Aurillac Christmas Market

Nestled in a basin of the Cantal, between the Puy Mary and the Plomb du Cantal, Aurillac lights up its Christmas market on Square Vermenouze and all the way to Place de l’Hôtel de Ville. The wooden chalets line the pedestrian streets of the old centre, where the dark slate roofs catch the fairy lights. Here, Aurillac Christmas market has the honest taste of the mountains: aged PDO Cantal, Salers cheese, steaming truffade, gentian liqueur served by the glass and mulled wine to warm frozen hands. At an average altitude of 680 metres, the town breathes the crisp air of the Auvergne volcanoes, and you feel it the moment you step into the Christmas village.

A chalet village from Square Vermenouze to Place de l’Hôtel de Ville

The heart of the market beats in Square Vermenouze, a shady square that has become a meeting point in the historic centre. The chalets then run up the pedestrian streets, Rue des Carmes, Rue Émile Duclaux, Rue Victor Hugo and Place Claude Érignac, to Place de l’Hôtel de Ville, where the illuminated town hall stands. For the 2025 edition, the village ran from 13 to 24 December, open from daytime into the evening, with an opening fireworks display by Les Lez’Arts du Feu.

You move from a craft stall to a food stand in a few steps, without ever feeling lost: the centre of Aurillac is compact enough to cover entirely on foot. The fairground rides set up around the square keep families busy for much of the afternoon, while younger visitors watch out for Father Christmas and the pony rides. The setting has character. The basalt and red sandstone façades, the old mansions and the Jordanne river running through town remind you that you are walking through a medieval city, founded around the abbey that gave the world Gerbert, the monk who became the most renowned scholar of his time before ascending the throne of Saint Peter as Sylvester II, the pope of the year 1000. His bronze statue stands on a nearby square, and it is a good way into the history of the place.

What strikes you once there is how warm the exchanges are. The producers come from the neighbouring valleys, know the ageing of their cheese to the day and take the time to explain the difference between a medium-aged Cantal and an eighteen-month-old one. You leave with a well-chosen piece and two or three burons (mountain cheese huts) to visit the following summer. Children have enough to fill a whole late afternoon: the fairground rides, the pony rides, the workshops where they make a decoration to take home. When night reaches the slate roofs and the garlands are reflected in the shop windows, the square takes on the feel of a village fête, with the line of the Cantal mountains on the horizon.

Cantal flavours at Aurillac Christmas market

For food, you are entering the land of summer pastures and burons, and the stalls do not cut corners. PDO Cantal comes in every age from young to mature, Salers arrives in full strength, and the fresh tomme of the day waits its turn to become truffade or stretchy aligot. You will be served golden truffade, mixed with bacon lardons and garlic, a mountain dish that keeps you going when the thermometer drops. Winegrowers and distillers present Salers gentian, a bitter aperitif made from the root, while spiced mulled wine passes from hand to hand under the lights. If you want to keep the atmosphere going at home, a good mulled wine recipe with cinnamon and orange already does half the work.

Cantal cooking goes well beyond cheese. Slow-cooked stuffed cabbage, pounti (a sweet and savoury loaf with herbs and prunes), Salers rib of beef from the mahogany-coated Salers cattle: you find all of this at the producers who come down from the surrounding plateaus. Between two chalets, you nibble hot chestnuts, a crêpe or gingerbread, before leaving with a whole cheese under your arm. Honey producers from the Cantal mountains offer jars of heather and mountain-flower honey, jam makers bring blueberry and chestnut recipes, and a few chocolatiers in the centre dress their windows for the occasion. It is the kind of market where filling your basket for festive meals is easy, from cheese to dessert.

• PDO Cantal and Salers, two long-keeping cheeses to taste straight off the knife before taking a piece home for the holidays.
• Truffade and aligot, made to order with fresh tomme and served steaming under the garlands.
• Salers gentian, the emblematic bitter aperitif of the Cantal mountains, to try by the glass.
• Pounti and stuffed cabbage, local dishes that tell the story of the plateau’s farmhouse cooking.
• Spiced mulled wine and hot chestnuts, essential companions on evenings when the air bites.

Opening hours, access and entertainment: practical information

Entry to the market is free; you only pay for what you eat, drink or take home in your sack. The 2025 edition ran from 13 to 24 December, with a special opening on the morning of Wednesday 24 December for last-minute shopping. For winter 2026, the dates are still to be confirmed by the town and the Pays d’Aurillac tourist office, which usually publish the programme in the autumn. Highlights set the rhythm of the days: the “White Christmas” parade by the Les Ambianceurs company through the pedestrian streets, concerts on Place Saint-Géraud, craft workshops for children, and the treasure hunt to find the decorations lost by Fripon the elf in the town-centre shop windows.

By train, Aurillac station is about ten minutes’ walk from Square Vermenouze, with TER services to Clermont-Ferrand, Brive and Toulouse. The town is known as the hardest prefecture in France to reach by rail, so check timetables in advance if you are coming from far away. By car, parking around the centre is well organised: the free car park at the Château Saint-Étienne, five minutes’ walk from Place de l’Hôtel de Ville, helps out on busy weekends, as do the Le May and Place Gerbert car parks. The pedestrian heart is easy to get around, although the cobbles of the old centre call for a little care with a pushchair. Allow one to two hours to go round the chalets, longer if you add the rides, the Enchantement du Square (a display of lights, from 5pm to 9pm in 2025) and a truffade break.

What to see around Aurillac Christmas market

The town has plenty to offer beyond the chalets. The Château Saint-Étienne, perched on an ancient volcano above the old town, houses the Maison des volcans (House of Volcanoes) and offers a panorama over the slate roofs and surrounding mountains: a good stop to grasp the link between Aurillac and the Cantal massif. You can walk up from the centre, and the exhibition space explains the birth of the largest volcano in Europe, the very one whose remains you can see all around the town. The medieval centre has its narrow lanes, half-timbered houses and the banks of the Jordanne, pleasant even under a winter sky. Aurillac also has a distinctive identity: the umbrella, of which the town was long the manufacturing capital, a craft still kept alive by a few artisans and one that makes lovely gifts to slip under the tree. The town is also a big name in street theatre: every August, a major international festival takes over the squares of the centre and draws companies from all over the world, which keeps a lively arts scene going all year round. Two character traits that explain the slightly offbeat, generous atmosphere you feel at the end-of-year market.

If you stay longer, the Cantal spreads its volcanoes within easy driving distance: the Puy Mary and the Plomb du Cantal, summits of the largest stratovolcano in Europe, crown landscapes of burons and summer pastures that look like postcards under snow. To build a tour of markets in the region, Clermont-Ferrand Christmas market and Le Puy-en-Velay Christmas market offer other Auvergne atmospheres, while Rodez Christmas market, over the border in Aveyron, is less than two hours’ drive away through the gorges.