Rue de la Boucherie and the Maison de la Boucherie
Limoges's butchers' quarter is one of the best-preserved medieval trade streets in France, its 15th-century half-timbered houses still occupied by food vendors and restaurants. At its heart sits the tiny Maison de la Boucherie, a restored butcher's shop-museum that explains how this guild dominated city life for five centuries.
Eating on the Street
The street's restaurants lean hard into Limousin tradition: expect thick slabs of entrecôte from locally reared cattle, veal kidneys in mustard sauce, and the city's beloved clafoutis — a baked batter pudding studded with cherries from the surrounding countryside. La Boucherie restaurant at number 17 has been feeding locals and visitors since the 1930s and remains one of the most honest addresses in the city.
For something lighter, the traiteurs (deli counters) along the street sell excellent rillettes de Limoges — a coarser, more rustic cousin of the Tours version — alongside house-made terrines that travel well wrapped in paper for a riverside picnic.
The Maison de la Boucherie Museum
This single-room museum inside a restored medieval butcher's house is free to enter and takes about 20 minutes to explore. The displays explain how the butchers' guild, the Confrérie de Saint-Aurélien, controlled meat sales in Limoges from the 12th century right up to the French Revolution, and how the street's distinctive overhanging upper floors were designed to shade the meat displayed below.
The guild still exists today in ceremonial form and holds its annual Fête de Saint-Aurélien in October, when the street is decorated, traditional costumes are worn and the whole neighbourhood smells of roasting meat.
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