We're staying near the Puy du Dome and today we thought we'd drive up it on the toll road my green guide told me about.
My Green guide is from 2004.
You can't drive up it now cos there is a very expensively revamped little train to take you up instead.
But - they wont allow dogs over 20kg and my BC is about 23kg. I have a bad knee problem, and my OH is too ill to walk up and we don't like leaving the dog at the campsite, even though he is very good and lies under the van while we are away. They turned away 40 euros for the 4 of us! Grrrr.
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Its normally dogs or no dogs, first I've heard of no Heavy/Big Dogs except in small hotel rooms.
As for the lunchtime curfew, it is one of the great pleasures of living in France unless you have an urgent need to buy something specific as the shop closes just as you arrive as happened to my wife only today. So my lunchtime was lost in an explosion of expletives as my wife decided to change French culture for the better.
Lol. We were in a Bricolage superstore near Boulogne two weeks ago, looking for stuff to repair the driveshaft (dont ask!) and we got shooed out, and two years ago I was in a chocolatiere in Le Touquet with lots of kiddies desperate to spend their last few euros, but the two women in the shop were more keen to have us out of the shop than they were to take our money! U gotta love them!
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I posted a warning on here in 2010 that the road was closed, though at that time I didn't know that it wouldn't reopen. Shame you missed it though - but I don't think I would pay forty euros for the privilege of going up on a train. It's a stiff walk though but when we walked up there were plenty of places to stop and lots of seats. However, we did it on a cool day and I wouldn't like to walk up in the heat of summer.
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I thought a return ticket for the rack train was only 10 euros?. We went up the year the buses were running for the last time and I think the return fare was 7.50 euros so not a bad hike in the fare considering all the work that has been done and not bad at all if you compare it with the £27 it costs to use the Snowdon Mountain Railway. I would certainly pay to go up again. I like to walk but at 30 degrees plus its not an option in August when we holiday.
Yes - 10 euros return is right but there are 4 of us hence they turned away 40 euros.
I wish I could have walked up, though as it is around 35` here I think it would be a bit hard, but I have damaged my knee and at the moment can barely hobble, and my OH has been very ill for a while now and cannot walk much at all. This from two people who used to do 20 mile walks in the Yorkshire / Durham dales is very distressing!
We went up on train last year. OAPs and I think it was 8 euros each. A long train ride, about half an hour or so if I remember correctly. It was a fantastic modernistic train and a spectacular ride. We considered it really good value. Commented at the time would have been 4 times that in the UK. Were so impressed we splashed out on souvenir book. I think you really missed out on that despite 40 euros.
Re French lunchtime closing. My opinion very civilised.