The joy of discovering a new town or village in France is just a right or left hand turn away! And that is what we did one Sunday in July. We drove along the Lot river, turned south and discovered a beautiful village, Collonges-la-Rouge.
Collonges-la-Rouge is entirely built with red sandstone, its existence is proven since the eighth century thanks to the donation of the count of Limoges of the parish to the monastery of Charroux.
The village is a member of the Les Plus Beaux Villages de France association ("The most beautiful villages of France"), and is actually where this association was created. Its one of the most visited sites in the Limousin.We came across the the Boutang du Peyrat house, with parts of the 15th, 16th &17th centuries, which is a historical monument. The protected elements are a window with preserved Louis XIII woodwork, a 17th-century entrance door, a wooden chimney, its facade and roof.
We had a wonderful afternoon walking the streets and discovering stores selling "knight gear" as Mini-Lili calls the swords and shields, restaurants, bakeries and ice-cream stores (as you know, I will only have lavender ice-cream while in France and so I was able to resist the vanilla, strawberry and coconut offered at most the of the shops).
We encountered many cats. They were in window sills, behind flower pots, on roof tops, under tables. We stopped counting after 10.
We bought a baguette from the local boulangerie and had a picnic in the park with a few other tourists. Our cooler was proving to be the best idea we had come up with this trip! Our rosé, tomatoes and strawberries were chilled. We unpacked our cheeses, yes 3 different types and laid out the picnic blanket and had a wonderful lunch watching the life on the streets of this lovely village.
We found this village by "accident" and had a wonderful afternoon. I highly recommend taking a right when you should have taken a left!
Happy travels!
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