Places of interest

Ambert is famous for its fourme-d'Ambert cheese

Cheese

Cheese is a generic term for a diverse group of milk-based food products. Cheese is produced throughout the world in wide-ranging flavors, textures, and forms....

, its paper mills (the first edition of Diderot

Denis Diderot

Denis Diderot was a French philosopher, art critic, and writer. He was a prominent person during the Enlightenment and is best known for serving as co-founder and chief editor of and contributor to the Encyclopédie....

's Encyclopédie

Encyclopédie

Encyclopédie, ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers was a general encyclopedia published in France between 1751 and 1772, with later supplements, revised editions, and translations. It was edited by Denis Diderot and Jean le Rond d'Alembert...

was printed on paper made in Ambert) and its circular town hall (popularized by Jules Romain

Jules Romain

Jules Romain may refer to:* Giulio Romano, alias "Jules Romain", Italian painter, of the 16th century* Jules Romain , author and graduate of the École Normale Supérieure...

 in his novel Les copains).

The Agrivap Chemin de Fer Touristique operates out of Ambert. There is a steam engine that makes a local run, but to see the line in full a ride on the Panoramique Autorail

Autorail

The French word Autorail describes a single powered vehicle capable of carrying passengers. French designed vehicles are some of the most interesting made...

 is not be missed.

There is an industrial museum with an interesting collection of tractors and small steam engines.

In the town the Museum of Cheese is worth a visit, as is the old paper mill a few kilometres outside the main town.

Notable people

Ambert was the birthpace of Michel Rolle

Michel Rolle

Michel Rolle was a French mathematician. He is best known for Rolle's theorem , and he deserves to be known as the co-inventor in Europe of Gaussian elimination .-Life:...

 (1652–1719), mathematician

Mathematician

A mathematician is a person whose primary area of study is the field of mathematics. Mathematicians are concerned with quantity, structure, space, and change....

, Emmanuel Chabrier

Emmanuel Chabrier

Emmanuel Chabrier was a French Romantic composer and pianist. Although known primarily for two of his orchestral works, España and Joyeuse marche, he left an important corpus of operas , songs, and piano music as well...

 (1841–1894), composer and Henri Pourrat

Henri Pourrat

Henry Pourrat was a French writer and anthropologist who collected the oral literature of the Auvergne.-Biography :...

 (1887-1959), writer who is known to wrote novel Gaspard des Motagnes.

Twin towns

Annweiler, Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

, since 1988 Saitama

Saitama, Saitama

' is the capital and the most populous city of Saitama Prefecture in Japan, situated in the south-east of the prefecture. Its area incorporates the former cities of Urawa, Ōmiya, Yono and Iwatsuki. It is a city designated by government ordinance...

, Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

, since 1989 Gorgonzola

Gorgonzola

Gorgonzola is a comune in the province of Milan, part of Lombardy, northern Italy. Once a rural community, and famous for the cheese which bears its name, today it forms part of the Milanese conurbation and has three stops on the Milan Metro.- History :...

, Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

, since 2002. Both cities, known for their blue cow's-milk cheeses (cheese

Gorgonzola (cheese)

Gorgonzola is a veined Italian blue cheese, made from unskimmed cow's and/or goat's milk. It can be buttery or firm, crumbly and quite salty, with a "bite" from its blue veining.- History :...

 and Fourme d'Ambert

Fourme d'Ambert

Fourme d'Ambert is one of France's oldest cheeses, and dates from as far back as Roman times. It is a usually pasteurized cow's milk blue cheese from the Auvergne region of France, with a distinct, narrow cylindrical shape....

), have almost the same latitude: 45° 32' N for Gorgonzola, 45° 33' N for Ambert.