Excursion and Anniversary Dinner -- Saturday Oct 6th

Albi, a city of 60,000 is about a half hour away from Broze.  I’d been there for a couple hours back in 2000 and remembered it as worth a visit.  And, the tour books corroborate, so we make it our first real excursion.  We’d planned it for Saturday, knowing it was their market day and since it’s a bigger city than Gaillac, we counted on the market being more as well.  It was, but more importantly, it’s just a nice city to walk through – especially the old town.  Plenty of old buildings repurposed into interesting retail stores.  Curved streets.   Interesting views. 

 

Parking in these towns with narrow roads that pre-date cars is usually a trick.  I’m prepared for a half hour drive till we find something, but we really luck out and have got a spot less than a block from the market within minutes – not what I’d have expected, especially on market day!~

We’d read that the 3 most “important” sights in Albi were the Toulouse-Lautrec Museum, the Cathedral of Sainte Cecile, and taking a walk along the Tarn river, which divides the city in two.  So, after checking out the market, we head over in the direction of the Cathedral.

Along the way, we pass an entrance to cloisters for Saint-Salvi (remember, we continue to only understand 50% of what we read) and decide that since the city is a maze of small streets and we might not be back this way, we’ll go in.  The cloisters are lush and remind me of a scene in Italy from Godfather III  (sorry!).  But we also wander in to the church.  OK, if this isn’t the “really important cathedral” we’re supposed to see in Albi, then.. wow!

From there, a short walk to the Cathedral.  From the outside it dominates the city.  But, my first impression inside is that while it’s pretty big, it doesn’t seem all that world-class.  We walk around the interior for a couple minutes and sit down, slightly disappointed.  Then  we realize that there’s a second half of the internal structure that isn’t so obvious.  We've only seen half the building!   And then it’s clear how impressive the Cathedral is.  But, I think I’m bored with religious buildings as I type this, so I’ll move on, aside from sharing this picture:

 

Having been burned the other day at Gaillac when we missed lunch, and conscious of today being market day in Albi (meaning both locals and us tourists wandering around), we’re wondering if this will turn into a game of musical chairs.  By that I mean that everyone is walking the streets at 11:55.  BUT, at 12, will everyone dive onto seats at the nearest restaurant leaving us to grab sandwiches and eat standing up in the town square?  We don’t actually want to eat at the restaurants on the square – they seem just a touch too touristy. So, we walk 2 blocks off and find a street with 4 open air restaurants to choose from, and seats at each.  I’m tempted by the first, which advertises it’s cassoulet de la maison.  But, we’ve got big dinner plans and cassoulet is a meal to fill me for the entire day.  So we pass in favor of a place that advertises a salad made with ingredients fresh from the market.  It’s a very satisfying meal, in a French way (which means that we spend nearly 2 hours over a salad!)  But, it’s OK.  Our planned next stop is the Toulouse-Lautrec Museum and they don’t reopen till 2 anyway.

If you like Toulouse-Lautrec, the museum is a must-do.  Largest collection in the world of his work – he was born in Albi.  He's famous as a fan of prostitutes and wild life in Paris, a real drinker, highlighted in the movie Moulin Rouge, but most of all for his unique painting style.  One that developed and got him fame at the dawn of the era of lithographic advertising posters.

Home from Albi, a rest, then out for dinner.  Maxine and I’d officially hit 25 years of marriage on September 6^th, but we’d looked ahead in the calendar and knew we’d be in France w/in the month.  So, we decided to push back our recognition of our anniversary till October 6^th.  And since we knew that there were 2 Michelin one-star restaurants w/in 15 minutes of Broze, we knew we’d be going to one.  Chateau de Sallettes.

We are, we believe, the only English speakers in the building.  22 diners and 4 wait staff.  They explain things to us half in french and half in english, which works just fine.  In fact, when we'd first arrived the waiter launched into a several minute long explanation of the menu, in french, before asking if we spoke it.  We understood 80+% of it and were very pleased with ourselves.

Won’t bore you with the meal.  It was good.  Four courses.  Two amuse bouches.  Two desserts.  We get the wine pairing and in a cute way the waiter tells us that he'll keep an eye out to make sure we don't drink too much.  And at the end of the meal, Maxine and I opened our wedding anniversary cards we have for each other along with the ones we’d gotten in the mail a month earlier.  Our waiter came by to ask what was up and when we told him, he returned with a celebratory candle and two glasses of champagne on the house.  A great way to end the evening.