Clermont-Ferrand

The city began on the knoll where the cathedral now stands, as Nemossos, a Gaulish name meaning a sacred forest, the chief town of the Arverni. Vercingetorix was born somewhere in the area around 72 BC, and in 52 BC he drove back Julius Caesar's legions at nearby Gergovia. Under Rome it became Augustonemetum, the "sanctuary of Augustus". It was a bishop's seat by the 5th century, and its castle of Clarus Mons gave the town its name in 848. In 1095 Pope Urban II preached the First Crusade at the Council of Clermont.

Quarrels between the counts of Auvergne and the bishops led the counts to found a rival town, Montferrand, on a nearby mound, and for centuries the two were separate: Clermont the bishop's city, Montferrand the count's. The Edict of Troyes joined them in 1630, a union confirmed in 1731, though Montferrand asked for independence again in 1789, 1848 and 1863. Blaise Pascal was born here in 1623, and his brother-in-law carried a barometer up the Puy de Dôme to test the theory of air pressure.

In the 20th century Michelin, founded in the city by the brothers André and Édouard Michelin, built factories employing up to 30,000 people, and with them came the housing and garden suburbs that finally joined the two old towns. The city featured in The Sorrow and the Pity, the documentary on France under occupation and the Vichy regime. Michelin moved most of its manufacturing abroad but kept its headquarters here, and the city diversified into research and services. A tram line opened in 2006, and in 2026 voters elected Julien Bony mayor, defeating the Socialist incumbent Olivier Bianchi.

The look of the city comes from its stone. Volvic stone, a dark basalt from the lava flows of the Chaîne des Puys, was the traditional building material, and the cathedral, built from it between 1248 and 1902, gives the centre its sombre, striking skyline. The Romanesque basilica of Notre-Dame du Port, in lighter stone, was added to the UNESCO World Heritage list in 1998 as part of the Routes of Santiago de Compostela in France.

Film is the city's international calling card. The short film festival, begun as a student film society's week in 1979, is the world's first international short film festival and now the second largest film festival in France after Cannes by attendance. More than twenty other music, film, dance, theatre and digital art festivals are held each year, among them Jazz en tête in October.

Rugby is the great passion. ASM Clermont Auvergne, founded by Marcel Michelin, has played at the Stade Marcel-Michelin since 1911, and the city also hosts a round of the women's world sevens series; Clermont Foot played in the top football league from 2021 to 2024. Bartholdi's statue of Vercingetorix on Place de Jaude, inscribed "I took up arms for the freedom of all", sums up local pride in the Arverni.

About 146,000 people lived in the commune in 2023, and about 511,000 in its metropolitan area. A quarter of the city's population are students, many at the University of Clermont Auvergne, formed in 2017 and counting more than 37,000 students, and there are some 6,000 researchers; it was the first city in France to join UNESCO's network of Learning Cities.

Michelin's headquarters remain the best-known employer, alongside food production and processing, engineering, and research centres of software and pharmaceutical companies. The decline of tyre manufacturing was gradual, and the area has stayed prosperous rather than suffering the fate of many old industrial cities.

The city is organised around Place de Jaude and the old town, with residential districts, the Cézeaux university campus and Montferrand linked to it by the tram. Weekends often mean the volcanoes, a short drive away, or a rugby match. Transport is a recurring issue: the Auvergne is one of the last French regions without a TGV stop, which is not expected before 2030.

Auvergne cooking is hearty country food. Truffade is a thick pancake of thinly sliced potatoes cooked slowly in goose fat and then mixed with strips of tomme fraîche, sometimes with lardons. Potée auvergnate is a one-pot dish of cabbage, carrots and turnips with fresh or salt pork, sausages and half a pig's head, cooked in stock and served as a single course.

The region is cheese country. Saint-Nectaire has been made in the Auvergne since at least the 17th century; Cantal, a firm uncooked cheese, received its AOC in 1956; Bleu d'Auvergne, a cow's milk blue cheese, was developed in the 1850s by Antoine Roussel; and Fourme d'Ambert, a semi-hard blue in a narrow cylinder, is one of France's oldest cheeses, dating back to Roman times.

The covered Saint-Pierre market in the old town is the place to buy them, along with charcuterie and produce, and many of the city's restaurants cluster in the streets around the cathedral and Place de la Victoire.