Every design for Limoges

Limoges porcelain made this city's name around the world, ever since a deposit of kaolin was found near Saint-Yrieix-la-Perche. Before porcelain came enamel, exported across the Christian world from the twelfth century, and today porcelain houses and workshops in enamel and stained glass keep the craft alive; the Musée national Adrien Dubouché holds the finest pieces.

What makes Limoges unusual is how many identities it carries at once: a Roman foundation called Augustoritum, a medieval city shaped by the Abbey of Saint-Martial, "the red city" with its tradition of voting on the left, and a basketball town whose Limoges CSP became champions of Europe in 1993. The Musée des Beaux-Arts in the old bishop's palace looks down on the Vienne, which the city first grew up around as a ford.

For the Limougeauds, coming back means the river below the bishop's palace, the walk into the centre and the gleam of porcelain in a shop window.