Wendy's Platter…travels

October 20, 2025

Choosing where to spend our month stay while in France was not an easy task. In looking, I kept away from Normandy, the Loire Valley, and Alsace as we knew we would spend time there. But the big commitment of choosing the right town for a month was scary.

To narrow down the choices, we put in some parameters. Our vision was a smaller town that had a gathering place like a town square or park, where there were small cafés where we could have a morning coffee and a croissant or a late afternoon aperitif, where walking through the town would be easy, preferably a town with medieval features, and a town with enough small restaurants to keep us well-fed for the month.

And then, of course, there was the cost. Trying desperately to manage our budget, I put in a search on Airbnb with the timeframe of our stay using the whole of France south of the Loire Valley as our potential destination. Going through dozens of possibilities, Thiers (pronounced T. A., or tee-ay) stood out, partly because the price was nearly half the cost of a week in Paris for a full month in Thiers!

The description said: “Apartment located in one of the most beautiful buildings in the Thiers in the Medieval Quarter. 50 m from the viewpoint and beautiful sunsets on the Chaîne des Volcans. Access via a flat and wide street in the city center with 5 free parking lots…”

So now that we are here, we can unpack the description. Let’s start with the first sentence.

“Apartment located in one of the most beautiful buildings in the Thiers in the Medieval Quarter.”

This is hard to argue. It is a gem and was one of the featured buildings in the Thiers Expo 2025 tour of Vieux-Thiers (Old Thiers) buildings. Although it is now an apartment building, it had been a hotel built upon the site of a 13^th century wall.

“50 m from the viewpoint…”

I am standing at the west corner of our street, not 50 m away from our front door.

The name of the street is Rue Terrasse as there is, indeed, a terrace along the street from which is built on top of the cliff which, in medieval times was a natural protection for the villagers from invaders. From the terrace on Rue Terrasse, is a breathtaking, almost 270° panoramic view, of the Durolle Valley. As Thiers is on a rock promontory at the east end of the valley you see most of the valley below you.

Views from the terrace on our street. The sunset one was taken just as the day ended.

“…and beautiful sunsets…”

As you look west from the terrace, it is the perfect place to view a sunset. As it rained last night, the air is clear and the clouds ready to perform colorfully.

“…on the Chaîne des Volcans.”

In the middle of the sidewalk along the terrace is a viewpoint with a tiled half-circle, hand-painted tile map of the valley pointing out the main buildings, mountains, villages, and puys. What is a “puy”? A small volcanic dome of an extinct volcano. We were unaware that France had volcanoes, much less that we would choose to stay in the middle of the volcanic area, but here we are. Given that the last eruption was in 4040 B.C.E., I’m not too worried.

“Access via a flat and wide street in the city center…”

In Medieval Thiers where we are staying, this street is probably the only “flat and wide” street in town. It isn’t what I would consider “wide” but it is “flat” for our block, and our block alone. Everything else is up or down in this town.

“with 5 free parking lots…”

This is where the modern Thiernois got smart. During medieval times, parking was not an issue but when you have twisting streets barely wide enough for a donkey plus cart, and have 21^st century cars and buses navigating your town, having free and abundant parking spaces makes the town far more accessible for all, tourists and residents alike. The covered parking lot we use is within 100 m of our building, is always open, and protected by the Gendarmerie (police station) that is housed just above the parking lot.

The listing was spot on. No complaints, but I didn’t quite catch on to what the owner was actually telling me. We are staying in OLD Thiers, the medieval part, where there isn’t a straight street (other than our one block), where every building is different, and often built in different centuries. The city of Thiers is actively working on revitalizing the old town by shoring up and renovating old buildings. It will be an uphill battle (pun intended in this vertical town) but it is so unique and charming. I hope their efforts work!

The panorama photo on top makes our apartment look huge. It is actually perfect for us.

