December 1st

1^st December  St. Laurent sur Gorre  through Limoges to Oradour sur Glane

Hilary was on a mission this morning. I had told her in the evening that if she was up, dressed and ready to leave with all her gear secured by 9.15 we could go and look for the geese to feed, and take some sugar lumps and lollies for the donkey. Hilary is not speedy at anything she does, mornings are a constant battle and so is meal time, however today, with the thought of hand feeding the donkey again, she was up like a greyhound and off, ready before 9.15 and had to wait for me to finish brushing my  teeth before we could go. We set off through the ankle deep leaves and damp grass, me drinking the last of my cup of tea as I walked, Hilary swinging a stick, and bread and lollies, over to the paddock where the donkey, a sheep and the geese were. The donkey was a wee way off, with its back turned to us, but when Hilary whistled it looked over and came sauntering over to her hoping for a treat. The sheep, with bell on collar, but clanger missing, also came over, at a much faster rate. Hilary hand fed the donkey a few sweets and then a little hard bread squares, and then the sheep stood on its hind legs, forelegs on the fence wires, begging for a taste too. It wouldn’t take the food directly from her hand, so she tossed a lolly to it, but it missed it. The geese weren’t remotely interested but I suspect they had recently been fed with hot mash or something because the chickens and ducks were all pecking around up there, and as we left the geese flew/waddled back up to their accommodation and began scuffling around on the ground.

We headed back to the truck and were on the road north by 9.45. We took some narrowish “D”  roads before meeting up with the N21 which is the next step up on roads, still only one lane in each direction, and in need of a bit of smoothing in places, but an OK road. They don’t have very much shoulder on their roads here so what you drive on is pretty much it and there aren’t white lines on the edge either, it can be a little nerve wracking when you meet a large vehicle coming the other way as you often pass with what seems like inches to spare at a combined speed of 180kms/hr. The speed limit on the roads with 2 lanes in each direction is at least 110km/hr  and 130 on the motorways, again, the lanes seem narrow compared to those at home, and the markings aren’t as informative as those I am used to either, with no suggestion of safe speed for corners, or severity of the bend. It all takes a bit of getting used to, especially as the truck is significantly higher, wider and longer than anything I have driven before.

We only had about 20kms to drive to Limoges which we wanted to visit to see ceramics and enamel, the two major crafts the area is renowned for.  We parked opposite the tourist information centre, pretty much on the main street, pleased to have found a park which we could access.  We went across the street to see what information we could glean, not a lot really, a few pamphlets and a map, I asked the woman if there was a walking tour marked which we could follow and she said no, not really, just walk anywhere. (Later after we were sitting back in the truck about to leave we had another look at one of the brochures and found that there is in fact a walking tour (we had seen markers on our ambles that we thought were indicators that there was a historical walk), and that the pamphlet had information about each site. Nevermind, we walked up the main street to look at some ceramic shops and a few windows with enamel Cloissone type work. Unfortunately it was now 1230 and so most places were closed or try to close until 2pm or later, so we went to the truck, had lunch, and then drove around a few streets trying to find a park nearer the old centre. We eventually found a spot down by the river by an old bridge, and then climbed up into the walled part of the city.

The jardins, though it was definitely wintery, still had lovely structure, with topiaried little trees and ponds and a fountain. There was a large Cathedral in the background as well as a chapel which no longer served as a religious building but was "The Museum of Resistance” but was unfortunately closed as it is relocating to a hundred or so metres further away. I had that highlighted as a place I’d like to have seen, so that was a little bit of a bother, but that’s the breaks.  Instead we went and had a coffee (we forgot the really important “grand” on the front so were served up with an egg-cup full of “stand the spoon up in it” coffee, and a small jug of cold milk. Not so good!!!! Felt my carotids pulsating as I swallowed it, and the legs started giggling before it had reached my stomach.

We went and had a look around the cathedral, nice stained glass, and then to the Museum with great enamel work. Some incredible stuff there, hard to believe much of it was done in the 1500s.