Le Plomb du Cantal - Prat de Bouc, DON'T WALK ON THE PASTURE (like I did)

Arriving at the SNCF auto car station in late morning, from le Lioran to Super Lioran was a short walk of about 20 min, from there I took the Téléférique from Super Lioran to Puy de Cantal.
The trail from Puy de Cantal to Prat de Bouc is supposed to be an easy winding path, no more than 1h30 to complete. HOWEVER, I committed the fatal mistake of following a suspicious sign pointing at the pasture. The weather was terrible: windy, cold (in the middle of July, the warmest garments I could bring was a T-shirt, a vest and a rain jacket), raining sometimes and a sad little hail once in a while. I thought some small paths through the pasture would take me to the warmth of the refuge in a shorter time -- wrong. The rain and hail made it hard to see what's a step ahead, and in the pastures you can surely break an ankle or two if you stumble into a hidden hole beneath the grass. The grasses are a joyous thing to admire from some 300 meters away, but dangerously high when they're right at your feet. Once every ten minutes I had to find a higher foot place to make sure I was heading towards the right direction, and of course avoiding the cows (gentle animals, unless their youngs are nearby then angry animals). I had the pleasure of putting my foot into one of those invisible holes twice, not a great experience, and the whole getting-lost-on-the-pasture part took me an extra hour because I was certainly not walking in a straight line.

At Prat du Bouc there's refuge ZoAn, a truly lovely place with clean facilities and very lounge-y atmosphere. Exceptional food (considering where you are, comparable to a 18 Euro 4-course meal wine and coffee/tea included). Dinner-night-breakfast was 40 Euros, expensive for hiking but a great experience to be had if you have the extra bucks. It was bad planning on my part where I ended up here but absolutely no regrets.