Limoges

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At Mortemont, one of the ‘plus beaux villages de France’ the Château of the Dukes de Mortemont is surrounded by an ancient monastery, two convents and a collegiate church. St Leonard de Noblat is a fine medieval city, its church a superb example of romanesque art.

For an original form of sight-seeing, take the Vélo-train which runs for 6 kilometres along the valley of the Dronne and is a cross between a bicycle and a train. Alternatively the ‘Train Vapeur’ or steam train puffs its way over 100 kilometres from Limoges to Ussel through some spectacular countryside, including gorges and the Plateau de Millevaches. Saint Junien owes its wealth to the tanneries and paper mills which flourished on the banks of the River Vienne. Besides the more everyday quality leather goods, the area is famous for elegant and extravagant gloves, frequently seen on the catwalks of Paris.

Limoges, the capital of the region, is a historic city with charming old streets, museums, galleries and gardens. Founded by the Roman Emperor Augustus in 16 BC, it was originally named Augustoritum after him and Roman remains are still being unearthed to this day. Famous for its ‘arts du feu’, porcelain and enamel, which began in the 12th century, it has gained world fame in the centuries which followed. There are many museums as well as the Bernardaud factory which can be visited to learn about this ancient china making process. The ‘company of butchers’ are also a force to be reckoned with since 1200 and have their own tiny Chapel. There is a splendid 19th century covered market and an impressive railway station with a slate dome. Real ale is another local product. Until 1940 there were no less than 49 breweries in Limoges. The Brasserie St Martial still brews real ale using Kentish hops and has seven varieties of beer on site. Roman aqueducts used to supply the city with water and subterranean passages still exist from this era.

Niort

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The town of Niort, on the banks of the Sèvre Niortaise River lies a mere 6 km from the Marais. An impressive ‘Donjon’ or keep dating from the 12th Century is now one of the two main museums in the town. There is also a 17th Century gate and a covered market dating from the 19th Century as well as the usual selection of Romanesque churches. On a more modern note, the town is well served with restaurants and there is also a golf course.

Celles sur Belle is built around an abbey dating from the 12th Century. There is a minster with a gothic bell tower and a beautiful 17th century Abbey with lovely gardens surrounding it. The ‘Maison des Marionnettes’ or collection of puppets is at Lusseray. In common with the rest of the region, the Deux Sevres has its share of Romanesque churches as it, too, featured on the route taken by the pilgrims to Santiago de Compostela. One such example is the town of Melle, dating from this period, with three churches from this era. The town is also the site of the oldest silver mines in Europe which are open to the public. At Villiers-en-Bois a 25 hectare wildlife park is home to over 600 hundred European animals.

On the borders of the department, Thouars is dominated by the castle built for the Dukes of Trémoille in the 17th Century set on a rocky outcrop surrounded by the River Thouet of which it has a panoramic view from its renaissance gallery. There is an imposing gateway and tower, timbered houses and renaissance mansions in the older part of the town and two Romanesque churches, as well as a museum. The mediaeval town of Parthenay, also on the banks of the Thouet, is full of objects of architectural, artistic and historical interest with two Romanesque churches and a museum of archaeological artefacts. Once a week there is a cattle market, said to be one of the largest in France.

Biarritz

Pau

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After the death of Henry IV, the area was attached to the Kingdom of France in 1620. The Béarn mainly consists of the valleys of the Gave d’Oloron and the Gave de Pau which are famous for their excellent salmon and trout fishing. To the East of the Béarn are the vineyards of the Jurançon and the mountains boast three ski resorts which offer skiing for all levels. Bayonne, where the Adour meets the Nive, is the capital of the region. With fortifications dating back to Roman times, the town has many traces of its historic past, including the impressive 14th Century Cathedral of Sainte Marie, the typical colombage houses of the region and the Bonnat Museum of Art.

Bayonne is a delightful place to visit. Famous for its smoked ham which is served wafer thin, it is also renowned for its chocolate and for the invention of the bayonet. The seaside town of Biarritz is one of the principal resorts on the Côte Basque. It gained recognition with the arrival of the Empress Eugénie who fell in love with the area and built a Palace (now the Hotel du Palais) on the front. She it was who gave her name to the spa at Eugénie-les-Bains in the Landes. Queen Victoria was amongst the regular visitors. There is an annual surf festival, golf courses and many other facilities. Now served with regular flights by Ryanair, the area is more visited than ever.

In the medieval town centre of the pretty port of St Jean de Luz are some of the best seafood restaurants on the Côte Basque, as well as a Casino and many fashionable shops. The architecture owes as much to Spanish and Moorish influence as to Basques. The area has a variety of sporting activities from the playing of ‘Pelota’ and bull fighting  at Bayonne to canoeing, sailing, surfing, hiking and skiing. The Basque people are also passionate about rugby, as well having many fine male choirs, a pastime which goes well with rugby!. They are people proud of their local cuisine and customs.

