A day in Albi

We left Ramonville at 6:00am to ride the Canal du Midi bikepath (about a one hour ride) in order to catch the 7:30am train to Albi. We discovered that there is no special wagon for bikes, and you are simply expected to bring your bike with you into one of the (two) passenger carriages in this very small local train.

 When we arrived, we were very happy to have brought our bikes. The old city of Albi is quite far from the train station, so it was very pleasant to have been able to ride there. Albi is built on the river Tarn, and has a number of significant landmarks - the various beautiful arched bridges spanning the river, the magnificent Berbie Palace with its unique gardens housing the Toulouse-Lautrec Museum, and the very impressive Sainte-Cecile Cathedral built like a fortress from the 13th to the 15th Century using many thousands of small bricks. The interior of the cathedral is an ashtonishing contrast with the outer rigour of its defensive aspect.

We rode down a very pleasant path on the riverside along the many arches forming the foundation of the Berbie Palace, and watched a group of people preparing a 14 July fireworks display. We also rode the "Azure Circuit" to the other side of the Tarn river, crossing over Pont-Vieux and returning on Pont-Neuf.

The old city "le Vieil Alby" is a maize of nooks and crannies, narrow cobbled streets, porches and courtyards. After eating delicious juicy apricots at the central market, we discovered a restaurant in the courtyard of the Saint-Salvi church, and walked around the cloister which has a metal sculpture of a peacock.

Refer also: <www.tourisme.fr/albi>, and <www.mairie-albi.fr>

Albi is blessed with many parks and gardens and we stopped to admire one of them on our way back to the train station.

The train ride back was somewhat tedious. The train was 1/2 hour late, and when it did arrive we could see that there was no way that five bicycles could fit into the train. After arguing with the station master in which we were told that we may try to take a bus, the train driver finally decided that he was not prepared to drive the overcrowded train and ordered everyone off. Finally an hour later a larger train arrived, and we were able to continue our journey back home. Notice an exhausted Nili standing over our bikes on our way home.