In praise of Albi

Today we visited Albi, a beautiful town along the winding River Tarn near where we are staying at our home exchange.  Albi has a long history going back to Roman times (like most places here in the south of France) but it also prospered during the 15th and 16th centuries from the pastel trade (like Toulouse). It's a vibrant, prosperous place and is drop-dead gorgeous. I'll let the photos speak for themselves.




Like in Toulouse the buildings are all built of brick but the clay here is a pink tone rather than the red we saw there.

Today when we visited there were very few tourists around but lots of people who looked as though they actually lived within the Medieval part of the town.

Even the cathedral is made of this rosy brick. And it's huge. 

The inside is equally amazing, being completely painted on every exposed surface.

Beside the cathedral is the Bishop's palace, now home to a museum featuring Toulouse-Lautrec, who was born in Albi. Details of that will come in a later post.  Here are some more photos of the buildings and the gardens around the cathedral.

Spring is much further ahead here than it was in Victoria. Flowers are everywhere.

It's a pretty magical spot.