Clermont citizen Blaise Pascal (1623-62), devised a calculator, invented a wheelbarrow and dreamed up the fixed-route five-penny carriage, the precursor of today's public transport. After proving the weight of air in the Puy-de-Dôme, this Jansenist philosopher and author of the famous (posthumous) Pensées left virtually no fields unexplored for his successors. It is fitting that one of the town's public gardens has a statue in his honour!