Castelviel, the old

Castelviel, the old castle district Toulouse-Lautrec Museum Jardins du Palais des Eveques In fact everywhere you look, Albi shimmers with colour, the tones of the local clay earning it the nickname of La Ville Rouge, a counterpart to the pink bricks of Toulouse, La Ville Rose, capital of the Occitanie region. Around one hour from Toulouse by car - and easily accessible by fast train - Albi’s population today numbers around 50,000 and whilst the city boasts a lively retail and restaurant scene, it is the rich history that attracts most visitors to this delightful city. I start my visit in the Cité Episcopale, strategically positioned at the highest point of the town above the Tarn river and listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. First stop for most visitors is the cathedral but Albi’s bishops lived in grand style next door in the Palais de la Berbie. Today this turreted, red brick building is home to a unique museum dedicated to the city’s most famous son - artist, illustrator and printmaker Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. Born in Albi in 1864 into a wealthy family, Henri’s mobility and lifestyle were compromised by a bone condition that gave him short legs. But Henri showed a talent for painting from a young age and I linger over his vibrant studies of horses and his experiments with different genres of painting executed before he moved to Paris and developed his signature style. Here Henri painted everyday scenes of prostitutes and, during his last decade, his famous advertising posters for cabarets and music halls. Ironically, Parisian museums considered Henri too provocative to accept a gift of his work from his mother after his death in 1901, aged just 36. His hometown, however, was delighted with the donation for their modest museum that has since grown into one of France’s leading art collections. And behind the Berbie Palace is another of Albi’s knockout views, a high-level panorama over the formal planting of the Bishop’s Garden - classified Jardin Remarquable - and across the Tarn. Head round the soaring cathedral tower to take in the village atmosphere and halftimbered houses of the Castelviel or Old Castle district. The chateau is long gone, but Albi’s latest addition - and something of a Albi’s new footbridge Cité Episcopal seen from the river visitor attraction - is the new stylish footbridge that runs alongside and underneath the rail bridge to provide a third route across the Tarn. The nearby Pont Vieux road bridge reopened in June after major restoration and is the oldest bridge in France still carrying vehicles. Look one way for views up to Sainte-Cécile; the other way towards the red brick arches of the lofty Pont du 22 Août 1944 and the former flourmill, now converted into offices, homes and a delightful hotel. From the riverside windows of the Hotel Mercure Albi Bastides, the red and russet shades of the brick bridges and Cité Episcopal change with the weather and time of day. And what nicer way to wind down than with dinner at an alfresco table in the hotel restaurant, La Vermicellerie, named in honour of the alphabet-shaped vermicelli manufactured here in the 19 th century. The hotel and adjacent road bridge feature on Albi’s Blue Circuit, one of three interconnecting walking routes detailed on a free map from the Tourist Office. Go Blue for views of the Episcopal complex; Gold for 38 | The Good Life France The Good Life France | 39