Menat, Puy-de-Dôme

Menat is a commune in the Puy-de-Dôme department in Auvergne in central France. It is in the heart of the valley of Sioule.

Menat
Commune
Village de Menat
Coat of arms
Location of Menat
Menat Menat
Coordinates: 46°06′16″N 2°54′19″E
Country	France
Region	Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes
Department	Puy-de-Dôme
Arrondissement	Riom
Canton	Saint-Éloy-les-Mines
Intercommunality	CC Pays de Saint-Éloy
Government
• Mayor (2020–2026)	Jean-Yves Arnaud[1]
Area ^1	20.31 km^2 (7.84 sq mi)
Population  (2017-01-01)[2]	547
• Density	27/km^2 (70/sq mi)
Demonym(s)	Menatois
Time zone	UTC+01:00 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+02:00 (CEST)
INSEE/Postal code	63223 /63560
Elevation	346–674 m (1,135–2,211 ft)
Website	www.commune-de-menat.com
^1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km^2 (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries.

Its neighboring municipalities are Saint-Éloy-les-Mines, Youx, Moureuille, Servant, Pouzol, Neuf-Église, Ayat-sur-Sioule, and Saint-Rémy-de-Blot.

Locations

The Menat Abbey (fr) is an abbey in the village of Menat. It is one of the oldest monastic foundations in Auvergne.

The Pont de Menat (fr) is a medieval bridge connecting Menat to adjacent Saint-Rémy-de-Blot.

Gastronomy

The pâté aux pommes de terre and, the "pain des Combrailles" are specialties of the region.[3]

Fossils

Menat is a unique paleontological site in Europe which testifies to 56 million years of plant and animal life, well before the appearance of man. Many fossils have been discovered extracted from the shales. A dedicated museum was inaugurated in 1980 and housed in the former abbey castle (now town hall).

Paleocene bird fossils have been discovered in Menat, including Halcyornithidae, Messelasturidae, and relatives of Songziidae.[4]

See also

• Communes of the Puy-de-Dôme department

References

1. "Répertoire national des élus: les maires". data.gouv.fr, Plateforme ouverte des données publiques françaises (in French). 2 December 2020. Retrieved 7 December 2020.
2. "Populations légales 2017". INSEE. Retrieved 6 January 2020.
3. "The Auvergne". Archived from the original on 2009-01-02. Retrieved 2009-01-13.
4. Mayr, Gerald; Hervet, Sophie; Buffetaut, Eric (2019). "On the diverse and widely ignored Paleocene avifauna of Menat (Puy-de-Dôme, France): new taxonomic records and unusual soft tissue preservation". Geological Magazine. 156 (3): 572–584. doi:10.1017/S0016756818000080. ISSN 0016-7568.