Woke this morning to a clear cold day (about 1C). Went into The city area to find somewhere for a spot of breakfast. No such luck. City was dead as a dodo. Everything was closed. The only people who were about were morning joggers. It looked like we would have to go back to the hotel for breakfast. On the way back we happened upon a bakery that was open. Bought a couple of croissants and sweet pastries and coffee and sat outside the shop to partake. Beautiful pastries, not so beatiful coffee (the French still can't make decent coffee).
 We took a slightly different route back to the hotel to explore a different area of the city . What a bonus. Came upon a flea market. This is where everybody was. There were two different areas of markets. One part was set aside for fresh food, including hot food, another part was set aside for everything else - everything was on sale from household junk to clothes and shoes. Most of the junk stalls seemed to be manned by Eastern Europeans. After the markets we headed back to the hotel to pick up the car to head up to Puy de Dome for the day. 
 As we climbed up out of the town it became apparent that it had been snowing more than we realised. The fields were covered in quite a thick covering of white powder. Our snow tyres and traction control were soon getting a workout. We soon arrived at the base of the Puy. It is here where you can catch an electric train up to the summit. You can also take any number of walking trails up to the top.
 The train ride up is quite spectacular. Even though there was extensive cloud cover, the views out across the snow covered valley was breathtaking. Arrived at he top after about 30mins. Freezing cold. Everything was covered in thick snow and ice. Footing was rather treacherous unless you had appropriate footwear (which we didn't). So we had a rather cursory look around and headed to the restaurant for some hot food and coffee. Which was a shame because there are a number of sites to see up there -Roman temple of Mercury, an archeological site, both of which would have been very interesting. But on a day like today, impractical to visit. Still what we did see of the place was interesting and beautiful.
 Tomorrow we are leaving Clermont to head SW to Bordeaux for a couple of days. We haven't been there before so we are looking forward to seeing the place.