Driving through the Quercy area
We came to Albi to see the work of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. I had never heard of Albi, France before, but this is where Henri was born. We knew there was camper parking near the cathedral, but finding it was a challenge. After a few circles around we found it. And what a good place it was. We could just walk through the car park to the Musee Toulouse-Lautrec and the cathedral, and the centre Ville was right nearby.
Our car park in Albi
St Cecile, Albi
The Cathedral St Cecile is MASSIVE. Started in 1282 it was not finished until a century later - totally understandable when we saw the number of bricks that had to be laid. It is plain red brick - not attractive at all. Inside is a different story - every bit of the walls were painted by Italian artists. Everywhere is very detailed work, some of it looking quite modern. At the western end is a large wall area devoted to paintings of The Last Judgement - some scary looking scenes here.
St Cecile, Albi
Last Judgement 1490
The Musee Toulouse-Lautrec was right beside the cathedral in the Palais de Berbie, a former archbishop's palace. It is built of the same red brick, with the inside either white of red brick. There were over 500 items of Henri's work presented in a time line fashion showing his development as an artist from a teenager to his death at 37 years. Outside are the palace gardens, with a walkway along the river. Beautiful! It is a fantastic place to visit.
Musee Toulouse-Lautrec
Gardens at Palais de la Berbie
Bishop's Palace, Albi
After all that sight seeing it was lovely to settle down for the night with the lights of the cathedral shining on our van.
St Cecile, Albi, at night
Next morning we ventured out to the old centre and found that the market was on. Lovely fresh fruit and vegetables for sale. Then further on to check out the local area.
Bullocks heart tomatoes
Pont 22 Aout 1944, Albi
View of Cathedral and bridge
Comte La Perouse came from here
Botany Bay Square
Another market
The centre of Albi was impressive. All the buildings were red brick and timber and there were a number of bridges over the River Tarn that gave good views in all directions. But after another day exploring here we headed in the direction of Toulouse, driving through that city and then to our parking spot for the night in Venerque.
Toulouse
Venerque, our next camping spot
This featured blog entry was written by jannettek from the blog Time to travel.
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