Our apartment is on the second floor. In American speak, that means it is on the third floor and there is not an elevator. From the ground floor you enter a large VERY heavy door that leads to cobble-stoned foyer open to the outside air. At the back, is the spiral staircase up to the apartments. The forty-eight stone steps up to the “second floor” are well-worn from hundreds of years of feet trodding home at the end of the day.

Outside the door to our apartment is a tangle of wires bringing electricity to our apartment. The city requires building owners to make only superficial changes to the old, registered buildings, and thus all added electricity, water, and plumbing is for all to see and can’t be hidden within the old walls.

The apartment is just what we needed: not large, not small. There is a separate bedroom from the living room, which will come in handy when nephew Skylar joins us for a few days in Thiers before we all three drive to Portugal for the next episode of the trip. The kitchen has a nice fridge and freeze, plus a stove, small oven, microwave, and dishwasher. We have already cooked a few meals and it may not beat our home kitchen, but it works!

Now that you have the setting, let’s get on with the day.

What really surprises me is that I must truly love Nick as I did share this particular treat with him. He was appreciative.

We celebrated our first night in Thiers by opening my precious millefeuilles pastry that we had purchased in Besançon. It was like Christmas for me. And it was as good as it promised to be, all one thousand leaves!

At the top is the farmers market. I watched the fishmonger filet my fish. Simple season of salt and pepper (all that we had at the Airbnb) and pan-fried the fish in butter. Added some broccoli and voilá, dinner!

Thursday and Saturday mornings are farmers market days, so I went in search of items to fill our larder. Although small, there was produce, a butcher, a fresh fish vendor, a baker with fresh breads and croissants, two or more cheese vendors, and some clothing. It wasn’t as overwhelming as Paris, but it worked for me and I ordered some merlan, a mild whitefish, and watched as the fishmonger deftly fileted the small fish.

The restaurant 7 Ici served us a platter of Auvergne specialties clockwise around the wooden platter: goat cheese, salad, jambon d’auvergne (think prosciutto), and cantal cheese. Nick is holding the key to Auvergne cheeses. We have quite a few to still taste!

The next morning, Nick and I explored, taking in one of the two small restaurants that had been recommended by the owner of our apartment. The restaurant is named “7 Ici” which is a double word play. If you say “7 Ici” in French is sounds like “C’est ici” which means “It is here.” The double word play comes in because the restaurant is located at 7 Rue Conchette. Clever…and great food. It has a deli attached that specializes in Auvergne cheeses and charcuterie. The Auvergne blue cheese is creamy and tasty. The Auvergne ham, much like prosciutto is served thinly sliced and is also yummy.

Our church that is nearly a thousand years old. The organ is impressive. Note to the left of the organ is a tiny enclosed stairway for the organist to sneak up to play.

We found the Église de Saint-Genès which was built initially in the 4th century and then reconstructed in the 10th century and houses a magnificent organ built in the early 1800s. It is small compared to the cathedrals we have seen, but has a charming simplicity in its stone walls.

La Belle Excuse (the good excuse) will no doubt be one of our haunts for the next month. Nick and I, as usual shared a meal. In front of Nick is an autumn soup that was light but well-flavored. The salade auvergnate is an homage to the typical Auvergne foods: ham, blue cheese, cantal cheese croutons, tomatoes and salad greens. And of course, beer for Nick and a local white wine for me.

After wrapping ourselves around the many streets, we managed to get back to our street and around the corner was the other restaurant recommended by our host, La Belle Excuse, the good excuse (we assume to go out to eat!). The woman, who we assume is the owner (we conjecture the chef is her husband, and the teenager helping her is her daughter…we could be wrong, so stay tuned) welcomed us like old friends. Both Nick and I attempted speaking French. She was very gracious as we butchered her language.

We will be back there many times in the month to come.

Welcome to Thiers!

*As an ex-English teacher, this is one of my favorite T-shirts to wear in class.

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©2025 Wendy Platt Hill