Christmas markets in Auvergne 2026: the ones worth the drive, and when to go

Three Christmas markets in Auvergne are genuinely worth an hour's drive: Clermont-Ferrand (73 chalets on place de Jaude, 27 November to 27 December 2026), Le Puy-en-Velay (a whole village with an ice rink and a big wheel on place du Breuil, all December) and Charroux, in the Allier, the only village market in the region that people travel a long way to see. All the rest, Vichy, Moulins, Montluçon, Riom, Issoire, Thiers, Aurillac, Saint-Flour, Murat, are good town markets: you go if you're in the area, it's not worth crossing the region for. We go through each one, with the 2026 dates when they're published and the 2025 ones when they're not.

01The answer in 30 seconds

Organisers often publish in October or November: updates land in our agenda and on our winter season page.

02The three worth the drive

The base is the same everywhere: mulled wine, truffade (a potato and cheese dish), AOP (protected designation of origin) cheeses, honey, Thiers knives, soaps. The difference comes down to length, setting and the number of real stallholders. Three markets stand out.

Clermont-Ferrand, place de Jaude: 27 November to 27 December 2026

The only market in the region to run for a whole month, and the only one whose 2026 dates are already known: from Friday 27 November to Sunday 27 December, place de Jaude, 73 chalets and 30 opening days. Entry and entertainment are free.

2026 hours: Monday 14:00-20:00, Tuesday to Thursday and Sunday 10:30-20:00, Friday and Saturday 10:30-22:00. Three exceptions: on Friday 27 November, it opens from 17:00 to 22:00; on Thursday 24 December, it closes at 17:00; on Friday 25 December, it is closed all day.

The real bonus is the city around it: the streets of the centre light up for the festive season, and the panoramic big wheel turns on place de Jaude (in 2025, 50 m high, from 8 November to 4 January). To skate, head up to the summit of the puy de Dôme: 200 m² of real ice at 1,465 m, from 19 December 2026 to 3 January 2027. The Panoramique des Dômes train runs up every 30 minutes over that period, except on 25 December, when it's closed.

Our tip: come on a Tuesday or Wednesday around 17:00, and you'll have three hours before the 20:00 closing. On Friday and Saturday, the square overflows. And walk on to the Notre-Dame-du-Port basilica, ten minutes on foot, even more beautiful at night.

Le Puy-en-Velay, place du Breuil: the finest setting

Le Puy doesn't do a market, it does a village. In 2025, the Christmas village ran on place du Breuil from 29 November to 4 January: about forty chalets of makers and food vendors, an ice rink, a big wheel. Makers' chalets from 12:00 to 19:00, food vendors from 12:00 to 21:00, every day.

The other reason to come is the Christmas tale of “Puy de Lumières”, projected every evening onto the town hall façade on place du Plot, from 17:30 to 20:30 in 2025. The market, the projection, then the climb up to the Notre-Dame-du-Puy cathedral through the lit-up lanes. Few towns offer that.

The 2025 edition started on the last Saturday of November, and in 2026 that Saturday falls on the 28th: aim for that weekend, with a hotel you can cancel.

Charroux (Allier): the village market people travel a long way to see

A useful clarification: there are two Charroux. The one in the Vienne (86), with its abbey, and the one in the Allier (03), listed among the Plus Beaux Villages de France (the Most Beautiful Villages of France), about twenty kilometres from Vichy. That's the one we mean.

What makes this market unique: the whole village joins in. About fifty stallholders selected by the town hall, under chalets and marquees in the lanes and under the market hall, craftspeople's shops open, windows in the old village centre dressed like an Advent calendar. Oysters, foie gras, gingerbread, pottery, leather. Hot chestnuts on the church square, Father Christmas under the market hall.

The 2026 edition is fixed: Saturday 12 and Sunday 13 December, free entry. One single weekend, and that's it for the year.

Our tip: arrive before 11:00, the village is tiny and you park in the fields. Stay until nightfall, that's when Charroux comes into its own. For a bed in the village itself, the Maison du Prince de Condé books up months ahead. Our page on the village of Charroux covers the rest of the year.

03Town markets: good if you're in the area

Only Saint-Flour and Murat have published their 2026 dates. For the others, the 2025 edition serves as a guide.

Vichy: one weekend of market, a month and a half of festivities

In 2025, the Christmas season ran from 27 November to 19 January, with an ice rink and fairground rides on place Charles-de-Gaulle until 4 January. The market itself lasted only one weekend, from Friday 12 to Sunday 14 December, on the same square.

What's worth the detour is the town under the garlands: the Parc des Sources and its covered gallery, the Belle Époque façades. Two neighbours complete the picture: Cusset (5-7 December 2025) and the Village Ô Sources in Bellerive-sur-Allier (19-21 December 2025). For the night, our guide where to stay in Vichy sorts through the options.

Moulins: thirteen days on cours Jean-Jaurès

In 2025: 12 to 24 December, cours Jean-Jaurès, free access, craft and food chalets, as part of “Moulins fête Noël”, which runs until early January. 2026 dates not announced.

Montluçon: the Christmas village that thinks of children

In 2025: chalets from 5 to 24 December, food chalets until 4 January, a synthetic ice rink of over 250 m² and a carousel from 5 December to 4 January (rink €4.50 for adults, €3.50 for under-12s, per hour, skates included). Closed on 25 December and 1 January. All of it on place Jean-Jaurès, at the foot of the town hall, plus the funfair on avenue Marx Dormoy. 2026 dates not announced.

