A few days before this trip I suffered a terible toothache. I thought that I wouldn’t be able to go. But my dentist, wonderful person, gave me an emergency appointment at 5pm the day before we left and did a temporary root-canal treatment. the pain largely went away, but I was still worried.
From Barbara’s diary: ” I thought Nick would never get ready, he was still in his dressing gown when it had gone 5:30 and we had to leave by 6. Luckily he was ready not long afterwards … we arrived at St. Pancras at exactly the Eurostar recommended time of 6:48. ”
No luck about it. I don’t like getting up early though.
Train to Paris, change stations, train to Toulouse, connection to Albi. What a wonderful thing public transport is. Here is the view from our apartment window:
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We ate that evening at “La Forge du vieil Albi”, Barbara had: Tomato concasse with sorbet and cream; Pheasant with pears, beetroot, samphire and potatoes; Profiteroles filled with ice cream and toasted almonds, chocolate sauce to pour over. I had: Fish for first two courses then a platter of 8 cheeses, bottle of wine. Ah, French food.
Next day we spent the entire morning in the cathedral, the interior is entirely painted, there are amazing filigree carved screens around the choir, a “treasury museum” attached where, if you pay the fee you get an audio guide to the whole cathedral, well worth it. Wonderful place to get lost for a few hours. We didn’t get any good photos, so here are some pictures from Wikipedia, suitably acknowleged.
After a nap back at the apartment we went for a walk around town.
We found a jazz club and came back to listen in the evening, accordion, guitar, clarinet, double bass, – bottle of wine, platter of cheese and bread. nice evening.
Next day – the Palace with the museum of Toulouse Lautrec, most of the day here, lots of French history, lots of Toulouse Lautrec, paintings by him and fellow-travellers from his Paris scene.
And the next day a walk in the country, “the walk of the miners”. There were coal mines here 1800 to 1960s.