Medieval Period

18/8. Albi.
Oh, what a day! Slept in, it was quite cool at 14 degrees with 28 predicted. The walk into town (once Suzanna worked out the way) was along the creek and very pleasant and took about an hour. Rounded a corner and there was the first of the bridges.

That started a day of “wow, look at that”, “how interesting “, “how old is that”, “look at that”... every time we turned a corner there was something else. It just went on and on. How many paintings ... my memories of France will take the rest of my life to paint.

We took the tourist train around the sights and sites. The citadel was amazing, interesting houses, cloisters, the original walled city and the gardens - which were quite luminous. And, they generate power here from the river. If you haven’t been to Albi - go!

The walk home was hot but pleasant and the pool a delight.

We met neighbours and chatted, and then ate again at the restaurant- another lovely treat. Met up with our neighbours again, Agnes and Yaan, chatted with our chef - what a lovely night ... again.

19/8. Albi to Carcassonne.
We could have stayed here, but Carcassonne held great promise too so on we went.

Imagine our surprise as we stopped for fuel and there was a Rugby shop - middle of no other shops or houses! Weird, but weirder to come ...

We got settled, Suzanna had a swim and Yaan, Agnes and their lovely daughters Laurien, Maewen and Anais arrived so we had a late Armagnac. They went off to La Citie the next day, while we had a rest day.

We had a lovely get together with them that night.

21/8. Off we went early, before it gets too hot - predicted 35 again: it doesn’t reach the high temperatures until about 3 pm and it stays hot through to about 6.30 pm, with a long twilight. So glad we did, as when we were ready to leave all the tourist crowds were arriving.

Brilliant from outside and interesting inside but, like Mont St Michel, highly commercial. The concentric circles is an art installation and is tape: people have souvenired pieces and this actually makes it more interesting. Parts of the Medieval city have been restored well, some things are just too incongruous- like a NZ Rugby Shop!

We walked home, quick lunch and ready for the Petit Train - Albi’s was so good we wanted to try it. Definitely don’t do this - the driver went too fast, which doesn’t work over bumpy or cobblestone roads (the budget for the engineers is obviously not enough!??), and really it was not interesting at all.

Swims, James made another gourmet dinner.

22/8. Carcassonne
Today we took a bateau trip on The Midi. A very relaxing and pleasant

couple of hours, through 2 locks (each way).
We had lunch in the city and then home for ... swims and relax.