Limoges, "An Open City"

Limoges is the administrative capital of the Limousin région and famous for its porcelain. Not that I'd ever heard of either of them before. But it was a nice day out and a good opportunity to take some photos. (None of which would win a place in the Warwick Show but I hope they are enjoyed all the same.)

The first one my mum took of me outside of a toy car shop. There were thousands of old toy cars and figurines inside which I would have loved to have photographed, but it may have been considered rude. Though the old man didn't look up even once from his repair work. I'm not even sure if the cars were for sale. It was an incredible collection and one of the most amazing things I've ever seen.

The Jardins de l'Evêché and Cathédrale Saint-Etienne were truly beautiful, except for the toilets. (Note to self, go at every opporunity when in France.)





Still nervous about speaking (and understanding) French, we decided to have Indian for lunch since it was a menu which we were somewhat familiar. It turned out to be our worst experience of the day. (We had had brilliant experiences with the French in Limoges.) Just after this photo was taken, the Indian restaurateur stomped up and snatched the glass from me, chastising me loudly and angrily in French. Then yelled at my mum when she was ordering, especially annoyed that she only ordered one dish (plus rice, naan and 2 drinks) when there was the two of us. And by the time she poured tea all over the table and ground, he well and truly hated us.


The Mairie de Limoges was beautiful as well.


And the Aquarium de Limousin was totally cool. It's built under the town in the tunnels.




Our day ended where it had all began at le Gare de Limoges Bénédictins. A very beautiful train station with very good pastries.



Tout compte fait, une bonne journée. :)

Une carte de Limgoes s'il vous plaît? A map of Limoges please. I'm not sure if it's good French, but the lady at the train station understood me! The hardest part of speaking a foreign language, I had discovered, is the fear of looking stupid. But once you've looked stupid a few times, it's kind of not really a big deal anymore.