A 3-Day Trip in Lovely Limoges, France

Just like any other lovely cities in France, Limoges is one small but charming city much enjoyable when wandering on foot.How to get there: you can take a 3-hour train ride from Paris (and other major cities) to reach Limoges’ awesomely old-designed train station (Gare de Benedictins).And while you wait for your train to arrive, why not have an éclair and French cream pie?

Being popular for its high quality porcelain, Limoges can be well travelled in a day or two max (or more if you add museums and zoos/parks).

On our only free-day (not chilling at friends’ place for free foodies and wine!), we head on to the center after breakfast from our splendid 1970’s hotel (Castel Faugeras).

Walking from our hotel to city center took about 6km, enjoying the bright sky and cold breeze of its autumn (and picking sweet wild raspberries along the way). We checked out the City Hall (with that huge tower clock and lavish fountain front and scattered broken porcelains around its gardens), passed by the university area, and roamed around the Old Quarter (where houses were built on plywood and muds –a UNESCO site too). From the city center and after a superb lunch, we head on for a beautiful and relaxed stroll around the lake and crossed the centuries-old roman-era bridges of St. Martial and St. Etienne. Really worth the waste of time, sitting by the bench, cuddling with your sweetheart with the waters gushing sound on the background (aaaahhhhh…life). And just when you had enough of the cuddles, head up to the Gothic Limoges Cathedral (just along the lake). It is majestic (but not as grand as the La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona) and inside the cathedral is the creepy music of bamboo organ playing, a little ghostly but makes it more awesome!

And oh, enjoy the night life in Limoges at the Old Quarter! Go at the restaurant/bar just beside the church (pictured above) – it’s the locals’ favorite (well, for my husband and his rock star friends). On our next visit (hopefully summer), we hope to visit the zoo (closed during winter) for our soon-to-come mini-Lau (yey!).

Eating out in Limoges, France: Indulge at “Chez Alphonse”

In a 3-day visit to my husband’s hometown, we only had one chance to eat out (I must say French hospitality is impeccable and irresistible – we gorged on local foods at friends’ invitations).

And this only place we gorged in is absolutely leveled (or maybe a little more) to the home-cooked quality food and premium aged wines we’ve had at our friends’ dining tables! No wonder, this restaurant was my husband’s favorite since he was in college – a cozy and small restaurant within the old quartier of Limoges (a UNESCO world heritage), but once you get inside you know you’re in for some treat with smells that make you so hungry you want to scream out for the menu!

It was lunchtime and the restaurant was quite packed with locals –professors, students, and professionals –and like any wise travel tips say, go where the locals go and you’re in for a real-deal local food (without robbing you off with the price!). We waited a bit for a table (guaranteeing this is an “it” eatery) and as soon as we got our seats –food list to order was ready (excitedly)!

For our starter, of course we had a French Pate (duck liver and fats, yum!) –and at this restaurant, they offered it on unlimited serving! Oh I could not breathe with my maneuver of biting and chewing and biting another one while my mouth is full. Don’t blame me, it’s just sooooo gooooood (if only my husband took a photo while I was eating it)! Partnered with a freshly baked crunchy French bread and that tingly-sweet pickles, just perfect! I could stare at this picture all day.

So my husband had to remind me to stop eating pate because we had to move on to the mains we ordered: escargot (politely taken out of the shells so I can just squall at it) cooked in wine and that heavenly, divine pork liver in baked creamy potato French dish. It’s hard not to overact just describing how awesome they tasted! Red wine (shiraz) was just perfect.

And making that grand finale on our table is a puffy/spongy cake swamped in magnificent tasting cream with brittle caramel on top. I don’t need to say more with this picture.

I know that after my trip to France, I’d be craving and crying for these foods in Dubai. And now that I’m pregnant –medically disallowed of anything raw or any animal liver –all I could do is write about my gastronomic/foodgasm experience while aghast and crying for these porn foodies until I get to taste them once more…