Leaving Montauban for a day trip on the beautiful backroads of the Dordogne region, we took an hour's drive over to the city of Albi, a great old Medieval town with the tallest Romanesque church in France. Like Montauban, Albi is mainly built of red brick, which gives the city its rose-colored appearance. The cathedral of Sainte Cecile is immense and dwarfs the spectator. Inside are frescoes and impressive Gothic statues on the Rood screen. Children marched in a procession down the main aisle, for their first communion, and we were lucky enough to hear the cathedral's famed organ.
In the nearby Palais de la Berbie (the former Bishop's Palace) we visited the Toulouse-Lautrec Museum. The paintings, posters and lithographs depicted his exhuberant life in Paris before he burned himself out with various alcohols and the women of the brothels, whom he depicted in his extravagant art-nouveau style.
The drive back to Montauban went smoothly, and we plan to dine at a restaurant near the grand Place de la Republique, a broad 17th century square.
Dan
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