Riom: the Féeries and a charity market

Riom plays as a team: “RLV en Fête”, the festivities of Riom Limagne et Volcans, ran from 29 November to 24 December 2025, with the launch of the illuminations, “les Féeries”, on 29 November at 17:00 on place de la Fédération. Riom's own market is a charity market run by associations, in the Salle Dumoulin, on Sunday 30 November 2025, 10:00-18:00. 2026 dates not announced.

Issoire: twelve days under the grain hall

Issoire's craft and food market is covered, which matters when it freezes. In 2025: 13 to 24 December under the grain hall (halle aux grains), closed on Monday 15, with a late opening on Friday 19 and a 16:00 closing on the 24th. Free entry. 2026 dates not announced.

Thiers: just one day, but a packed one

Thiers packs everything into a single day: Saturday 20 December 2025, from 14:00 to 21:00, on place Antonin-Chastel and in the town centre, stalls from shopkeepers and associations, a brass band, roving performers, storytelling, an educational mini-farm, Father Christmas, and a fire show at 20:00 to close. 2026 dates not announced. Set aside the morning for the Musée de la Coutellerie: a Thiers knife remains the Auvergne gift that pleases most.

Aurillac: twelve days around the square Vermenouze

In 2025, from Saturday 13 to Wednesday 24 December around the square Vermenouze: lots of stallholders and free entertainment, creative workshops, tastings and shows. 2026 dates not announced.

Saint-Flour: 11 to 13 December 2026

The market runs from Friday 11 to Sunday 13 December 2026, from 10:00 to 20:00, at the espace Saint-Vincent les Jacobins. Free entry, more than 80 stallholders: local producers, craft artisans, authors, artists and local associations. It's the Cantal market we like best: the upper town at 900 m, the Saint-Pierre cathedral in dark basalt, and producers who really do come from the farms around.

Murat: Sunday 20 December 2026, under the market hall

Murat has already fixed its market: Sunday 20 December 2026, 9:00-18:00, under the market hall and in the town centre, free entry, Murat's shops open and entertainment on the spot. It's the last weekend before Christmas, and locals come to finish their shopping. A day out at around 915 m, at the foot of the Cantal mountains: combine it with Saint-Flour.

04Village and producers' markets

This is where 2026 dates are most often missing: associations that publish late. 2025 edition as a guide:

• Saint-Saturnin, the Création market: 24th edition on Sunday 30 November 2025, 10:00-18:00, 72 stallholders. The inhabitants of the medieval village open their cellars and barns to craftspeople. The best makers' market in the Puy-de-Dôme.
• La Chaise-Dieu, in the abbey cloister: 6 and 7 December 2025, from 10:00 to 18:00. The setting beats all the others.
• Orcival, the parish Advent market at the foot of the Romanesque basilica, in aid of charities. Small, short, very beautiful, with no 2026 date announced.
• The villages of the Sancy follow one another in December: Rochefort-Montagne, Olby, Saint-Sauves, Heume-l'Église, Perpezat, La Tour-d'Auvergne, Tauves (2025 dates between 5 and 23 December). Truffade and lit-up tractors, and that's what makes them charming.
• In the Cantal: Pierrefort and Ruynes-en-Margeride on Sunday 29 November 2026, from 10:00 to 18:00, one at the events hall, the other at the salle communale de la Ferme. Montsalvy on Saturday 12 December 2026, at the multi-purpose hall, free access.

And Salers? No Christmas market is planned.

05Practical info: where to sleep, how to get there, how to cope with the cold

Where to sleep on Advent weekends

The four Sundays of Advent 2026 fall on 29 November, and 6, 13 and 20 December. Hotels in Clermont and Le Puy fill up above all on Saturday nights in December.

In Clermont, aim for the centre: the Mercure Centre Jaude overlooks the market square, and our guide where to stay in Clermont-Ferrand sorts through the other options. In Le Puy, sleep near place du Breuil: the Hôtel Le Régina is a stone's throw from the Christmas village, and the details are in where to stay in Le Puy-en-Velay. Charroux has only a handful of beds: book early, or sleep in Vichy, half an hour away by car.

How to get there

Clermont-Ferrand is the only market you can reach without a car from across the region: a quarter of an hour on foot from the station to Jaude, or a few minutes by tram. Le Puy has a station, ten minutes on foot from place du Breuil. The other towns do too, but Sunday timetables are thin. Charroux means driving, full stop.

The cold and the altitude

A Christmas market in Auvergne is a mountain market, even in town. Clermont is at 400 m, but the wind coming down from the Puys bites. Le Puy is at 630 m, Saint-Flour and Murat around 900 m. Expect temperatures close to zero at the end of the day, and possible snow on the roads of the Cantal and the Sancy from mid-December. Winter tyres or chains in the boot: the obligation runs from 1 November to 31 March, across the whole Cantal and in 161 of the Puy-de-Dôme's 464 communes. Hat, gloves, closed-toe shoes: mulled wine only warms you for ten minutes.

A weekend idea

The best sequence falls on 12 and 13 December 2026: Saturday, Charroux before 11:00, the market until nightfall, night in Vichy. Sunday, Vichy under the garlands, then Clermont-Ferrand late in the afternoon, big wheel and Jaude chalets at nightfall.

Cantal version: Saint-Flour on the weekend of 11 December, staying the night there, then Murat on Sunday the 20th to finish the gifts. If the weather turns to rain, we've already covered what to do in Auvergne when it rains. And we update this guide as soon as an organiser publishes its 2026 dates.