Cycling route n°1 : Plateaux au dessus de l’Allier

Departing from Issoire, this route takes you along the Allier from the heights to Coudes. The first ten kilometers are undulating, winding through and over sandstone plateaus. This rock was also used to build some of the villages you’ll pass through, such as Sauvagnat Sainte-Marthe and its fortified village. In(…)

Departing from Issoire, this route takes you along the Allier from the heights to Coudes. The first ten kilometers are undulating, winding through and over sandstone plateaus. This rock was also used to build some of the villages you’ll pass through, such as Sauvagnat Sainte-Marthe and its fortified village. In Coudes, don’t miss the suspension bridge originally built in 1844, destroyed during the Second World War and subsequently rebuilt. The loop continues on the Pardines plateau. It ends by crossing Perrier, a village above which you can see caves. This astonishing troglodyte site can be explored on foot.

Most of the route is on low-traffic roads. Be careful, however, at the end of the route, near Perrier, where the departmental road 996 is particularly busy.