Oradour Sur Glane

Just up the road from me. Loads of things to do and see and some great biking roads in this area. We get loads of bike visitors who return year after year, most of them camp nearby.

 

Went there a few years ago, incredibly moving place to visit . I`ll check with the mrs if she can remember where we stayed .

 

Visited a couple of years ago.There is an indoor museum part then the walk around the village.Worth doing if you are interested in WW2 history but it's a very sad story.
There are a couple of hotels in the village within walking distance

 

We stopped on route from La Rochelle to Sarlat and were there for 3-4 hours so that should give a reasonable guide to what's possible timewise. It was the year of the independence referendum in Scotland. You'd think we'd have learned from the past but going through the halls that describe the events leading up to the massacre it was clear the political situation had some very close similarities to the current, at that time, situation back home.

Although the village itself was deliberately left as a reminder of the horrors that took place there it's easy to forget that the Das Reich panzer division committed horrendous acts of violence almost everywhere the went and that Oradour sur Glane was just one of those as they travelled up to Normandy to counter the allies.

Out of all the places relating to the wars that I've been Oradour is the one that has left the greatest impression on me.

 

And Sarlat is even closer to me. One of the rideouts that we take visitors on goes through Sarlat. Most of the bikers who come here stay a week at the campsite in St Leon and then come back because there is so much to see and do.

 

Ok now I'm jealous

 

Jealousy is a wasted emotion. Anyone can get on their bike and visit. Camping is spectacular and very cheap, the guided runs out are free.

 

We stayed about a mile up the road but can't find the place - was a few years ago though

We usually use Gîtes de France[emoji768] holiday rentals. 55,000 holiday rental offers in France to find accommodation

 

I do not run any kind of business and don't have any accommodation to offer, but a lady that I know locally has a gite that sleeps 6 in the countryside who will let it out for €50 per night.
There is usually no problem finding a hotel with room, but many UK visitors tend to book hotels along a route and spend their holiday just riding from one hotel to another and never having the flexibility to stop and look around.

 

Off there early June , staying in limoge then riding around for a couple of days before heading back to cherbourg, heard the roads were good , just hoping it's sunny.

 

It will be sunny.
Rather then Limoges you would do yourself a favour by going a little further south, not much, but to Brive and basing yourself there. The roads to the East of Brive are spectacular into the Correze, and to the west into the Dordogne they are completely different but just as interesting.
I pop up to Limoges quite frequently, my nearest Ducati dealer is there, but the area is not as interesting for bikers or tourists.

 

Ditto what the others said, worth a visit. We did it en route to the Ardeche which is also great for biking and some water sports (canoeing etc). Very moving story especially in conjunction with the mass hangings of men in Tulle on the same drive up through to Normandy. (the killings were in response to resistance attacks)

The positive part of it all was that they arrived in Normandy too late to affect the outcome due to the delaying tactics of the resistance and with the exception of about 30 men the Das Reich were decimated by allied air power in the month that followed. Also worth noting is Das Reich by then had quite a few Vichy French fighting in it's ranks, they weren't all the ex Hitler Youth radicalised SS that they had at the start.

 

Wow that would have been a strange route, it is almost directly west to east. It is on route from me to the Ardeche, I did it the other day, 6 hours and 450 kms to Aubenas, but the Ardeche is a completely different area of France.
Tulle is also in our area and is worth a visit as long as you read the history before the visit.

 

It was a trek. We came through Brittany from Roscoff and visited the u boat pens at St Nazairre. Weather slowed progress and meant we gave up near La Rochelle as it was heaving down (and my rad started weaping). Then went inland Via Limoges, clairemont ferrand and arrived at St Martin D'ardeche about 9pm. Had a day in the Canoe and from there we went down to Portbeau on the Spanish med (via a look at Millau bridge) and back through the Pyrenees on the N260 to Santander. We only spent just over an hour at Oradour but we passed so close we couldn't not do it.

We were drawn back to the Ardeche as we had done a school trip there as kids and had fond memories. Funny story, is that when recently looking on street view at the Belle Vue hotel in St Martin you can see the 4 of us eating breakfast. The google maps car must have passed by at the time.

 

In the interests of the forum, I have just been for a drive up to Limoges, near Oradour, me on the 848 and her on her ST2. It is only about 70 miles from our house. We popped into the Ducati dealer for a browse as usual. Trouble is that the wife persuaded me to order myself a new Supersport, roll on delivery date of early July!