Volcan de Lemptégy — Attraction in Riom

Interesting site but the organization is unfortunate. We opted for the train. The first hour you don't go on the train. First you either see the film about the origins of the volcanoes which is spectacular but not especially well explained or you wait around while the other half of the group sees the movie first and then you see the movie. Then there is the attraction about the mines, which has absolutely no link to the volcano. It's just for fun. The site didn't have mines like this. Since we had small children with us we didn't do this part and so we just waited some more. After an hour we finally got in the train and the site is quite beautiful and we learned a few things despite the guide's style which was reminiscent of a "fête foraine"...I would have preferred that they begin with the train and then have the attraction at the end so that those who didn't want to do it...

Puy de Lemptegy is an excavated cinder cone-turned-family-park. If you are interested in the geology and formation of vulcanic features, I'd recommend a visit. If you like to explore an volcano on your own, you're going to be disappointed. That's right, compulsory guided tours! You start with a 20 minute video about the chaine des Puys which is horribly dated and of poor production value. Aftwerwards, a french-speaking guide will show your group (abt 20 persons) around the site; for non-french-speaking visitors as me, you get a free audioguide but you are not allowed to stray away from the group. The visit to the crater site lasts 2 hours and is pretty informative. But the compulsory character really starts to annoy after a while. That's why I rate it okay, but...

Very unfriendly staff... The poor guy near me had been waiting for 10' before being told that he was at the wrong counter and needed to go back to the beginning of the line. I offered him to go before me. As a result, it was 11.02 when I purchased my ticket, for a guided tour starting at 11am. Guess what: I was told I had to wait for the next tour at 12.45! No explanation, no mark of empathy - just the kind of staff who probably hate their jobs, certainly do not feel they have to be nice to customers and just enjoy being rude. As a result, I preferred...