Le Puy-en-Velay

Three volcanic plugs rise from the town like fingers pointing at different heavens — one holds a Romanesque chapel, one holds a cathedral cloister, one holds a 16-metre red Madonna cast from Russian cannons captured at Sevastopol. Le Puy-en-Velay in France is a town built on eruptions, both geological and spiritual — pilgrims have been gathering at the cathedral since the 10th century, and the Camino de Santiago still begins here every morning at dawn.

Le Puy-en-Velay sits in the Haute-Loire department of the Massif Central, built around volcanic formations that rise abruptly from the basin floor. The Chapel of Saint-Michel d'Aiguilhe, perched atop a basalt needle 85 metres high, is reached by 268 steps carved into the rock and dates from 969 AD. The Cathedral of Notre-Dame du Puy, a UNESCO-listed structure, has served as a starting point for the Via Podiensis — one of the four main pilgrimage routes to Santiago de Compostela — since at least the 10th century. The red Notre-Dame de France statue, standing 16 metres tall on the Rocher Corneille, was cast in 1860 from 213 cannons captured at the Siege of Sevastopol. Le Puy holds the AOC for lentilles vertes du Puy — small, dark green lentils with a distinctive peppery flavour, the first vegetable in France to receive an appellation designation.