One of the more onerous tasks we have to do to keep francethisway up to date is to get out and about exploring France.  As often as possible – but preferably when the sun is shining.

The challenge is to see lots of places and discover all they have to offer without dilly-dallying. So no time for eating, cafes, sitting in the sun reading a book etc. If there’s a hilltop view, I need to sprint up the hill while the rest of you happy holidaymakers amble up slowly. If there’s a village 20 km down the road I need to go there today, where you will make a morning of it tomorrow.

I exagerate slightly of course, since it’s not possible to appreciate a place quite like that, but you get the idea. Even with this military style planning it’s great fun and always fascinating to see new places, but also very tiring. There are also such an enormous number of places worth visiting in France that it’s an impossible challenge to ever finish.

Hence I have spent the last few days exploring the Auvergne, particularly the Puy-de-Dome department which I have long wanted to visit but never before got round to. Where’s Puy-de-Dome? Head straight down through the middle of France as far as Clermont-Ferrand, and there you are. You’ve seen it from the autoroute as you whizz through France on your way to the Riviera, I think. It’s pretty much the beginning of what would be considered to be the ’south of France’.

This post isn’t about Puy-de Dome though, it’s a suggestion how to break up your journey south this summer. Just south of Clermont-Ferrand, and just moments from the motorway, is a small medieval village called Montpeyroux – pretty houses, ancient donjon, far-reaching views, everything you want from a stopover.

If exploring Montpeyroux isn’t exciting enough for you, or is too time-consuming, justify it by combining it with a lunch stop. If that isn’t exciting enough for you make sure it’s the restaurant called La Vigne, in the heart of the old part of the village (and very easy to find).

I arrived at Montpeyroux, exhausted and hungry from my rushing around, and thought that 2pm would be too late to be served in one of the restaurants. I asked anyway, at the restaurant called La Vigne, the waitresses asked the chef, who agreed it was OK. It was only afterwards that I realised the medieval clock in the town hadn’t been ‘put forward for summer’ and it was actually 3pm. Sorry, I don’t have a watch, haven’t for years. No wonder the waitresses looked at me as if I was mad to even be asking.

Anyway, the meal was extremely good (I had steak with blue cheese, there were lots of other tempting options), the terrace was nice, in a small square in the village centre, and the waitresses were very pleasant and attentive. It’s highly recommended that you head over there when you are next whooshing down through France, and get your holiday off to a great start. The recommendation also holds if you are passing a few days in Puy-de-Dome of course.

Just one tiny regret…the waitresses commented on the fact that I was English (sadly my accent gives it away in about 2.5 seconds) and just as I was leaving they told me the chef was also English (you wouldn’t have guessed from the food, if that’s what you’re thinking), and asked did I want to meet him. Since I was rushed I didn’t stop to say hello, and have been racked with guilt at my rudeness ever since.

So if anyone reading this happens to know the La Vigne restaurant in Montpeyroux, or the owner, or passes that way during the summer, be sure to say hello on our behalf and say that they have the dubious honour of being the first and perhaps only restaurant to be recommended by francethisway! (Update: to check out their menus or make a booking visit the La Vigne website at www.restaurant-lavigne.fr)