Adventures in Albi

On Saturday morning, we left bright and early for a day trip to Albi! The city is located to the Northwest of Toulouse and is known for being the birthplace of Toulouse Lautrec. We got there around 10:00 and started exploring the city. The first thing we saw was the massive Cathédrale Sainte Cécile d'Albi. It's the largest church made out of bricks in the world. You can pretty much see it no matter where you are in the city. Before going inside the giant cathedral, we walked around through the town, exploring both an outdoor and indoor market, and then stumbling upon a beautiful, quiet cloister next to a smaller church.

Sainte Cécile

Market

Cloister

At 11:30 we headed over to Sainte Cécile. You may be wondering why I know exactly what time we went over there.. All of the touristic locations in Albi are closed (at least on a Saturday) from 12:00 - 2:00 so we wanted to go inside before lunch. The inside of the church is the complete opposite of the outside. It was painted from top to bottom which made it both beautiful and overwhelming. Most gothic churches were completely painted during their heyday but over the years, the paint has disappeared through various means. It's striking to see a cathedral that looks like it did when it was built. This particular church also has a MASSIVE organ on one end. Of all of the churches I have been to so far in France (and that is a lot of churches) this one was by far the most incredible organ I have ever seen. Not only was it huge but it was so ornate and beautiful as well. I would've loved to hear it be played.

Sainte Cécile

Sainte Cécile

Sainte Cécile

Sainte Cécile

The organ!

Sainte Cécile

Sainte Cécile

Sainte Cécile

We had lunch at a delicious brasserie next to the church. In case anyone is curious: Onion quiche, grilled chicken and frites, fondant au chocolat, and a hot chocolate to top it all off. Wow that was franglais. Anyway, after lunch we headed over to the Toulouse Lautrec Museum which is housed in the Palais de Berbie - a massive brick palace. It was beautiful on the outside and the artwork on the inside didn't disappoint either. The collection really showcased the breadth of Toulouse Lautrec's work. I never realized how diverse of an artist he was. He started out creating very realistic paintings of horses and then ended up becoming famous for his posters for the Moulin Rouge. I was in art history heaven. I was also geeking out because I got to see the real-life versions of a bunch of works that I had used in my classes in the Trout Gallery last year. Once we finished inside the museum, we went out back to the incredible gardens behind the palace. It was right on the river so we had great views of the city.

Toulouse Lautrec Museum

Palais de Berbie

View from the garden

The garden

The view across the river

Sarah, Kathleen, et moi

Albi!

After taking one too many photos in the garden we walked over to one of the bridges that crosses the river, took some more pictures of beautiful Albi and headed back to Toulouse. While it was a wee bit cold in the morning (hey I'm not complaining it was too warm here for too long) it was a fantastic day and I can't wait for more adventures to come!

And in case anyone was wondering what I did this week: Opera Thursday night with Dickinson and class. That's pretty much it. The Opera was incredible!

Manon at the Théâtre du Capitole