Albi

Since we dropped B+J off in Montpellier last Saturday, from where they were catching a TGV to Paris, we have had three really interesting, and not too taxing days, visiting places we had not previously seen. On Sunday, after a leisurely start to an again stunning day (weather-wise) we headed for Albi which I thought was an hour or so NW of Lodeve. It turned out to be closer to 2 hours but that did not matter one little bit, as the drive was beautiful; though the region famous for Roquefort cheese.

Before we reached Albi we took a detour to a place called Ambialet, because we saw a sign depicting the village that looked interesting. This is something we do a lot, and always have when driving in France. Many of our favourite destinations are not mentioned in the popular guidebooks, but have been discovered by us in this way. In our mind it is essential to have a car in southern France, otherwise so much that is special would be practically inaccessible.

Ambialet is a very pretty little village, situated on an oxbow of the Tarn river. The centre of the town is located on a narrow spit of land, 25 metres across, at the narrowest point of the oxbow . This can be seen in one of the images below.

After a picnic morning tea by the river in Ambialet, we set off again for Albi, driving mostly along the course of the river. We were pleasantly surprised by Albi. It is a medium sized city of nearly 50,000 people, and is built on the Tarn river. Unlike most other towns and villages in Southern France the dominant building material is red brick (see images below). The bricks are only about one third of the thickness of a common Australian house-brick. This gives the town a relatively unique appearance as far as France goes.

Apart from the general appearance of the town (and its superb bridges over the Tarn), the highlights of our brief visit were the quite amazing baroque Cathedral of Ste-Cecile in the middle of the old town, the museum in the Palace de la Berbie dedicated to Toulouse Lautrec (a famous son of Albi), and the Lapeyrouse museum. For those familiar with Sydney, and Botany Bay in particular, you would recognize the name La Perouse (as it is used in Sydney). Lapeyrouse, another famous son of Albi, was three quarters of the way through an amazing voyage of discovery that would have challenged anything Captain Cook did, when his two ships (and all on board) were lost in the New Hebrides in 1788 (date sound familiar?). His last landfall was at Botany Bay at the location that now bears his name. The square outside of the museum in Albi is named Botany Bay, and there is a significant amount of reference to “New Holland” in the museum.