Clermont Ferrand and Limoges Visit

Was in Clermont Ferrand today and Limoges last year. For surface visit of cathedrals, old part if town, one night in each is fine--though it's not usually recommended. If you want to dig deeper into historic museums, the volcanic park, maybe two nights in Clermont. Clermont has two UNESCO world heritage sites, but it's grubby bad near the train station. Drove into Limoges so have less experience with neighborhoods. If painted porcelain is your thing, stay in Limoges. Both have long histories reaching back to Neolithic era.

Please take the time to visit Oradour Sur Glane just outside of Limoges. I found this reverent place as powerful as a visit to Normandy.

Going to the Puy de Dôme from Clermont Ferrand and taking the train to the top is worth checking out.

Thanks for the Puy De Dome suggestion. We'll be passing through that area in a few weeks and will check that out.

I wouldn't recommend Clermont-Ferrand as an overnight stop unless it's the only place that fits into your train schedule. We had driven by it several times, and it always looked so dreary, but then I read some positive things about it. So when we visited friends who used to have a house nearby, we all went into Clermont for the afternoon. I was very unimpressed. There are towns in that area that would be more worthwhile to visit, but I think they would all require a car.
And I can't help with Limoges, as I've only driven past it.