Cows below the Puy de Sancy (1886 m.), in the Auvergne

Hiking on the Mont Dore massif in the Auvergne region of France. Much dairy agriculture here with many local gastronomic treats employing local cheeses such as St. Nectaire and Bleu d'Auvergne. The Mont Dore massif is described as stratovolcano that has been inactive for the past 220 thousand years.  During that time, the area has undergone several episodes of glaciation so much of the topography doesn't immediately strike the eye as "volcanic", at least until alerted to imagine a main peak much higher than the eroded stump which remains. My previous winter hike, on snow-shoes with the peaks still fully covered with snow, revealed the distinctive cone shapes of some of the susuduary peaks of the same massif: see Puy de l'Angle, 1738 m. The Auvergne area still has geological activity, there are hot springs in the spa towns and the west tower of the cathedral at St. Nectaire was severely damaged by the earthquake of 1842. We talked with some French scientists who had been using muon tomography to image some the local features.