Visit Limousin

Published: 8 March 2011, 13:13

Limousin is a haven of peace, flavors, endless green spaces, rivers, and lakes. It will immerse you in a lively, friendly world of colors, landscapes, cultures, towns and villages. Once you have visited Limousin, you will dream of returning there.

In the heart of Massif Central

Enter Limousin and discover a landscape studded with mountains, valleys and lakes, in the heart of the Massif Central. Make the most of nature in the Dordogne Valley, the Millevaches Regional Natural Park and the Périgord-Limousin Regional Natural Park. Limousin is a perfect combination of art and nature: Crozant, in the Creuse Valley, was a great draw for Impressionist painters. Time seems suspended at Vassivière Lake, a verdant area in the South West, and the International Center for Art and the Countryside on Vassivière Island offers a plethora of activities. Corrèze stands out thanks to its gastronomy, Creuse’s wilderness is breathtaking, and Haute-Vienne stuns visitors with its Limoges porcelain and enamel, Saint-Junien leather glove factories, and more.

An astonishing heritage

In Limousin, religious art along the Camino de Santiago de Compostela (Via Lemovicensis, a European cultural itinerary) will astonish you. Make your way from Crozant to La Souterraine, and through Bénévent-l’Abbaye, Limoges Cathedral, Solignac and onwards. Don’t miss the Saint-Pierre Church in Collonges-la-Rouge, one of the most beautiful villages in France. Uzerche, Beaulieu, and Solignac are blessed with some of the most dazzling Romanesque churches.
Castles are also part of Limousin’s heritage, from Val Castle on a lake shore to Boussac Castle (where George Sand lived), as well as Pompadour Castle (which hosts the "Grande Semaine de Pompadour" equestrian event).

Not far from these cultural sites lies a very symbolic location: the martyr village of Oradour-sur-Glane and its Memory Centre.

Food specialties

The writer Antoine Blondin used to say, "There is no caviar in Limousin, but we do have chestnuts.” Chestnuts, one of Limousin’s staple foods (Limousin’s emblem is a chestnut tree leaf) are used to make dishes such as Boudin aux châtaignes (Black pudding with chestnuts) as well as in salads and pastries. Other specialties include walnuts, AOP (certified origin) apples, berries (strawberries, raspberries and blueberries), wild mushrooms and top-quality local meats: lamb, cul noir pork and poultry, which can all be found at local fairs. Dournazac’s Chestnut Fair (in the Périgord-Limousin Park), Limoges’s Frairie des petits ventres Fair, Brive’s duck and geese fairs and its breeding festival are all good places to look. Limousin cows are famous for their tasty beef and are celebrated during Limousin’s Beef Shows. Food lovers can feast on clafoutis and hazelnut cakes washed down with Limousin cider. Delight your taste buds with chestnut, nut and fruit liquors!

Activities in Limousin

As for culture, Limoges, a Town of Art and History, will delight your senses at the Adrien Dubouché National Museum of Porcelain (over 10,000 porcelain and earthenware pieces from all over the world) and at the renowned Fine Arts Museum, with its astonishing enamel collection of works from12th century to modern times. In Aubusson, the Jean Lurçat Center is dedicated to Tapestry (on UNESCO’s Intangible World Heritage List). Limousin’s second largest town, Brive-la-Gaillarde, is full of surprises. Its Labenche Museum recounts the history of Corrèze. Two important events take place each year in Brive: France’s second-larges Book Fair (Paris’s Book Fair being the first), and the Vézère Classical Music Festival. Bellac enchants visitors with its National Festival, a clever mix of theater and jazz.

In the heart of the Monts de Guéret, the Giant Labyrinth has lots of activities in store, and the Wildlife Park makes it possible to observe wolves in their natural habitat.

Limousin’s doors are wide open to welcome you.