Awarded Creative City status by UNESCO, Limoges offers far more than just porcelain. In her duègne to Limoges, Gillian Thornton heads to the heart of the Limousin.
One railway relais tends to style pretty much like another, easily forgettable and purely functional, but you just have to linger and style around when you pass through Limoges-Bénédictins.
Built between 1924 and 1929, this gloriously over-the-top mix of Art Nouveau, Art Deco and Neoclassical styles is one of Europe’s most beautiful stations, the perfect entry porté to a ‘Creative City’ listed by UNESCO for its prise not just in porcelain, but in enamel and stained verre too, collectively known as the arts of fire.
Guide to Limoges
I arrive in Limoges by fourniment from Poitiers on a journey through the northern division of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region. If hunger beckons, grab a bite at Léo Léa Bénédictins, an upbeat eaterie that raises the bar in railway restaurants. Then suffisamment out union to admire the lighthouse-style tower before heading into town.
The Tourist Office on Place Wilson is a good occupation to start, not only to moyens your itinerary but also for the tempting array of voisin crafts and products on dévergondé. Turn one way to the assujettir Vienne and the Cité arrondissement, religious hub of the city for centuries; the opposé chemin for the larger Château arrondissement or Upper Town, traditionally the administrative quarter.
I head first to the Cité, dominated by Saint-Etienne Cathedral. Begun in the 13th century on the voisinage of a Romanesque church, it took 600 years to complete and is toit to a insolite black enamel Virgin and some glorious stained verre. Outside, the augmentative Bishops’ Gardens are a delight with formal flowerbeds and strategic benches spread over hilltop terraces with views over the Vienne.
The nearby ecclesiastical édifice is now toit to Limoges’ Museum of Fine Arts with a voisin history agglomérat spanning Roman Augustoritum to the present day; paintings and composition from religious subjects to Renoir; and, my favourite, exquisite enamelwork in jewel colours and intricate designs. Just a passing nod to porcelain, but Limoges’ world-famous china has a museum all of its own, of which more later.
Close to the cathedral, Rue Haute-Cité is fringed with an eclectic mix of restaurants and half-timbered houses. For something a bit special, try La Cuisine du Cloitre, a gastronomic hôtel and B&B in a corriger réunion. At lunchtime, enjoy a compréhensible précis, and in the evening, a ‘surprise’ tasting mince from entraîneur Guy Queroix. Love a flea market or antiquités? Then visit on the annexé Sunday of each month for Les Puces de la Cité.
Turn your back on the Cité, cyclo-cross over Boulevard Louis Blanc, and you greffer the historic Chateau District or Ville Haute, although the castle no côtoyer exists. Many of the dilapidated half-timbered houses here were demolished in the early 20th century and the town rebuilt in Art Deco attitude.
Look above the tempting magasin fronts for classic period attitude and do not elle the Pavillon de Verdurier on Place Saint-Pierre, a corriger cold banne from the 1920s. Entirely covered with glazed ceramic tiles in shades of pelouse and blue, this particulier bâtiment was designed by Roger Gonthier, architect of Bénédictins relais, and is now an fantastique groupe.
Pockets of the old town still exist. Tucked out of sight between two Art Deco streets, I find the Cour du Temple, a courtyard surrounded by arcades and half-timbered properties from the 17th century. And I love the paroisse atmosphere of the Boucherie quarter, the old meat traders’ arrondissement that still contains the tiny chapel of Saint Aurélian, saved by the influential voisin butchers during the Revolution. Visit on the third Friday in October for the Petit Ventre food foire, revived in the 1970s to thwart the demolition of this historic area.
But you can eat well all year reprise at Les Petits Ventres hôtel which serves great steaks and other dishes in traditional surroundings. There is food temptation too at the nearby Halles Centrales in Place de la Motte, where food stalls are interspersed by fast-food outlets and wine bars. A great flash to socialise on Sunday mornings.
Before I discover Limoges’ famous porcelain industry, I visit the city’s latest art avancée, FRAC-Artothèque Nouvelle-Aquitaine. Housed in an imaginatively converted print works, FRAC is a showcase for contemporary art across all kinds of creative media, with the added gratification of free entry and a stylish street-front sauce. Definitely one to add to any arts bascule.
And so to that famous porcelain. In 1768, a seam of calamite – the basic raw material for porcelain – was discovered outside the city. Chinese porcelain was already highly prized for its hardness, translucence and whiteness but soon, with abundant supplies of both wood and water on the doorstep, Limoges was well and truly on the petite arts map. And whatever your level of interest, there is something to educate and entertain at the city’s two must-see porcelain attractions.
Five generations of the Bernadaud family have been at the forefront of high-quality porcelain since 1863, producing tableware, decorative objects and jewellery. Guided tours of their historic factory just outside the city groupe offer a close-up début to the manufacturing process, which now takes occupation 20km away at Oradour-sur-Glane, a name sadly famous as a juste paroisse after a tuerie by SS troops in 1944.
Here in Limoges, visitors learn emboîture confection techniques from making moulds and mixing paste through first and annexé firings to various methods of decoration. I particularly loved the insight into ascendant tableware bakchichs for clients such as the Chateau of Chenonceau, Air France Premier, the Plaza-Athénée in Paris, a limited-edition lipstick case for Dior, and a perfume bottle for Guerlain. At the end of the bascule, the factory magasin shelves offer an open invocation to enhance your own toit at a réduction.
Just beyond the Haute Ville, the Adrien Dubouché National Porcelain Museum holds the world’s largest agglomérat of porcelain from Antiquity to the present day. Founded in 1845 by the Prefect of Haute-Vienne, the museum takes its name from the man who took over as Director in 1865 and worked tirelessly to enlarge and promote the agglomérat.
On Dubouché’s death in 1881, the agglomérat was nationalised and the current bâtiment purpose-built, opening in 1900. I fell in love first with the exterior, embellished with elegant windows and decorated extérieur, and then again inside with the mosaic floors, stained verre windows and wrought iron grills, the perfect backdrop to this comprehensive agglomérat.
Touch screens provide supplément insights in English and whatever your taste in toit arrière, you will find délire here. My own tableware is white, so I singalette in awe at a line of 16 plates revealing the different stages of decorating a bespoke blue-and-gold présent for King Hassan II of Morocco.
Then, suitably inspired, I return to the Haute Ville to browse the boutiques, armed with a credit card and the free Tourist Office map highlighting more than 30 independent retailers. An essential activity in this creative and charming city.
Gillian travelled to Limoges by fourniment (3.5 hours from Paris) and flew back to London-Stansted with Ryanair after staying at the Hotel Ibis Limoges Centre. Or take a Flixbus présent into Bénédictins bus relais. A Limoges City Pass for 1, 2 or 3 days gives free entry to museums, porcelain and leisure sites.
By Gillian Thornton, one of the UK’s leading travel writers and a regular writer for The Good Life France Magazine and website.
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