Welcome to chapter six, Summer in France: Albi. Albi is an UNESCO World Heritage Site and is less than an hour from Toulouse. First settled during the Bronze Age (3000-600 BC), the crusades (1209-1229) virtually destroyed this city. Here’s a short video clip I took while standing on the bridge overlooking the city. Note the bridge with pink bricks in the foreground of the photo above and the video below. It’s called Pont Vieux or Old Bridge and was constructed in 1040. It’s one of France’s oldest bridges still in use today.
Albi Cathedral
The old city is centered around the Cathedral Basilica of St. Cecilia, the world’s biggest brick cathedral and also the largest painted cathedral in Europe. The cathedral took two centuries to build (1282-1480). Once you walk inside, the beauty that surrounds you is breathtaking. The painted murals, stunning architecture and stone carvings are unbelievable in detail and size.
Adjacent to the cathedral is the 18th century Berbie Palace with a beautiful courtyard and a tower on each side. It now houses the Toulouse-Lautrec Museum, as he was born in Albi. It contains the largest collection of his artwork in the world.
Walking around the palace wall offers great views of the town on the other side of the river.
Time for lunch
Touring around Albi gave us quite the appetite. We couldn’t resist a nice three course lunch on the terrace across from the Cathedral. It turned out to be an incredible meal. I don’t know how they can offer three courses for 17 euros. The appetizer was a cold potato salad, on a red pepper purée with a beet sorbet. It was inventive and the sorbet was so delicious we could have eaten two! Next course was lamb chops, polenta and roasted eggplant. Then we ended our meal with home made brownies and verbena sorbet. Now we need to roll out of here and walk off the calories.
We also visited the 11th century Collegiate Church of St. Salvi with its wonderful cloister with Romanesque arcades. For such a small city, population under 50,000, there’s lots to see.
The rest of the day we wandered around the beautiful streets of this ancient city and its alleys. I’ll leave you with these picturesque images.
This concludes chapter six Summer in France: Albi. We leave Toulouse and drive to the country of Andorra for the weekend. Unfortunately, the weather forecast this weekend is cold and rainy. We may have need to be flexible with our site seeing. Stay tuned for chapter seven when we visit Andorra.
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