I must admit that there is nothing particularly special about Limoges itself other than the amazing porcelain is produced in the area. In fact, one of the main reasons we decided on Limoges was because of the reason that some of the best porcelain and tapestries in the world are produced there. Well, that and because I read a short article in a Ryanair magazine on the region.When we arrived in town that day we realized that it was nearly empty. Apparently we are some of the few people that decided to spend any time in this town during the holidays. No matter - we managed a nice, cheap room and found a pretty decent restaurant with a "Recession lunch special". Since there wasn't a whole lot going on in town we headed for the hills and the small town of Aubignan that is world famous for its tapestries.
While many things about this under-appreciated region are, in fact, pretty average, the beautiful rolling hills in the country side made for a great afternoon drive.
The town of Aubignan was really picturesque and had a small stream running through the middle of it that used to power some of the tapestry mills. The center of the town was pedestrian only and was filled with shops and restaurants.
Like Limoges it was pretty quiet and almost felt like an evacuation had been ordered and we had missed the sirens. Still, some shops were open and we wandered around looking for tapestries. It turns out that Aubignan is actually famous for handmade tapestries that the town has been producing for about 400 years. Unfortunately hand-made tapestries are pricey as you can imagine how much labor must go into them. It is true that many things in life that are handmade are far superior to machine made, but we don't think tapestries are one of them. At least for the order of magnitude difference is price. A 200 euro machine tapestry with a detailed scene could cost 5000 euros for the handmade version that appears less crisp in detail. Needless to say, we didn't bite. Fortunately for us, we did salvage the journey by finding a nice piece of pottery though.
Now how do we get this home? We returned to Limoges via a different route and passed by the tranquil Lac de Vissiviere.
We capped the night with a few pizzas overlooking the Limoges city hall (photo above). The next day we had an early afternoon train back to Paris and decided to head west this time to the historic town of Oradour sur Glane. Around the same time that the Allies were landing on the beaches in Normandy, a battalion of Nazi soldiers to the south marched into this small town of roughly 640 men, women and children. The Nazis rounded up all the men and executed them by firing squad and then burned all the women and children in the town church. The Nazis left the burned and ruined town and only weeks later were either killed or captured by the American and British soldiers advancing from Normandy. When the French found out what happened to the town, they decided the best way to honor the people was to leave everything exactly as it was the day the atrocity occured. Sixty years later now it still looks the same and the town is well known by the French children who visit on school trips.
As we walked around town and looked into the ruins of homes and stores you could see the remains of those people's lives scattered amongst the rubble. Signs on the outside of the homes identified the town doctor, barber, mechanic, dentist, etc. Having walked through the streets of the town we can attest to the power of just leaving everything as it was. As we walked out the gate on the other end of town and headed for our car we turned around and saw this sign:
How appropriate.
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