Agen

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The department has the benefits of a considerable length of navigable water, both on rivers and canals as well as many other water related sports including fishing on the Lot, the Garonne, the Canal du Midi and numerous lakes. Hunting is also high on the agenda amongst the local community as you might expect of a farming area. There is a plethora of places of architectural interest in this area which is rich in history and has many museums and at least fourteen imposing Châteaux. The origins of Agen, capital of the department, date from as early as 400 BC.

Agen also has a small airport and TGV link to Paris, Toulouse and Bordeaux. On the banks of the River Garonne with the canal alongside it, the town is largely modern with busy streets but there remain some fine medieval houses and the Romanesque church of St Caprais. Eleanor of Aquitaine, Richard Coeur de Lion and Simon de Montfort were amongst those who controlled Agen. The Fine Arts Museum holds many treasures from the Gallo Roman period through to more recent history and is famous for its Goyas.

Villeneuve sur Lot, once a 13th century Bastide, has a central square in which the market is held and the Porte de Paris surmounted by a clock tower, once known as the Porte de Montflanquin. There is an imposing 19th Century theatre, and a Chapel by the bridge which owes its origins to a sailor diving into the river to establish why their boat wouldn’t move and finding a statue of the Virgin. To this day the passing boatmen salute the Chapel as they pass. Other Bastides include Castillonès, Montflanquin, Puymirol, Tournon d’Agenais, Vianne and Villeréal. There are over 535 windmills and watermills in the department, most of which have sails or wheels which no longer work. A project is underway to restore them all gradually as there is fierce national pride in the heritage of the area.

Mont-de-Marsan

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This is the leading area for spa treatments in France with resorts Eugenie les Bains, Préchacq-les-Bains, Tercis-les-Bains, St-Paul-les-Dax to name but a few. Mont de Marsan is the main town of the province with Dax, the sub prefecture. In the centre of Dax is the ‘Fontaine Chaude’ where hot thermal water flows. The town has ramparts with origins from Gallo-Roman times which were quite substantial in 1465 with 46 turrets and four gateways. The British had laid siege to Dax in 1295 and Dax experienced three centuries of English rule. Until the turn of the century, Dax was a port with flat bottomed boats bearing the wines of the Chalosse and Jurançon and barrels of Armagnac, resin, wax and timber from the forests.

During the reign of the Counts of Armagnac, the local ‘eau de vie’ came to be known by its name of Armagnac and commercialised. Produced from 11 grape varieties it is aged for between 4 and 20 years becoming increasingly less alcoholic the older it is. The region of Bas Armagnac is part of the Landes.

The many seaside resorts to the south of the department include the large sheltered port of Capbreton, the only Marina on the Landes coast and the largest on the Cote d’Argent, with 960 berths. Souston, where President Mitterand had a house, has a vast salt lake over 700 hectares whilst the elegant town of Hossegor with its Casino and piano bars has fine sandy beaches and a 250 hectare salt water lake. Tarnos is the most southerly of the coastal towns with 4 kms of beaches offering excellent conditions for surfers. The Course Landaise is a local version of bullfighting in which the matador attempts to vault the horns of the bull. This together with some traditional bullfighting takes place in several towns which have bullrings. The other traditional local sport is that of Pelota. The department has plentiful campsites, hotels, inns and restaurants and every facility for a perfect holiday.

Bordeaux

St Emilion

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With its 22 ports, over 100 kilometres of coast, the longest estuary in Europe and finally, at Hourtin-Carcans, the biggest lake in France, the area is a favourite with those who appreciate the ocean and water sports in general. For the bon viveurs, there are a wealth of wines, the local aperitif of Lillet and the oyster beds of the Gironde. The majestic Dordogne river flows for almost 100 kms through the Gironde, flanked by towns and villages, churches dating from Roman times and the ancient 13th century port of Libourne, where river traders met those from as far inland as Limousin and Perigord.

Between the Garonne and the Dordogne, the Entre Deux Mers has many walled towns dating from the 12th Century, including Blasimon, Cadillac, Créon and Sauveterre de Guyenne. The Medieval hilltop town of Saint-Emilion, in the Grand Libournais, has many historic buildings including cloisters and a monolithic church. Central to the wine making district which extends beneath it, it has superb restaurants and is much frequented by tourists. Here are many vestiges of the pilgrims’ route to Saint-Jacques de Compostella in the Benedictine Abbeys at Blasimon, Sainte Ferme, La Réole and La Sauve Majeure as well as fortified windmills and castles in commanding positions.

