Limoges

After I had published my last post I wondered if I might have been able to add a link for the library at Limoges since it really was an amazing place and when I checked the internet for pictures or information I came upon this little video showing snippets of Limoges and including the library. It immediately took me back to our Saturdays during the time we lived in France when we nearly always went to Limoges for our weekend shopping and I decided to make another post rather than to try and add it to the one I had already posted.


Limoges is a lovely city but it does take time to give up its secrets and the first couple of times I went there I wasn't impressed but I grew to love it and if money were no object I'd have an apartment there so I could visit whenever I wanted to and go to the places and meet the people I knew.

The video shows the airport - little more than a shed with a few plastic chairs inside when we first arrived but now a brand new multi-million pound building, the station with its iconic green topped clock tower, the library which is very modern and mostly glass, (notice the trolley bus reflected in the glass). The amazing Hotel de Ville with its typically French architecture and the fountain in the gardens in front which incorporates the enamel and porcelain for which Limoges is renowned. Then the cathedral and the river Vienne. The gardens next to the cathedral which overlook the Vienne and one of the old bridges which link the two sides of the river. The market hall where we did much of our shopping made of brick and the square in which it stands with the buildings painted with trompe d'oeil.(Poitiers is another town with lots of buildings painted like this) The spacecraft building is the new Zenith built during our time there and where all sorts of theatre, sport, music etc are staged. We went to see Riverdance there and it was an excellent venue apart from the fact that since it is also used for sport the seats were made of wood and we all said next time we'd take cushions!. The museum of porcelain along with some of the famous porcelain and some enamel being made followed by the Opera which has many world class concerts and ballet etc and again the river.

I would love to be able to show the city to you in reality as it was one of those places that each time you visited you discovered something else of interest.