Noush falls instantly in love with Albi. Perhaps it’s the sense of history about the place, or the culture on offer, or the fact that it’s such a romantic blend of French and Italian. Either way she ain’t moving. It’s gale force ten and throwing it down still, the sun has fled, but the wife is having a rhino Norm moment.
We take a tour around the Cathedral, which is the most imposing building externally and tardis like. It’s ENORME when you get in. It’s astonishing. The austere exterior: “a militant-style of architecture” and the largest brick built cathedral in the world (thanks guide book), leaves you completely unprepared for the lushness of the interior.
It’s as an impressive Cathedral both inside and out as we’ve seen.
Later in the evening the weather lifts and we take a stroll around Albi itself. It’s just amazing. All of it. The river Tarn runs through it, even through the heart of the Episcopal City (UNESCO World Heritage site since 2010) and old buildings lean towards the cool water on the sides of the old bridge (XI Century), the new bridge (1867 – really new!!) and under the shadow of the Cathedral.
We return very much cultured up and collapse in the van. Ten minutes later we have to move the bloody thing because – AGAIN!! – we have failed to notice that we’ve parked under a tree. This time it isn’t bird poo that’s the problem, but scrapy creepy branch thingies like nightmare fingers. We move all of four foot to the left to avoid them. Grandiose Albi city sophisticates…perhaps not after all.
In the morning we zoom to the Cloisters before we hit the Toulouse Lautrec museum. We stumbled upon the Cloisters while we are sheltering our baguette from the rain. A nearly secret snicket takes us up to there and our sleepy senses are greeted with yet more astonishing hidden treasures. Is this place full of marvels behind every door?
It would seem to be the case as we enter the Bishops Palace which houses a large and permanent collection of the art work of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.
The building itself is incredible enough but the amount of art work is MIND BOGGLING!! We leave, hours later, reeling from cultural overdose and completely brain baffled. People be warned, buy the value ticket thing that gets you discounts to other stuff and spend at least half day in the museum. It’s a treasure trove and deserves to be slowly sampled with care, attention and diligence. Can’t believe the Parisian museums refused his work, hence they were bequeathed to the city of Albi, his birthplace. Lucky Albi. What a collection. Couldn't photograph the artwork, but snuck a photo of a bit of ceiling :)
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