Advice on a trip to Limoges

[stuartmoss]

Hi All, Just booked some bargain flights so after any tips / advice form anyone who has been. The station building looks very grand. Does anyone know if there is public transport from the airport to the city centre? Also can anyone recommend a day return on the train anywhere (within 90 minutes, the Mrs moans if longer). Cheers all!

 

[30907]

Poitiers if you're into historic churches, with a public footbridge right across the station.

Brive has a pleasant Old Town and two routes to choose from, one of which (the main line) goes through Uzerche which looks nice from the bypass (!) and goes on to Souillac, a pleasant little town on the Dordogne.

Not been to Ussel but I guess it falls into the pleasant small French town category.

Périgueux is within your 90 minute limit and has a frequent train service by TER standards, but I've only driven through.

 

[stuartmoss]

Good stuff, I'll get researching those places, thank you!

 

[stut]

There isn't a bus, but there is a fixed price shared taxi scheme to the Benedictins station only.

Périgueux is a lovely town with a great little cathedral - make sure to visit on a market day, and stock up with some of the country's best produce (just over 1h on the Bordeaux line).

Are you planning on hiring a car (or bikes) while you're there? You can see quite a few things by foot and train, but the joys of the region really are more rural.

 

[30907]

The wartime memorial site of Oradour sur Glane isn't far away but no rail access.

 

[Gordon]

Dome Limoges and all its railway many times over many years.

All the lines out of Limoges are reasonably scenic.

Ussel line has nice hills, valleys, viaducts etc. Not much at Ussel when you get there though

Limoges - Brive is very scenic for a main trunk line, and there is (unusually for France a bucolic alternative route Limoges - Brive via St Yrieix.

Poitiers line is through pleasant undulating countryside

Angouleme line is also pleasant undulating route but runs into somewhat flatter territory at the west end

Sadly none of the lines now has the famous roaring X2800 railcars - but you might see the preserved ones at Limoges Benedictins - which indeed has a very famous station building.

Here is a picture of mine from 1979:

http://gwizz.piwigo.com/_datas/1/t/...a9//2014/03/28/20140328180341-b18393d8-me.jpg


Limoges has a trolleybus system, now rare in Europe outside Switzerland!

All timetables available on the regional SNCF website:

http://www.ter.sncf.com/limousin/depliant/recherche




.,

 

[LAX54]

The wartime memorial site of Oradour sur Glane isn't far away but no rail access.

WELL worth a visit, it's quite chilling there when you think what was done to all the Towns folk during WW2 :cry:

http://www.oradour.info/

 

[stuartmoss]

Hi All,

Just a little trip review from my Leeds to Limoges trip, where I went last Thursday, returning on Sunday night. The flights were with Ryanair, and I paid £77 return each for two of us, I found the prices using Skyscanner back in June, and I booked them on the Ryanair website then. About 6 weeks before the flights, Ryanair changed the time of the outbound flight from 17:10 to 07:40, which basically gave us an extra day in Limoges.

Aboard the plane we had seats 8E and 8F and, pushed back and took off perfectly on time, which I was very pleased about. It was a beautiful morning, and the runway 32 take-off afforded some marvellous views, see here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsrGeaWmLLc (before anyone says anything “small electronic devices placed in flight mode may be used during the entire flight”).

It was cloudy for most of the 95 minute flight, although a small break over Hampshire, allowed me to get some good zoomed footage of Portsmouth: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13kxyJXgVMI .

Landing at Limoges was pleasant, the scenery inbound was partly obscured by some very low cloud, which gave an interesting effect: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_ensFMXq58 .

Limoges Airport, is slightly bigger than my garden shed, but modern enough and fit for the purpose of one aircraft at a time. It was a very short walk from the aeroplane into the terminal building and a 5 minute queue for passport checking. The downside to Limoges Airport is a complete and utter lack of public transport, so to get into town cost 24 Euro in a taxi (only 4 miles). Fortunately we shared the ride with a nice couple from Guiseley.

Limoges itself is a very lovely place to spend a relaxing few days. Plenty to see and do, cathedrals, churches, old town, gardens, parks, shops, events taking place, great bars, restaurants etc. We had a fab time, and the weather really helped, I’ve made quite a detailed cityscape film, so if you’re interested in visiting Limoges, then have a watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_g4nivImAY .

We stayed right in the centre at the Mercure Hotel – very nice it was too, here’s my review of it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpfUUjvHFY8 .

On the Saturday we visited Oradour-sur-Glane, the site of a World War II atrocity, where 642 villagers were murdered by the Nazis in revenge for activity by the French Resistance. This was a 2 Euro 30 minute bus ride from Limoges railway station – I definitely recommend this if you do go to Limoges. My film of the village is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSAmcfH4JQg . There are just three buses a day in each direction, it is bus number 12, and we got the 12:35 bus there from Limoges Bus Station (next to the train station), and the 17:35 bus back. There were about 10 people on each, which were 60 seater coaches.

Unfortunately we didn't manage a rail excursion on this occasion, but we will be returning, and certainly shall do next time. We did have a good look around Limoges-Benedictin station, which architecturally is very impressive indeed.

On the Sunday we lazed around until 16:30, and then took a taxi back to the airport (this time costing 32 Euro – Sunday rates) for a 18:15 flight. From getting out of the taxi to being sat in a tiny cramped departure lounge took 7 minutes. My tip here is don’t go too soon back to the airport, as there is literally NOTHING to do at Limoges Airport other than people watch, and that got pretty boring soon.

We boarded and took off on time (same seats on the way back), here’s some shots from the take-off: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f52j8gB-s3E .

The return flight was 102 minutes, and we landed on Runway 14 at dusk, here’s some footage of the approach, landing and taxi at Leeds: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=po0OMBr58r0 .

All in all this was a good experience. Limoges was lovely, and I would certainly go again.