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Haute-Vienne is a French department named after the Vienne River. It is one of three departments which together, constitute the French
region of Limousin.
The chief and largest city of the Haute-Vienne is Limoges. All other towns in the department have less than 20,000 inhabitants.
Major towns include
Limoges
Limoges name has been synonymous with fine porcelain since the 1770s when European artists set out to copy
techniques perfected by the Chinese five centuries earlier. There are plenty of crafts museums
about town showing examples of Limoges pottery but the kaolin mines are long exhausted and any living
industry is thin on the ground.
The city's landmark building is Cathédrale St-Etienne which, built on the model of the cathedral at
Amiens, is one of the few Gothic churches south of the Loire. Limoges has a lively student population and
in late September there's an important gathering of writers, dramatists and musicians at the Festival
International des Théâtres Francophones. Every other January there's a contemporary dance festival and
on the third Friday of October the town's few vegetarians make exodus while everyone else hordes into the
rue de la Boucherie to gorge on pig's trotters, sheep's testicals and all sorts of charming offal.
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