Limousin
Limousin is a region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine, in southwestern France. Because it is off the major transportation routes and has few significant tourist sites, Limousin has attracted little tourism
Tourism is developing, however, because of two major interests:
- green tourism: concerning outdoor sports, hiking, and the discovery of natural spaces; and
- cultural and heritage tourism: concerning historical sites, memorial sites, industrial and artisanal heritage (porcelain, enamel, tapestry, slate, tileworks, glovemaking, etc.).
Cities
- 🌍 Limoges — the largest city in Limousin, it has several museums, a cathedral, and a botanical garden
- 🌍 Brive-la-Gaillarde — superb town base for exploring the beautiful department of Corrèze
- 🌍 Gimel-les-Cascades — a village with stone cottages, a village church and views across the valley
- 🌍 Tulle — a centre for lace'making that hold an annual international lace festival
Other destinations
- 🌍 Oradour-sur-Glane — a ghost village preserved for posterity as macabre reminder of when humanity fails. In June 1944, a squad of German soldiers razed the village to the ground, and murdered 642 men, women and children (almost the entire population), for no apparent reason other than they could. To this day, the "martyr village" remains abandoned, and is a national memorial and museum.
- 🌍 Millevaches Natural Regional Park — it has a diversity of wet landscapes on the ocean front (moors, peat bogs, wooded areas and agricultural meadows)
- 🌍 Natural Reserve of the Bog of Dauges —
- 🌍 Périgord Limousin Natural Regional Park —
Understand
It is a rural region with an agricultural (livestock breeding and forestry) and industrial tradition.
This region of France is very popular with expatriates from Holland, Belgium and England, with many owning second homes here.
Talk
French is the only language widely spoken in this area.
Get in
There are good road and rail links.
Limoges international airport receives many flights from Britain and France.
There is a project in place to extend the TGV line from Poitiers to Limoges.
This region is crossed by the A20 motorway, making it very accessible.
Get around
There are limited bus routes, therefore a car is required to get around. Cycling is possible especially since the roads are very empty.