OK, St Leonard is certainly well worth visiting for the quality of the buildings in the medieval town, the church (despite its impact on me) and the food (beef!).
The afternoon and evening yesterday had warmed up and, after a thunderstorm during the night it cleared even more so we left in a crisp, bright morning light with blue skies framed by the narrow medieval streets. Emerge from the old town and the land just drops away to the river valley and the rolling countryside beyond.
We followed the chemin down to the river and crossed on the oldest bridge with a wonderful view of other, newer and higher bridges further down stream. Then, after climbing up to the main road we dodged heavy traffic for a bit then left it at a large factory where we began to steadily climb higher, through country paths and woodland, up to look back at St Leonard. Our little camera’s wide angled lens does not do such views justice but in the photo below you can just make out the spire of the church in the distance.
It was good walking country and the weather was the best we had enjoyed since before Vezelay.
The small villages we walked through were quite lovely but it soon became clear that these were not the remote hamlets we were used to. We were now a short drive out of Limoges and these were villages full of beautifully restored houses, with excellent gardens and, in the village we stopped at for a coffee the local primary school was busy and lively with children and young, stylishly dressed mothers. We were now in commuterville en France. It didn’t stop the café from being very charming and old-world. We would have gladly stopped here for lunch if we had been here on holiday.
The closer we got to the city the greater was its influence so, when we arrived at the little town with the supermarket on its outskirts it was clear that the whole town was in fine fettle with a brand new high school and college, a big library and the town’s summer fair had been an arts festival, too. The church we stopped at there was worth popping into with some fine medieval silverwork on display.
By now, Alison was wilting from the heat and we were glad of the cool shade before moving on.
The place we had our lunch was in a small park serving a new estate of houses, French style, with a wide range of styles and plot sizes mixed together. These would have been houses bought from little shops run by small house building companies. The local authority (or another developer) would have laid out the streets, brought in the services and put down the foundations in order to establish the basic footprints of the settlement. Some people would have bought a house design suited for their current and future needs. Others would have settled for a smaller house with options to expand at a later date (or dates). Se there were small houses on largish plots with couples or young families as well as full-grown ones with more mature families installed.
We noticed (as always) the gradual change as we entered the town. Even on a river path the numbers of people willing to exchange “Bonjours” rapidly declines to almost zero once you get into the suburbs. You have to wait until you are leaving the suburbs before you start exchanging greetings automatically with everyone you pass.
Still, it is good to be in a city! We needed to get things done here, like buy me some boots that don’t damage my feet (some hope) and get washing done, etc. Also do some research, relax, etc.
The hotel is a typical Etap but it is undergoing refurbishment so the ground floor common areas are stripped bare, the reception is a desk with a computer and phone on it and one of the lifts doesn’t work. You can only get wifi in the dining room which is a bit noisy during the day (drills, etc) but the mixture of people using the place is amazing – from students and foreign workers to posh business men and women. Also spotted a posh businessman with someone far too young etc to be anything other than his mistress – cheapskate using a hotel like this for his liaisons!
The hotel is some distance from the centre (but close to the very impressive station) so did a lot of hobbling back and forth into town - we both liked the city and will come back properly. You can get great ceramics here for very low prices, too!!
Getting into some French TV but saw the weirdest film – a sort of Carry on film meets ‘Allo ‘Allo in French with some English actors but all about a strange (obviously popular comedian) dashing back and forth across the Channel during the second world war as a resistance fighter but lots of slapstick and farce with bawdy bits etc….
Annoyed at the French insisting on dubbing over everything rather than sub-titling! Grrrr!
Camino Day 45 mardi 17/5/10 - St Leonard de Noblat to Limoges
We said goodbye to the other three at breakfast time – we may see Rene and Bernard again on the road or in Compostella but not Yves because he will go home from Perigueux. But we exchanged email and other details with Yves and Rene so may be in touch again.
We tried to leave the refugio ship-shape and then set off on the road. Consistent sunshine from the start but with some clouds and a nice breeze so never too hot. Yesterday when I looked at the map and guide, decided that trainers were appropriate but there was a lot of scrambling up hill bits early on and a lot of off-road stuff – luckily the trainers survived.
Beautiful walking again with hills, woods and vistas of distant hills, but lots of ups and only a bit down! We had a coffee in an auberge that was very rural – loos accessed through the kitchen – we went into the open church and found relics of two saints – Gauche and Fauche (???) and had given up on the idea of coffee when there it was...
And lunch time again there was an open church and then a Super U we reached before it closed, so had our picnic lunch across the road from it in a little park. When we set off after lunch we saw Patrick (from 2 days ago) in the distance and he stopped to talk to us before dashing off to secure accommodation in Limoges (with the Soeurs). We approached the centre of town from along the river Vienne with the cathedral rising above us – definitely the way to arrive – and over a Roman bridge...
In the cathedral a man saw us and invited us into the Sacristy to be “tamponed” (he stamped our books for us). And we met Patrick again and Angelika, the German woman who is walking with him and Robert now. We also rescued Angelika’s pilgrim guide which she had left in the cathedral and returned it to her at the convent refugio near by.
Tourist info office gave us a list of hotels and we settled on the cheap one in the guide. But when we got there (quite a long walk out in the wrong direction) it was shut until 6pm – it didn’t look great either. We tried phoning them but could not decipher the message on their recording and no point leaving a message.
So back to the tourist office (also to ask about Intersport shops for new boots for Ian). The tourist woman called the hotel but they only had a room without a shower. So we opted for the more expensive but en-suite Hotel Etap. And found Intersport, bought Ian’s boots (and socks) then had dinner in our room courtesy of MonoPrix.
Pilgrims head this way out of town
and emerge to find the road drops suddenly to the valley below
This way out over the oldest bridge has been walked by pilgrims for many hundreds of years
but the crossing was beautiful. This view in particular.
back on the Way with some sunshine!
You are supposed to look back at this point to see St Leonard.... The church spire is that thin pointy bit pushing up out of the trees which were not so prominent when the guidebook suggested looking back. Also my camera's very wide angle lens prevents me from doing it full justice!
these sheep desperately wanted out of their fold!
First really clear skies for weeks! and there is a cross in it, too..
It is now so warm the cattle are cooling themselves in the large pond.
Attractive little villages either completely renovated or well on the way, but still lovely.
After lunch we headed down the main road before finding our way onto the river path - bad signposting took us through an estate of flats and over large areas of uncut grass before we found the steps down to the river.
And then you turn the bend in the river and you get this view - a timeless way to enter a city as a pilgrim.
The bridge took us to the steep climb up to the cathedral
OK so the picture is a bit wonky but we were heading for the hotel on a busy road and it was a quick snap of an amazing structure
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