Open to boating, fishing, swimming, and surrounded by a wooded landscape, Lake Aydat has been a popular excursion site for the inhabitants of Clermont-Ferrand for a long time. During the 5th century, Bishop Sidoine Apollinaire already appreciated the lake, the largest of natural origin in the Puy-de-Dôme department. He owned a villa built on a small island near the north shore of the lake and now called Saint-Sidoine Island in his honor.