Collonges used to be a walled village, a tiny pink Carcassonne, and in the 16th century it was home to a group of aristocratic families who filled in the walled-off space with miniature chateaux. Today, religious, domestic and military architecture have been mixed together in a kind of giant beetroot and limestone soup.

It has its share of gifte shoppes, one of which is devoted entirely to witches. The shop is attached to a “bewitched” crêperie, which set my tourist-tat siren wailing until it was explained to me that pancakes are not only Breton but also typically Corrézien. They’re called tourtous here and are made of local rye flour.

Still, a tourtou by any other name tastes of crêpe, and we went in search of something a bit more imaginative among the village’s many restaurants. This was when I realised that not everyone south of the Loire is on the Mediterranean diet. Weighty Corrézien specialities include stuffed cabbage, calf’s head, fried boudin sausage and duck gizzards. Fortunately, local goat’s cheese salad was also on several menus and this was perfect for a broiling summer’s day — especially served with the local cider.

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Next on our list of les plus beaux villages de France (an official label) was Turenne. From 2km away, it was an enticing sight: crumbling battlements on a hilltop, with slate-roofed medieval houses spiralling down into the valley like boulders thrown out to repel invaders.

Apart from the steepness of the narrow alleys leading up to its castle, Turenne is every bit as visitable as Collonges — but there was nobody there. And all, it seemed, because Turenne’s limestone isn’t pink. Blatant beigeism.

Or perhaps it was turret fatigue. As you drive up to one after another of these droolingly beautiful villages — Ségur-le-Château, set in a crook of the Auvézère River, with a ruined guess-what at its summit; Curemonte, on its rocky promontory, which has no fewer than three guess-whats — you start to think, oh no, not another bloody unspoilt medieval village with a gaggle of turrets and a 12th-century church.

The villages seem to realise this and organise summer-long events in the hope that, even if they don’t manage to draw many passing tourists away from the Paris-Languedoc motorway, at least they’ll keep a few locals from heading for the Med.

Pink Collonges organises weekly paella nights in summer — who needs a holiday on the Costa Blanca? Pompadour has “National Ass Day” (unfortunately, they mean donkeys) and in one village I saw a poster for “le tracteur-pulling”.

At the end of a long sunny day round here, whether you’ve tracteur-pulled or not, you are in dire need of an ice massage. Serge didn’t understand my inquiry about such a service but managed to direct us to a lake, which sounded a good alternative.

The Lac de Poncharal caused un grand scandale when it was created. It was dug out by a former communist mayor of the village, who caused uproar by dispossessing landowners, damming a stream and “disfiguring” the landscape with an imported beach, two snack bars and a pedalo outlet.

But, in my book (and that of the many local families on the beach), he deserves the Nobel Prize for Lakes. The banks of the lake are cutely landscaped, and after a frazzled day visiting medieval stuff in 30-degree heat, there can be few greater pleasures than bouncing off one of the diving boards and plunging headfirst into the cool Lac de Poncharal.

And if you forget to tighten the waistband on your swimmies, nobody will mind. After all, pale British buttocks are still a novelty round here.

Getting there: fly to Limoges from Stansted, Nottingham and Liverpool with Ryanair (www.ryanair.com), or from Southampton with Flybe (0871 700 0535, www.flybe.com).

Where to stay: La Vigne Grande (00 33-5 55 25 39 20, www.pierre.digianni.free.fr) is an attractive chambres d’hôte in a converted barn. It’s near Collonges and has B&B doubles from £26.

Alternatively, in a hamlet just outside St-Bonnet, Ferme de la Borde (05 55 73 72 44, www.fermedelaborde.fr) has five rooms, and hostess Nadine serves a traditional dinner for guests. One night, half-board, costs £26pp. More luxurious is the Château de Castel Novel (05 55 85 00 01, www.castelnovel.com), near Brive. Dating back to the Middle Ages, it now has a swimming pool and also offers bicycles so you can explore the 80-acre park. Doubles are from £84, room-only.

Summer festivals: the medieval village of St-Robert hosts an annual classical-music festival in July and August. Or try the Festival de la Vézère, with concerts in towns along the valley all summer long; see
www.festival-vezere.com.

Further information: for Brive (00 33 5 55 24 08 80,
www.brive-tourisme.com).

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