For an insider's view of the farming life of the Massif there's no better place to go than the age-old cattle sales at Allanche, little more than a straggling main street of ancient houses surrounded by windswept upland pastures, about 25km northeast of Murat.The September 7 sale, when the season's calves are sold off before winter, is typical. Activity starts at 1am or 2am with the clanging of cowbells, the cries of drivers and the thrumming of truck engines. By 4am two or three thousand cattle are tethered to the iron stanchions in the floodlit grassy marketplace, inspected and appraised by men in wellies and overalls and pancake-shaped berets. There is a great deal of bucking and bellowing and sudden uncontrollable charging as beasts, some quite sizeable specimens, are unloaded or loaded. For information on other sales call the tourist office in Allanche (tel & fax 04.71.20.48.43). If you are tempted to stay to see the spectacle, there's a campsite at the south edge of the village (tel 04.71.20.45.87; closed mid-Sept to mid-June), while in the centre of town, by the old bridge you'll find the Relais de Remparts (tel 04.71.20.98.00, fax 04.71.20.98.01; €30–40; restaurant from €10).
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