Through the intersection of a generational approach and looking on a real local basis largely setting the conditions for the research, research themes, sociability and true university practice, this article examines the existence of a tradition of geography in Clermont-Ferrand embodied by three professors, Max Derruau (1920-2004), Pierre Estienne (1923-1996) and André Fel (1926-2009). A great producer of textbooks, this triptych of geographers with a classical background left a deep mark on a provincial geography department at a time of university mutations and epistemological rupture.