Corrèze is a department of rolling hills and rushing rivers, situated between the Massif Central and the Périgord, whose landscapes of oak woodlands, wet meadows and limestone plateaus have inspired generations of writers and artists. Brive-la-Gaillarde, at the crossroads of Auvergne, Limousin and Périgord, is the economic and cultural heart of a department that has managed to preserve its rural authenticity.
Turenne, a former sovereign viscounty whose ruined castle still overlooks the medieval market town and the Brive plain, was until 1738 an independent principality in the hands of the La Tour d’Auvergne family. Collonges-la-Rouge, built entirely of red sandstone and listed among the most beautiful villages in France, boasts a castle and several stately manors that bear witness to the prosperity of the viscounty’s officials. Ventadour, a ruined castle on its rocky outcrop overlooking the Luzège, was the residence of the troubadour Bernart de Ventadorn.
Corrèze is also the home of Georges Pompidou and Jacques Chirac, two Presidents of the Republic who were born there and established their political careers there, continuing a tradition of attachment to the local area which is one of the defining features of Corrèze’s identity.