The names of the Medoc peninsular conjure up dreams of memorable wines, including Margaux, Listrac. Paullic and Saint-Estèphe. At the tip of Grave, is the Cordouan lighthouse, built by Henry IV and classed as an historic monument. Beyond this are the villas of Soulac and Lacanau, perfect for surfers and with many kilometres of cycling tracks. The Arcachon basin and Cap Ferret, popular with many of the crowned heads of Europe, have a temperate climate. The dune of Pyla at 117 metres is the highest in Europe and a bird reserve at the L’ile aux Oiseaux can be visited as well as the Banc d’Arguin – home to a colony of tern. South East of Bordeaux is the land of Graves and Sauternes, the famous sweet white wines dating from Roman times whose vineyards extend over almost 5000 hectares of land. Bazas is the main town of the area, with its 13th Century Cathedral, its ramparts and half-timbered houses and which, every February, hosts a famous cattle race.

Perigueux

To the east are many beautiful towns and villages, including Trémolat with its 12th century church, Beynac, set atop a cliff and Castelnaud with its medieval war museum. The 14th Century bastide of Domme is set on a hillside and the 13th Century Bastide of Monpazier still retains its arcaded village square. The department falls into four distinctive areas. Perigord Noir, Blanc, Vert and Pourpre each with its own distinctive features. The Perigord Blanc is the central section, its name derived from the calcerous nature of the land. It was here that Périgueux, capital of the Dordogne, was founded by the Romans in 2000. The Venetian styled Cathedral with its many cupolas is impressive, as are the ramparts, once part of the now demolished roman amphitheatres. There are two main market days.

The Perigord Vert spans the north of the department in a crescent and owes its name to the lush nature of this hilly area, rich in streams and rivers and green even in the driest of summers. To the East is the Perigord Noir, an area well known for its prehistoric history and for towns like Sarlat, with its typical steeply pitched roofs of ‘lauze’ and its 17th Century features. It is a tourist attraction and a national monument. Lastly the Perigord Pourpre is again the land of vineyards lining the banks of the Dordogne and of Bastides whose history encompasses the Hundred Years’ War and many religious conflicts. The vineyards include many world famous names from Bergerac to Montbazillac.

The Dordogne has the greatest number of castles and châteaux of any department, a large number dating from the 13th and 14th centuries when the Dordogne was the frontier region between England and France during the Hundred Years’ War. Cave paintings and engravings at Lascaux and Les Eyzies-de-Tayac bear witness to prehistoric human habitation in the region. The National Prehistoric Museum in the ruins of the Chateau of Les Eyzies houses a unique archeological collection from the prestigious sites of the Vézère Valley. The department’s medieval heritage is especially well represented, with the medieval towns of Sarlat and Brantôme being among the most beautiful in France.

Gueret

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Aubusson with its ruined castle is famous for its wool dyeing trade and its woven flags, much like tapestries. Sheep have long grazed on the pastures of the Creuse, known as the Marche and this, together with the pure waters of the river Creuse, created the ideal conditions for this trade. Flemish craftsmen in the early 14th century set up the first tapestry workshops. The oldest known marchoise tapestry dates back to the 16th century although at Felletin where the Manufacture Pinton still exists, there is early mention of tapestry as well. The 18th century was the high point of Aubusson’s history when Oriental and South American influence introduced an exotic element to the tapestries. The Musée Departmental de la Tapisserie is a historical account of the history of the tapestry and weaving industry with themed exhibitions on all periods.

The Plateau de Millevaches has over 1000 springs and is known as the ‘water tower of France’ as a result. As well as the many rivers, including the Creuse from which the department takes its name, are the Gartempe, the Thaurion and the Cher and the lake of Vassivière which is an inland sea of 1100 hectares, one of the largest lakes in France as well as the lakes of Lavaud-Gelade, Méouze, La Chaume and  La Cazine – in fact a wonderland for fishermen.  Evaux-les-Bains is the only thermal spa of the region. Granite is omnipresent in the buildings of churches and village houses and chestnut wood is to be found in carvings, mouldings and wood panelling.

At the Mont de Guéret is the park of Les Loups de Chabrières where you can observe wolves, whilst over 150 deer live at the Domaine du Cros at Azat Chatenet. There are many festivals and fairs in the department. On the third Sunday in April there is the Cheese Fair at Maisonnisses.  In the second fortnight in May there is the Local Produce and Wine Fair at Châtelus-Malveleix and another Local Produce and Cheese fair in mid July at Aubusson. At the end of May in Ajain, there is a festival of local cured ham. In early August there is a cider fair in Nouziers and in September there is a mushroom fair at La Villeneuve on the last Sunday in the month. Once a month between October and June, Guéret holds its ‘Brocante’ ( bric-à-brac) market in the town centre. Finally, in early November at Sainte-Feyre there is an Apple Fete, followed by the Christmas Market at Moutier d’Ahun the weekend before Christmas. In the region there is now a label to verify authenticity of local produce called ‘Marchés des Producteurs du Pays’. Market day is very much part of the local culture.

