Accommodation - St.Jacques-des-Blats

It would be wrong to suggest anywhere, or any town/village, in the Cantal is the best place to stay. We all have particular and different preferences. Peace and quiet? Facilities? Shopping? Bars/discos? Most comfortable hotel? Best restaurant? Therefore we are not claiming that St.Jacques des Blats is the "best" place to stay. What we do claim is that, from our own experience, it has many advantages and is very conveniently situated for walking in the Cantal and for access to anywhere else in the region.

If even more peace and quiet is important Mandailles or Le Falgoux might be preferred. A desire for more facilities would suggest Thiézac or, more likely, Murat.

It has been suggested that St.Jacques des Blats may warrant a place in the Guinness Book of Records. It cannot be all that common that a village of about 350 inhabitants boasts five hotels. In addition it has a camp site, a very good Chambre d'hôte, and a number of gîtes and holiday apartments. The extensive accommodation exists for probably two reasons. Historically St.Jacques was a major stopping place on the route south both for road and rail traffic. More recently the accommodation exists to support the winter sports activities of Super Lioran. The village has a good baker and butcher, an excellent small grocers/gift shop, a post office and village bar, as well as bars and restaurants in the hotels.

St.Jacques has five 2-star hotels plus a very high standard, English-owned,Chambre and table d'hôte,"Les Sources" . The five 2-star hotels are all of a good standard with good restaurant facilities,for example "Hôtel des Chazes" The location of the 2-star hotels in St.Jacques plus the footpaths and tracks leading from the village are shown on a separate sketch map. The map hopefully shows the excellent road access to the rest of the Cantal as well as the footpath access to main attractions from the village. (Details of the hotels are given in the Cantal Hotels listing).