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The Auvergne – Centre of Volcanic Tourism in France 249

seventh in terms of overall tourism expenditure lies mainly in the Massif Central (Figure 17.1); in
offshore. For the French volcano tourism Armorica and Brittany, in the Pyrenees-Languedoc
attractions there is therefore a large potential bordering Spain and the Mediterranean, Corsica,
market, and this chapter seeks to determine and in isolated areas of the east and north of the
whether this potential has been turned into country there are areas of granites and other
reality. metamorphic rocks that had their origins in
volcanism but this was in extremely ancient times
Geological background (Precambrian/Cambrian to Permian (295 million
Table 17.2 outlines the general regional pattern of years ago); Bril, 1998). The rocks of the Massif
the geology of France and places the main centres Central and parts of Languedoc and the Jura are
of volcanism within this. The evidence of volcanism comparatively recent, being of Tertiary origin

Figure 17.1 The Massif Central
Source: Wikipedia, 2009 (Permission is granted under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation Licence, Version 1.2)

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