Day 36: Montrollet to Limoges

October 1, 2023

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We really enjoyed the humble French breakfast we got at the Auberge today, because of the warm hearted and generous way it was served. The pond was glass smooth in the morning sun, but no need for a photo as we had got that yesterday. Dodie used her telescopic vision as well, and declared the area free of Kingfishers to photograph.

We backtracked a bit at first, over roadways we had cycled yesterday. Then, we had noticed some white horses in a field, with one donkey standing apart. I lamented that the horses did not seem to want to play with the donkey, but Dodie theorized that it was a guard donkey, on duty.

Today though things were different, and the donkey was standing with the horses.

It's early, so hair not done up yet (except for the horse with the crew cut).

We soon came to more of the hunters we have been seeing so much of of late. Actually we had seen a sign yesterday setting out quite a limited number of days this month on which hunting is permitted. But this must have been one of them (see the official authorization?).

The fuzzy shot below was grabbed as the pack of dogs had already mostly taken off into the forest. I was glad to see that as we approached, a hunter by the roadside disarmed his shotgun. Only sangliers and chevreuils are on the menu today, no yellow Grampies. We have noticed that the hunters are communicating by walkie talkie. However they still blow the traditional hunting horn. Perhaps that communicates with the dogs.

As for animals, we are most pleased to meet and greet the Limousin cattle that are everywhere here. It's much like seeing all the Charollais in Charolles. Figures.

Dodie has noticed that we have now passed beyond the open crop land, with all the unharvested sunflowers that were perturbing us. We are now in rolling country with oak forests. Also, whenever we see a map we notice that we are now getting rather far south, in France. Another 300 km and we'll be in Toulouse!

A special aspect of this area is the presence of several Menhir, which are large standing stones. These are supposed to have been put up in the Bronze Age, which would be 3300 to 1200 bc. There are about 1200 of these in this corner of France, still far fewer that in Britain.

Here is the menhir of Ceinturat, which I am clearly helping to hold up.

These folks came out to gather mushrooms, though it will need some rain to make for really good pickings. We had a brief chat with them, and later commented that it was good to be able to chat with the local people in French. However we know in Germany and Netherlands it would still happen, but in English. In Spain .. oh, oh.

Since this was a Sunday, not much was open, so we were glad to happen on a Super U. When I see a Super U, I sing out "Super U!" I like them for their cheap but good large "U" brand chocolate bars. Just as a slight linguistic note, we are talking about a supermarket whose name is "U", so it's not the "U" that is "super". Got it? I find this confusing.

Dodie stashed me, as usual, outside the Super, trying to brush aside my plea for chocolate and to focus on salad. But she also mentioned that I should look up Oradour sur Glane, which is where we had come to. There was something special about the place, she had read.

My first thing outside the Super U was to note the two examples of automated machines in the parking lot, something we do not see at home. One is a free standing laundromat, with a quite high cost of 10 euros to wash a large load. I guess the idea is that you can bring your laundry and run it while you shop?

The second is an automated pizza stand, that I suppose heats up a premade pizza. In typical French style, they characterize the pizza as "artisanale", which is stretching it a bit for something popping out of a vending machine. But to be fair, there is no doubt an artisan in the background mixing and stretching the pizzas to stash in the machine. That would make it a bit like baguette dispensing machines we often see in smaller towns.

Having completed my automat research, I fired up the story of Oradour sur Glane. Oh my God! I was not at all prepared for this, and it just about knocked me off the bench. We might just as well have landed in Auschwitz, without realizing it.

On June 10, 1944, four days after D-day, an SS Division was heading north to join the battle. But they were informed by an anti-Resistance arm of the Vichy government that one of their number has been captured by the Maquis, and was being held in nearby Oradour sur Glane. The SS officers responded by herding together all the residents of the village and surrounding areas (including 4 cyclists that happened to be passing through) and massacring them. They put the women and children in the church and burned it. Anyone trying to escape by a window was shot. Men were shot in the legs, doused in kerosene and burned. The whole village was then blown up.

