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Limoges
Bustling city with Great shopping and a daily covered market. Les Halles Centrales de Limoges
Known as the French centre for porcelain manufacture and for its medieval enamels.
Things to see and do: It has an old quarter, great for walking around and browsing the antique shops, several porcelain museums and Porcelain factories.
Many great restaurants that will suit all budgets.
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| Les Halles Centrales de Limoges | Cathedrale, Limoges | Limoges Ancient |
Lac de Vassivière (The Lake of Vassivière)
Lake Vassiviere has plenty of facilities (including over 300km of walking trails) and many water sports available.
It also has an island with a sculpture park and Centre d’Art Contemporain, which is designed in the image of a ship and lighthouse. The art museum here is impressive and the setting makes it an unforgettable experience.
There are also watersports including canoeing, kayaking, rafting, water polo and waterskiing on the main river of the region, the majestic Vienne.
Covers an area of about 1,000 hectares (2.5 Acreas). It has 6 beaches, 3 harbors, and 300 km of footpaths. This is the biggest lake of the Limousin.
Available activies include: horse riding, Hiking, Sailing, Water Skiing and fishing
Also in the centre of the lake, across a smal bridge is the Center Contemporary Art with a sculpture park and museum.
Pompadour
Famous for its Château presented in 1745 by Louis XV to his mistress, Madame de Pompadour. It is now the home of one of France's best know stud farms
Although part of the Château is open to the public, a far more interesting visit is to the stud farms and stables.
for a chataue visit it is worth the journey to see the one at Hautefort instead
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| The Château | Race Course |
Mont Gargan
(From the Gite: 24.2 km – about 28 mins)
731m High, it is the highest 'mont' in Haute Vienne.
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| From the car park there is a gentle strow up to the peak with plenty of seats on the way | there is an old church at the top | on a clear day there are views of most of Haute Vienne |
Aubusson
The town itself is of not of particular interest but it is a famous centre of tapestry weaving and it has a museum with an excellent tapestry collection: Musée de la Tapisserie
dordogne
Lots of scenery, canoing etc and also plenty of caves e
The following 2 are reasonably close together.
lascaux (From the Gite: 121 km – about 1 hour 32 mins)
Grotte de Lascaux (or Lascaux II) This has some of the most impressive looking cave paintings however they are a replica of the real Lascaux caves nearby. The real caves have been closed to the public to protect the paintings.
Abri du Cap Blanc (From the Gite: 128 km – about 1 hour 53 mins)
Not a cave but a natural rock shelter, the Abri du Cap Blanc lies on a steep wooded hillside. It contains a sculpted frieze of horses and bison dating from the Middle Magdalenian period, about 14,000 years ago. Of only ten surviving prehistoric sculptures in France, this is undoubtedly the best. The design is deliberate, with the sculptures polished and set off against a pockmarked background. But what makes this place extraordinary is not just the large scale, but the high relief of some of the sculptures. This was only possible in places where light reached in, which in turn brought the danger of destruction by exposure to the air. Cro-Magnon people actually lived in this shelter, and a female skeleton has been found that is some 2000 years younger than the frieze.
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| The Entrance | Head detail | Female Skeleton |
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| The main wall at Cap Blanc | ||
links:
Haute Vienne Tourism page - (French and English versions available)
Go Limousin - general description of the area
Lac de vassiviere - (French) pictures of the lake and description of activites available there /
article on the best fishing spots in the area
Musée de la Tapisserie, in Aubusson (French)
Limoges Tourism
Limoges information site