Limousin

The Limousin lies on the northwestern edge of the Massif Central, in the geographical center of France, taking in the départements of Creuse (chief town Guéret), Haute-Vienne (Limoges) and Corrèze (Tulle). It is the most thinly populated region in France apart from Corsica, with an area of 16,942 sq. km/6,541 sq. mi and a population of 737,153. Its capital is Limoges. The Limousin is frequently associated in visitors' minds with the neighboring regions of Périgord to the southwest and Quercy to the southeast. Still rather off the beaten track of tourism, the Limousin has preserved much unspoiled natural beauty. Its ranges of hills, outliers of the Massif Central nowhere exceeding 1,000 m/3,300ft in height, are broken up by plateaus and river valleys, the most important of which is the valley of the Vézère. It is well supplied with rivers, streams and lakes where fishermen and water sports enthusiasts will find plenty of scope. The region's main sources of revenue are agriculture, the manufacture of porcelain and the production of carpets and tapestries. Uranium is worked in the départements of Haute-Vienne and Creuse.

The Limousin was one of the territories that developed out of the Roman province of Aquitania from the fifth C. onwards. After the centuries of Visigothic and Frankish rule there came into being within the French kingdom various counties, some of which were later raised to the status of duchies or became appanages of members of the royal family. After intermittent periods of English rule in the 12th, 13th and 14th centuries these territories returned to French allegiance between the 13th and 16th C., and in 1607 Henry IV brought the Limousin to the French crown. Then at the end of the 18th C. the provinces which had been formed from the old duchies and counties were divided into the present départements.

Like the neighboring region of Périgord, the Limousin has many prehistoric remains like standing stones and megalithic chamber tombs.

There was a great emergence of Romanesque art between the 11th and 13th centuries, to such an extent that Gothic made relatively little headway. The 14th C. was a time of trial for the Limousin, with famine, plague, exploitation and plunder; and yet it was during this period, through the efforts of two French Popes, Clement VI (Pierre de Rosiers) and his nephew Gregory XI (Pierre-Roger de Beaufort), that the Limousin gave the Church a dozen patriarchs, 40 cardinals and more than 300 bishops - thus fulfilllling the prophecy by St Martial, who brought Christianity to this region about 250, that this "land of saints" would prove a fertile soil for the church.

The manufacture of porcelain, which has won international fame for the Limousin, and for Limoges in particular, was brought to the region from Sèvres about 1770. It was little affected by the Revolution, and after the First Empire centerd increasingly on Limoges, which thus in the course of time acquired a virtual monopoly. The great Impressionist Auguste Renoir (1841-1919) began his artistic career as a porcelain painter in Limoges.

The summer climate is relatively mild, but the winter is usually cold and rainy.

There are numerous rivers and a number of lakes which offer scope for fishing and sailing. The rivers also offer the possibility of attractive canoe and kayak trips.

For cyclists and walkers there are many quiet and sometimes lonely footpaths and tracks running through beautiful scenery. Several of France's waymarked long- distance trails (identified by the letters GR, for grande randonnée, and a number) run through the region.