The story, as I read it, continued into later years, as some of the perpetrators were executed, some imprisoned, and some eventually released. Some of those released were Alsatians, who claimed they were conscripted and made to do it. They benefitted from a later amnesty of Alsatians. Only six people survived the massacre, which claimed 643. The last of these only died in 2023, at the age of 97. He had been 18 at the time. One bizarre thing, one of the perpetrators was tracked down in 2014, and charged in Cologne. He was 88. He was released for lack of living witnesses. Had he been tried, it might have been in juvenile court, since he was 19 at the time of the crimes. Can you imagine - 19 year olds doing these attrocities to women, children, and their 18 year old peers?

General de Gaulle decided that the destroyed village should not be rebuilt, but preserved as a monument. The former town is enclosed in a low wall now, and access is through a memorial museum. Lots of French and German heads of state have been by to pay their respects since.

When Dodie came out I told her we should perhaps bypass the village, as we have always avoided concentration camps. But since we were here, we decided to venture a peek.

When we arrived at the actual site, some people were laying a wreath at a memorial above the village.

Here it is. The people represented a veterans' group from another town.

Below the memorial, the museum was an underground structure, which offered access under a road and up into the actual village. I left Dodie watching the bikes in the shade above and descended to the museum. As I walked along the corridor to the village, a woman came the other way, sobbing. This was not going to go well.

I am hesitating to insert these two photos from those in the museum section, because I really don't want to preserve them in the blog, but here goes:

I did carry on to the village, which was surprisingly big. I took a number of random shots, but did not go far or stay long.

Back in the museum, we see that photos of many of the victims had been gathered. There were actually two walls of these, and a voice was reading out the names.

As was the case in Thiepval, there was a "gift" shop too, where one could see that the whole thing has been extensively studied and documented.

Back up with Dodie, we were able to see that while access to the village had to be through the underground museum, the thing was also visible from our road. So this is what we saw as we cycled away:

We saw a house for sale some kms down the road, and as we always do, we speculated on whether we should buy that one. But this was a no, more clearly than for others, because we would have to pass by Oradour on the way to Super U.

We did also pass by a nice auberge. It looked so comfy, and with that stone construction.

We now continued through more pleasant and rolling countryside. The only glitch, the small roads we were using tended to shrink to cow tracks. Then we would have to backtrack, and get onto a slightly more real road.

Back at our Auberge, the proprietor had "pruned" when we said we were heading for Limoges. Why would you go to Limoges? he wondered. When we crested a ridge and got a view of the city, we wondered as well.

But as we got little closer in, it began to look a bit better.

When we got to our hotel, over across the parking lot, we were disappointed to see it surrounded by mostly nothing of interest. However on this day where the temperature was over 30, we were glad to enter our clean, well laid out room, that was also air conditioned.

Here is also my chance to praise the arrangement of shower controls as found in Europe, and NOT in Canada. It's so logical! On the left you choose overhead sunflower type falling water, off, or hand held spray. And on the right is the temperature control, demarcated in degrees. The only thing I wonder, is the system smart enough to compensate for differing incoming hot and cold water pressure and temperature and actually deliver the marked degrees of final temperature?

As usual, (even in Canada) the hand held also offers switchable spray patterns.

From the map available at reception, and also a great web site we found, we learned that Limoges has more to look at than our parking lot. That's good, because we reserved a rare extra day to look around tomorrow. Even so, we set off on foot for a peek. There is an old city area and a separate cathedral, sort of like in Poitiers. We just nipped by the old city area.

On the way in, a pretty nice apartment building.

But this street is not spectacular. That's the train station clock tower at the end.

We arrived first at the St Pierre church. The painted glass and quality of light inside was really attractive. But we also really liked their "no cell phones" sign!

Loosely: You probably came here to talk to God, but he is unlikely to call you on the cell phone, so turn it off!

There was a large case filled with reliquaries, each with bones like these. The labels were now rather faded, but they belonged to various named saints.

Beyond the church we were in St. Pierre Square. This featured the Pavilion du Verdurier, which was clad in tiles. It is now used for art exhibitions but used to be a meat cold storage. There was also a gate that is part of a Lycee, but which is mentioned as the only example of "Jesuit architecture" in Limoges.

Looking around, and beginning to trudge back after our short outing the town still did not look stunning. However, we have plotted out a much longer walk for tomorrow, to the bits that are sure to please. We just hope we don't get too tired looking for them.

3 km walk for a first peek. Tomorrow could be pretty long.

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Today's ride: 46 km (29 miles)
Total: 1,961 km (1,218 miles)

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