carry it for a good part of the way. But it did let him have a nap for a couple of hours. In all, it took us 7 hours (including the picnic and a break at the Jassy waterfall). It was worth it, as it is very beautiful.
Several million years ago, the Cézallier was a glacier. It melted, leaving peat bogs that are now part of the Sagnes de La Godivelle nature reserve. You walk through fields among the cows, through the forest and along the lakes of Saint-Alyre and La Godivelle.
We left the Puy-de-Dôme for the Cantal, heading for the Pas de Peyrol to climb to the summit of the Puy Mary. Again, it is about an hour's drive from La Godivelle. The car park is not very big and, arriving around 11am, we could not find a space except right at the bottom, which would have added nearly an hour of walking. We decided to change plans and go down the other side towards the Biaguin waterfall, where we had our picnic.
We went back up to the Pas de Peyrol around 2pm, and this time parking was no problem. The walk to the summit is up a staircase, as on the Puy de Sancy. However, this one is much steeper: physically, it was one of the hardest walks of the week. Victor managed to climb it, but I carried him on the way down. It took us about an hour, with a few breaks, to climb the remaining 200 m. At the top, we had a 360° panoramic view over the Cantal mountains. (And, strangely, lots of tiny flies that reminded us of the midges in Scotland…) After coming down, we tried a blueberry tart at the mountain restaurant: very good!
The Puy Mary is the second-highest summit in the Cantal after the Plomb du Cantal, which we visited in 2026 during another week in the Cézallier.
We were staying near Besse but, apart from a bit of supermarket shopping, we had not yet taken the time to visit it. Its full name is Besse-et-Saint-Anastaise, a medieval and Renaissance town that holds the “Petites Cités de Caractère” label. We looked around the little shops and booked a restaurant for lunch before heading to Super-Besse, the ski resort a few kilometres higher up. We relaxed by the lake there and let Victor play in the adventure park. We would have liked to introduce him to bowling, but the minimum age was 6.
Back in Besse, we ate at Le Bessoi. It is good and local, and the welcome is friendly. For the rest of the afternoon, we headed for Lac Pavin, the deepest volcanic lake in the Auvergne (92 m). Its turquoise waters reminded us of the lakes around Banff in Canada. We walked round it in barely an hour (less than 3 km).
We spent a lovely week among the magnificent landscapes of the Auvergne. The house was very comfortable, and we recommend it for your own stays! We will be happy to come back, perhaps in winter to enjoy the ski resorts. Feel free to leave a comment at the bottom of the page to share your holidays or ask your questions. See you soon.
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