The Limousin region is made up of just three departments, the
Haute Vienne (87), capital Limoges, the
Creuse (23), capital Guéret, and the
Corrèze (19),
capital Tulle. Lying between altitudes of 200 metres and 1000
metres, the Limousin is mostly a region of hills and valleys and low
mountains. The highest point in Limousin is the Mont Bessou, 977
metres, near Ussel, in the Corrèze department; it is the highest point
of a large upland area known as the Plateau de Millevaches, which
borders on the higher areas of the neighbouring
Auvergne region.
The only town of any size in the Limousin region is the city of
Limoges;
with about 140,000 inhabitants, and an urban area of almost 300,000
inhabitants, greater Limoges provides about half of all the jobs in the
region - which gives a good idea of how depopulated the rest of the
region is. Until the turn of the millennium, the Limousin, part of the "
empty France"
area, was a region that had been losing population for a century or so;
that decline has now been halted, thanks largely to an influx of people
from outside the region, in from Britain and Holland, seeking a quiet
location in which to settle. The region's second city,
Brive la Gaillarde,
has just under fifty thousand inhabitants; it is the biggest town,
though not the departmental capital, of the Corrèze department,
the southernmost of the region's three departments. Apart from Limoges
and Brive, no town in the Limousin has more than 20,000 inhabitants;
towns such as
Tulle,
Aubusson and
Guéret are small market towns that have grown little in the last century.
Once a Roman city, Limoges, lying on the river
Vienne and on a main route between Paris and Toulouse, has always been
a major centre, in this relatively sparsely populated region. In the
Middle Ages, it was renowned as a centre of arts and culture. In the
nineteenth century, it became famed throughout Europe, and beyond, for
its porcelaine; indeed the city became rich with its porcelaine
industry, and much of the city centre dates from this period.
Brive-la-Gaillarde, on the river Corrèze is an
attractive small city, with a historic centre built in the pale honey
coloured local stone. Brive is also the most important centre in
southern Limousin on account of its position as a communications hub,
being the point where the east west route between Lyon and Bordeaux
crosses the north-south route between Paris and Toulouse. Tulle, a few
miles up the Corrèze, is a small manufacturing town that has given its
name to a type of fine loose meshed lacy fabric, used in the clothing
industry. The town rises up the steep sides of the narrow river valley.
Aubusson, in the Creuse department, is another textile town, famed
worldwide for its tapestries; Aubusson tapestries were famous from
the15th century onwards, but the industry declined in the early
twentieth century, until it was relaunched in the late 1930's by Jean
Lurçat, reputedly the greatest tapestry designer of the 20th century.
Rural Limousin is an land of deciduous woods and
fields in the west and northwest, of sheep grazing land in the north,
and an upland area of spruce forests and grazing land on the Plateau de
Millevaches (the thousand cows plateau) in the east. In the south west,
the region borders the Dordogne; the
river Dordogne
itself cuts through the south west of the region, after several
kilometres where it, in its steep wooded valley, it forms the border
with the neighbouring region of Auvergne. Forming the north-western
edge of the Massif Central, it is a region that is relatively well
watered, particularly in the east. The south-western part of the
region, including the area round Brive, can be hot in summer.
Travel information:
Access:by
TGV from Paris
Gare Montparnasse, train from many cities, motorway from Paris,
Toulouse or Clermont Ferrand. Regional airport: Limoges, served by
several
low cost airlines from the UK and Belgium.
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