Not content to sit on one beautiful romantic river valley, Fresselines is involved with two.
Fresselines sits on the confluence of the River Creuse and the Petite Creuse, both of which run along deep gorges, eventually converging a few splashes from the village. It’s a tourism and farming village situated some 20 miles (32 km) northwest of Guéret.
It’s not universally beautiful or quaint, but it has a very interesting town square with a church featuring an unusual spire. 
The tourist focus around the village is centred on the artists who have used it as their base. These include Armand Guillaumin, Eugène Charasson, Maurice Leloir, Charles Donzel, Paul Madeline, Clémentine Ballot, Fernand Maillaud, Léon Detroy, Walter Oetten, Allan Osterlind and Francis Picabia. Belonging to various art movements, they all came to the Creuse Valley to paint landscapes in the open air. There’s a “Fressilines School” of artists.
Monet spent the spring of 1889 painting the landscape around the confluence of two rivers, the Petite Creuse and the Grande Creuse. Monet included numerous Creuse scenes among his 145 submissions to a blockbuster joint exhibition with sculptor Auguste Rodin in the summer of 1889 at Galerie Georges Petit in Paris. More information here
Our purpose in Fresselines was to tackle a walk called La Renauchat. This is scheduled as being 8km but our meander covered 10km on account of poor navigation! It was extremely enjoyable, initially following the course of the river, eventually arriving at the confluence of the two rivers. From there the trail headed upwards along the ravines and then through the local forests.
Stunning views. A great way to spend a day without spending much Monet. Sorry. I’ll get my coat on the way out.
There’s a pdf of the walk here. Fresselines walk