Feniers is in the heart of the Plateau de Millevaches, an upland area in the Limousin region (center) of France. It covers approximately 3,500 km² and crosses the boundaries of three French departements: the Corrèze, the Creuse and the Haute-Vienne.
Apparently, Millevaches (which I had simply translated into 1,000 cows– which could also be true!) evolved from a local patois word, vacca, meaning water spring, and mille meaning 1,000. So basically the name refers to the region’s countless springs, brooks and natural ponds.
In fact, an important little spring bubbles up in Feniers and turns into the Creuse river, a beauty that runs 164 miles before converging into the Vienne (which originates just south of Feniers) en route to its confluence with the Loire.
Bored yet?
The landscape is rolling fields, woodland and streams. Small villages and ancient church steeples around every corner. It’s beautiful– and an outdoor paradise if you’re into biking, hiking or fishing. Oh and mushroom hunting. The woods here are loaded with chanterelles and porcinis (girolles and cepes here). And I think Beth nailed it when she said this place feels like Vermont, NH, Nova Scotia and Oregon all rolled into one.
So we started exploring the last couple of days.
But first I have to tell you about our B&B experience on Thursday morning. You can find a link to it here. The place, Moulin des Farges, was really beautiful. Comfortable rooms. Beautiful grounds. Great location close to the village of Meymac. And we were so impressed by our host. When we first arrived he immediately offered us a welcome drink– which is pretty customary at a B&B. I had a cup of tea and Beth took an offered glass of wine. My tea came with a very nice piece of cake. Beth got stale Cheetos. With red wine. Not kidding.
The next morning, around 10am when we went to check out, we noticed that there two breakfast trays laid out in the dining room. One had been ravaged– presumably by the German couple that were with us at the B&B that night. The other was just sitting there: bread, croissants, jam. It was nice.
Beth continued down to the car and I met up with Andy to pay. He asked us if we were leaving, and I told him yes. We were anxious to head to a market. Obviously he had expected us to stay and pay for breakfast– which was $25 for two and I had chosen NOT to add it when I booked the room. He was pissed. What an asshat! It is OPTIONAL.
Then, to add insult to injury, the prick added up the bill. Come to find out our welcome drinks hadn’t been welcome drinks at all. The bastard had charged us for them! 7.50 euro for the wine and 2.50 euro for the tea. WHAT?! I was pissed but I held it together, paid the man and left without a word. I got my revenge with an evil Booking.com review. And amazingly a woman had reviewed this place just before me. Same crap AND he refused to turn on the heat in her room when she said she was freezing. He chastised her and said it was too expensive. Douche.
Reap what you sow my friend.
But Beth and I had a blast for the rest of the day. Went to a market 20 minutes north of Feniers in a little village called Felletin. Lots of vendors and nice products. We bought strawberries, local farmers cheese, sausage, melon, cured jambon, zucchini, potatoes and a beautiful chicken still sporting its head. Enough for a feast!
For lunch we shared an excellent Provencal pizza around the corner. We also decided a little tarte tartin wasn’t out of the question. Why not?! It was cheap and delicious. Will definitely be heading back there soon.
After lunch we took a ten minute drive up to Aubusson to see the tapestry museum. Though I can’t say I’m much for tapestry, it is awfully difficult not to be impressed by these amazing pieces of art and the amount of time it took artisans to craft them. And several of them were very cheeky. Definitely worth a detour.
Afterwards we drove back to our new Airbnb. Our French hosts are SO SWEET and generous. They moved here from Paris for an early retirement eight years ago and never looked back. They love living here and Dominique is into biking and mushroom hunting. Hmmmm. AND Nicole has chickens and horses. Double Hmmmm. We will have to stay in touch with these people.
Once we got settled I worked for a few hours (finally– some decent wifi) and Beth read. It was nice to be able to just hang out in a place we would be staying at for a few days. Really wish we were able to be in the Feniers house– but soon enough!
Friday was another great day. We visited Ussel, a town of 12,000 about 30 minutes south of us, and loved it. Went to their excellent market, got lost and couldn’t find our car, went for a pee at a local bar and wound up spending an hour talking to everyone. Our new friend, Pasquale, (who knows our house what are the odds?) starting buying us short glasses of rose at 11:30am. So we politely cut out and headed down to our final destination before it got too crazy: Chateau de Val, a beautiful, old fortress castle on a lake. And we weren’t disappointed! Freaking gorgeous.
We had lunch at the castle restaurant. Not so gorgeous, but my lamb was delicious and the pitchet of house red wasn’t so bad either. However, he guy who served us was a real charmer and couldn’t take his eyes off of Beth. Hahahah! We also had fun watching a young French family have dinner next to us. The kids were so well behaved and the guy was a really good Dad, patiently teaching them the ins and outs of the French table. As they left he asked us where we were from; and when we told him Portland, OR his face lit up and he said: “BEER!” Ha ha ha. Too funny. We definitely have a reputation in France for beer.
Afterwards we decided to drive a little more and went to visit the ski resort a little over an hour east of Feniers. The town and the facility were much more than we hoped for and we were both really excited, at some point in the future, to start skiing again.
So it was a long day of driving and it was nice to be home. Hung out and watched rugby and hit the hay early. Today we are going for a long walk and tonight we are going to a friend’s house for dinner in Faux la Montagne. Should be fun!
A demain.
Hotel Féniers 
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