Vieux Riom (Old Town)

Riom is a small town in the Puy-de-Dôme department of Auvergne, a few kilometres north of Clermont-Ferrand, and it has one of the most unified old centres in the region. Almost everything in the old town is built from the dark volcanic stone of Volvic, quarried nearby, which gives the streets a grey-black tone, and the houses, with their carved windows, turrets and doorways, stand out against it. The town is classed as a Pays d'art et d'histoire, and its nickname, the city of art, describes the elegance of its mansions.

Riom was a place of power. From the Middle Ages it was the capital of the Auvergne, the seat of the dukes of Berry and later of Bourbon, and the centre of the courts of law for the province. The legal profession, with its judges and lawyers, brought wealth and built the fine townhouses of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries that line the old streets. It was also the setting for the Riom Trial, which the Vichy regime staged in 1942 to blame the leaders of the Third Republic for the defeat of 1940, and which was suspended before it was finished. The centre of the old town is a ring of boulevards on the line of the former ramparts, and inside it the streets follow a medieval plan.

The landmarks are close together. The Tour de l'Horloge, an old belfry with a clock, rises above the centre, and visitors can climb its 128 steps, a rewarding effort for the panoramic view over the roofs of the old town, the plain of the Limagne and the line of volcanoes of the Chaîne des Puys on the horizon. The Sainte-Chapelle, built at the end of the fourteenth century for Jean, Duke of Berry, one of the great patrons of the Middle Ages, is the only remaining part of the ducal palace, a refined example of flamboyant Gothic architecture, modelled on the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris, and its stained glass was restored in recent years. The Église Saint-Amable, a Romanesque church, and Notre-Dame du Marthuret, with its Black Madonna, add religious interest, and the courtyard of the town hall and the old fountains are other highlights.

The streets are public and free to explore, and a stroll takes an hour or two, with a market on certain days. It suits history lovers and those who enjoy architecture, and it is a good stop on the way between Clermont-Ferrand and Vichy. The Musée des Beaux-Arts et de la Dentelle and the Musée du Jouet are also in the town.