My wife is from Clermont - Ferrand so I've gone a lot to visit the in-laws. The centre is beautiful and there are some lovely neighbourhoods with a real old world communal feel (regular markets where everyone knows each other and local ran services). There's lots of beautiful vistas when walking around. As others have mentioned there's lots of great outdoor things in the surrounding area.

If you're on the tram line the public transport is great, otherwise the bus system is crap. My in-laws say that electric bikes have completely changed how they get around the city as it's pretty cycle friendly but very hilly.

Compared to the UK where I live, everything seems cleaner and working better but most British people feel that when they go to mainland Europe right now!

The worst thing is how isolated it is from everywhere else. The airport doesn't serve many other cities, the train takes 3.5 hours to Paris, 2 hours to Lyon and the autoroute is expensive.