Property Limousin - Haute-Vienne Limousin, France

Haute-Vienne - Limousin France

The Limousin is made up of three Départements, which are the French equivalents of English counties. Corrèze (19), Creuse (23), Haute-Vienne (87)

Haute-Vienne

Although primarily a rural area, the Haute-Vienne contains the regional capital of Limoges along with some smaller towns such as Saint-Junien, which was a traditional centre for glove making. Otherwise the population is distributed through smaller villages and hamlets, another factor that the prospective immigrant to the Haute-Vienne will find attractive.

Route of Richard the Lionheart through the Haute-Vienne

Running from Charente roughly north to south down to and through the Haute-Vienne to Correze is the Route of Richard the Lionheart or Cœur de Lion, as he is still known in France. It is strange that although Richard the Lionheart was only king for 10 years (1189 to 1199) he remains one of England's most famous and romantic monarchs. We should not forget that he was also Duke of Normandy and Aquitaine, Count of the Angevins.

Richard died from an crossbow arrow wound received during his siege of the castle of Châlus-Cabrol at Châlus in the Haute-Vienne. The archer was captured but Richard is said to have pardoned him and sent him away with 100 shillings, a small fortune in those days. Perhaps this adds to the romance associated with him,

His route, which is signposted and can be followed by car, takes you through the department and past some castles or chateau, the most famous (apart from Chalus) being Rochechouart. The castle dates back to the 10 th century and was the seat of the Viscount of Rochechouart whose lands encompassed much of the south-west of the present department of Haute-Vienne.

After being shattered in the Wars of Religion, it was renovated before being sentenced to destruction during the French revolution. Luckily for us, the hardness of the stone stopped this sentence from being carried out.

The stone in the local area comes from a pre-historic meteor strike and there is a museum dedicted to this in the town.

In 1836,the chateau was acquired by the Department and is presently the main office of the local authorities and houses the provincial Modern Art Museum.

Chateau in the Haute Vienne

The route runs for 180km and passes these castles:

Chateau de Rochebrune
Chateau de Rocheouart
Chateau de Brie
Chateau de Montbron
Chateau de Chalus-Chabrol
Chateau des Cars
Chateau de Lastours
Chateau de Neron
le Chalard
Chateau de Jumilhac-le-Grand
Cite de Saint Yreix-le-Perche
Chateau de Coussac-Bonneval
Cite de Segur
Chateau d'Arnac-Pompadour

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