Tulle

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Capital of the Corrèze, Tulle, constructed on seven hills and on the banks of the river of the same name, holds an annual Accordion Festival in the third week of September. Besides drawing accordionists from all over the world with incredible resultant music, the festival also features a fireworks display on  Friday and Saturday evenings. A visit to the Maugein factory to see how these musical instruments are made is fascinating, whilst the Musée des Armes Anciennes displays antique weapons and the Musée du Cloitre houses an exhibition of watercolours and a collection of accordions from the early 19th century. At Pompadour is the National Stud with its race track in front of the elegant Château. Events include show jumping, driving, racing and, on the last weekend of each month from June to September, steeple-chasing. There are many equestrian activities for horse lovers from hacking to trekking and riding schools.

In Brive, the Musée Labenche is undoubtedly the main attraction with its eight Mortlake Tapestries from London, Debussy’s piano and seventeen galleries devoted to natural history, archaeology and arts and crafts as well as various other exhibitions. The streets of the old quarter are now pedestrianised, scattered with smart shops and restaurants and the market place is named after the singer, Georges Brassens. Beaulieu-sur-Dordogne is, as its name suggests, a beautiful spot with medieval houses clinging to the river banks and a church with superb stone carvings. Here in May is the annual strawberry festival. Argentat is yet another river port with half-timbered houses. Nearby, the Tours de Merle are the striking ruins of a feudal castle set high on a rocky outcrop. Another historic masterpiece is the 15th century fortress at Bortes-les-Orgues to the east of the department, framed against unusually shaped rocks which resemble organ pipes.

Several of the most beautiful villages in France are to be found in the department, amongst them Collonges-la-Rouge, named after the rich red sandstone of its blue shuttered buildings. On the route to Santiago de Compostella, it also boasts an attractive Romanesque church. The ruined 12th century fortress towers above the pretty medieval village of Ségur le Château with its half-timbered houses and at Saint Robert, another remarkably well preserved medieval town, charming little streets and shops survive alongside a Romanesque church and a fountain reputed to hold magical qualities. Many famous people lived at Curemonte including François I, Pope Clément VII and the famous writer, Colette. The town boasts no less than three Chäteaux, dating from the 11th – 15th centuries, all of them arising from troubled times; the First Crusade, the Hundred Years War and the Civil War. At the pretty slate and stone roofed village of Turenne, with its old collegiate and church on the hillside, the Château is a landmark for miles around whilst the walled town of Treignac is protected by the Château de Comborn standing astride a rocky outcrop above the River Vézère. Frequently attacked in the religious wars, some fine houses dating from the 16th and 17th centuries have survived, some bearing the shell emblem of Santiago.

La Rochelle

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A short toll bridge journey takes you to the idyllic Ile De Ré, with its whitewashed cottages, painted shutters and flower lined streets, a cyclist’s dream with 60 km of tracks. Popular for its climate and long sandy beaches, attractions include the salt marsh museum, a bird sanctuary, an old harbour, the lighthouse and fish traps of Sainte-Marie. A 3 km toll free bridge links the Île d’Oleron to the mainland, spanning the oyster parks of the famous ‘Marennes-Oléron’. A museum in Fort Louvois celebrates oyster and mussel farming. The landscape features long sandy beaches with a backdrop of sand dunes and vast forests. At Saint-Pierre d’Oléron there is a golf course whilst at Sainte-Gemme, the ‘village of birds’, has an ornithological reserve.

Rochefort, built in the 17th Century as a military base, remains remarkably unchanged. The coastline is protected by over nine forts built to protect this estuary, including one at Brouage, once a harbour specialising in the salt and wine trades and fortified by Cardinal Richelieu, though nowadays it is more than 3 kms inland. Further evidence of the regions rich historical links is the Island of Aix whence Napoleon embarked when exiled to Saint Helena.

To the south lies Royan and an array of seaside resorts bordering the Gironde estuary. It was here that sea bathing became fashionable in the 19th Century. The town, badly damaged in the war, now blends the 19th century with the modern and is dominated by the Church dedicated to Notre-Dame in 1955. The beaches are over 2kms in length. At La Palmyre-Les Mathes, an international zoo extends to over 14 hectares. Finally, inland on the banks of the River Charente, the town of Saintes, once the main town of Aquitaine, still retains many vestiges of the Roman occupation, the Middle Ages and the 18th Century. The Charente Maritime is rich in cultural, gastronomic and leisure activities.