July 6

Another dull day that turned into a nice sunny day that then turned back into a dull day and then a rainy day. And on and on and on.

The weather here is very like Calgary in that respect - although we were told this is unusual weather and it is usually much nicer (sunnier) figures!.

The one thing that is different from Calgary is that when the sun disappears in the clouds the temperature does not drop 10 degrees. It stays warm. Big improvement.

A scenic shot somewhere along the way. The country side is so green and beautiful here. Terri said the other day" It's no wonder the Germans wanted it".

We stopped in a small touristy town called Salers for a beer. I'm sure it's not pronounced like it's spelled. More likely Salooooor or Salerrrr. Hardly anything is pronounced like it is written here. Rarely is a consonant at the end of a work pronounced it seems.

Anyway, a funky little town.

Here are some shots.

We came apon this little cat sleeping in a flower pot. I thought it would make a cute picture.

The click of the camera woke the little guy up and he looked so sad.

So go back and look at the huge wound he has behind his left ear. It looks like he was the loser in a big scrap.

Last one of Salers: Check out the angle of the roof. I guess not all the medieval craftsmen were good craftsmen.

Here's a video from just outside of Salers on the road to Puy Mary.

So we decided to go to a place called Puy Mary.
A Puy is a volcanic hill. We drove all the way there - it was kind of on the way we were going anyway - but the weather was horrible when we arrived; windy, cold and rainy so we said to heck with it (actually we said something else) and we carried on down the other side of the mountain. When we got to the bottom of the mountain the sun was out and the weather was great. PLUS we discovered we should have made a left turn at the top of the mountain. We said let's go back up and climb that sucker. So we went back up and same f$#@ing sh!tty weather. It was a sign I guess. We just drove on.

Fantastic country up here though.

Our final destination today is Clermont-Ferand.

This town is a fine example of a town that probably looks great when the sun is shining and there are people out and about but in rainy gloomy weather looks more like an Aardvark's ass. Ya ya I know that doesn't make sense.

Here's a shot from our room and, trust me, it looks a lot better than it is.