2 Rue du Fort, Bellac
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2 Rue du Fort, Bellac |
| Shepherds
in Limousin in the distant past developed a large hooded cloak as protection
from that region’s rainy weather. As sedan chairs, and later large
horse drawn coaches became fashionable in France the sedan bearers or
drivers were often exposed to the weather while their passengers were
sheltered in an enclosed compartment. To protect themselves from the weather
the chauffeurs adopted the Limousin cloak which was the most effective
garment they knew of to protect them from the weather. Thus the chauffeurs
now looked like Limousines (i.e. people from Limousin). Somehow, probably by observers saying “here comes a Limousin“, or something similar, as these vehicles and their hooded drivers approached, the name came to apply to luxurious professionally driven passenger transport generally. |
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| 'The Apollo of Bellac' is a comedy in one act by Jean Giraudoux, set in the reception room of The International Bureau of Inventions, in Paris, during autumn. It focuses on a timid young woman by the name of Agnes. She is given the most powerful secret in life by a homeless man. The secret is that if you tell all men that they are handsome they will play right into your hands. She quickly catches on and the men of the Bureau all fall for her like skittles. The play ends with her meeting the handsome (and single) Chairman of the Board, and everyone wondering what has happened to the great man named Apollo (the homeless inventor) who quietly slipped away. |  |