
Gentian: Herbal Drink of the Auvergne Highlands
Made from the root of the gentian plant (Gentiana lutea) — a tall herb that grows in the Auvergne highlands — gentian has been an integral part of Auvergnat drinking culture for over a century.

Made from the root of the gentian plant (Gentiana lutea) — a tall herb that grows in the Auvergne highlands — gentian has been an integral part of Auvergnat drinking culture for over a century.

What was visiting the puy de Dôme like in the 19th century? Here’s an account from writer and feminist Matilda Betham-Edwards.

For us, therefore, wandering in a “fairyland of travel,” there was something of the joy of the discoverer when the forgotten cathedral town, to which

Today the object of our excursion was the hill of Gergovie, interesting from its geological phenomena, as well as from being the scene of Caesar’s

The first Harry Potter film wowed viewers with its portrayal of the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, the fictional British boarding school where Harry, Ron, and Hermione came of age while foiling a multitude of evil plots. With its soaring turrets, deep dungeons, and geographic situation in the midst of here-be-dragons landscapes (e.g. the Forbidden Forest and the mermaid-haunted Great Lake), Warner Brothers’ Hogwarts is a fine example of escapism done right.

“The Soldier From Auvergne” is a stirring piece of wartime poetry by British writer and serviceman Henry Baerlein.

It was out of the ‘bottomless’ Lac Pavin that the sorcerers conjured wind and storm by casting a stone into its enchanted waters… -Margaret Roberts

The crag, the precipice, the perilous pass, the castle-crowned hill, the arched bridge, the untutored mountaineer, the ravaging baron, the robber chief, the ugly legendary tale of death, the pretty tale of love and fairyland luck — all these come into the story of Auvergne.

In August 1869, the English poet Algernon Charles Swinburne — one of the leading figures of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood — visited Auvergne with his friend,

“In Auvergne, too, you will find again the homely farms, with great hearths and cupboard-beds…the strange superstitions and beliefs; the markets, the picturesque processions and dances,
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