Périgord-Limousin, land of artistic crafts

In the land of know-how

Ah Périgord-Limousin! His puys covered with chestnut thickets, its wild valleys with clear waters, its small villages nestled in the middle of the bocage... and its artisans!

Come on, don't be surprised by such an over-representation of women and men who devote themselves to creation in a country that was believed to be mainly a birther and breeder of calves under the mother! “But nevertheless,” the esthete with exclusively morals will perhaps say to me naughty (urban), we are far away, here, in the heart of these green countryside, from the artistic vibrations that animate the hearts of our metropolises from Soho to Saint-Germain-des-Prés! – I'm not, I'm not, my friend, I will answer him then, visatz bien, take a good look around us, discover what built the history of Périgord-Limousin and then you will understand…”

As you travel through our small towns, you will notice that they have often kept their factories specializing in local production, lu coteu de Nontron, Nontron and its knife, Saint-Yrieix and its porcelain, Saint-Junien and its gloves... By following the course of our rivers, you will realize that, for centuries, strings of forges have stood on their banks, tanneries, spinning mills and fulling mills... As you travel through our countryside, you will see the countless traces left by successive generations of wood, iron and stone craftsmen...

Then you will understand that, far from being a simple small country far from the pulsations of the modern world where artisans and creators exhausted by the urban tumult have come to find refuge, there is a long tradition of know-how perpetuated in Périgord-Limousin. That of a true manufacturing countryside, long populated by worker-peasants, which always knows how to make the most of its local resources.