“Our visit could not have been more enjoyable,” says a regular Guide correspondent, returning to Pierre and Isabelle Bertranet”s 16th-century mill house, now an elegant small hotel. Deep in wooded Limousin countryside, “an oasis of calm”, it stands by a big pond with ducks and a stream, surrounded by old trees. Another visitor wrote: “It is like a mini-château, set before water so smooth that you see two buildings, one upside down, surrounded by trees. Beautiful, comfortable rooms, really excellent food. Madam is so kind.” M. Bertranet”s cuisine, served in the galleried dining room or outdoors, has a Michelin star, 16 Gault Millau points for, eg, œufs brouillés aux truffes; bar de ligne grillé, piqué a l”ail. The bedrooms, named after flowers, are in the main house and the mill (“the sound of the millrace lulls one to sleep”); some have old beams, some, reached up twisty stairs, are small but “elegantly furnished”. The decor (expensive fabrics, bright colours, antiques and bibelots) “is more château than mill”. Nearby are the two porcelain centres of Limoges (sprawling and ugly) and St-Yrieix (small and lovely).