Limoges
201 km
Tuesday 9 March
Environmentally aware and sensitive to the improvement of its living environment in general, Contres is concerned with sustainable development and is striving to incorporate this concept into each project undertaken in the town. Its efforts are notable in reducing the consumption of energy and, very recently, it revamped the municipal car fleet by purchasing an electrical vehicle for travel within the town. Energy saving is also a major concern for the Contres area joint local authorities group. As a result, the water park that will open this summer is to be powered by heat exchange pumps. Furthermore, projects involving the use of photovoltaic energy panels are being implemented as part of sports infrastructure renovations. Though Contres is working hard to ensure a bright future, it is not forgetting its past. As such, it is endeavouring to preserve and promote its architectural heritage as the town develops
Limoges is nicknamed the capital of the arts of fire, due to the presence of the porcelain industry in the city as well as enamel and stained-glass crafts. A European centre for ceramics that combines vim and vigour with a good quality of life, Limoges (with its 140,000 inhabitants) is the capital of the Limousin Region and the Haute-Vienne department. It is a city that boasts a dense cultural infrastructure: the Opera-theatre, the Zénith concert hall, the French multimedia library, as well as five cultural centres. As a green town, it offers its population almost 700 hectares of landscaped areas. But it is also a sporting town whose basketball team, CSP Limoges, became the first French club to win a European Cup in 1993. The town’s 310 clubs bring together 30,000 people who take part in 70 disciplines. Limoges is the traditional site for the final finishing line in the Tour du Limousin and will be welcoming the Paris-Nice race for the second time.
