Auvergne

Auvergne is a mountainous region in south central France which contains extinct volcanic cones known as the Puys. It derived its name from the Latin Arverni, a Celtic tribe living in the region in Roman times. The region was an ancient province of the Roman Enpire and of France, united to the crown under Louis XIII in 1610, embracing the deps. of Puy-de-Dôme, Cantal, and part of Haute-Loire, the highlands of which separate the basin of the Loire from that of the Garonne, and contain a hardy and industrious race of people descended from the original inhabitants of Gaul. They spoke a strange dialect, and supplied all the water-carriers and street-sweepers of Paris.