The Ham Nomads

14 Mar 2015. <FR> Albi, Tarn —

Albi. We've been here before, but wanted to revisit the cathedral, claimed to be the largest all-brick building in the world! It was begun in 1287, just after the Albigensian Crusade, and was intentionally constructed to look very plain — and very imposing — from the outside, as one thing the Cathar heretics (who still had a following in the region) held against the Catholic Church was its blatant opulence.

We had parked in the aire just below the cathedral — we had seen it last time, so knew it was there. The weather was slightly dubious, so we took our umbrellas with us. First of all, we had a walk around Albi — found a boulanger with beautiful bread sticks, and we found the new tourist office where we got a town plan and a few touristy goodies. We found a monument to one of Albi's sons, Lapérouse, whose expedition to Oceania vanished in 1788 (La Perouse, in Sydney, is named for him). Then we walked back to the cathedral. Well, first we went in to the other tourist office, by the Toulouse Lautrec Museum, and bought tickets to that and to the ambulatory and treasury of the cathedral. Today being Saturday, we decided to go to the cathedral and leave the museum for tomorrow. As we were walking about the town, we were intrigued by quotes from Toulouse-Lautrec (whose 150th birthday it is this year) displayed on many shop windows.

"Moins d'artistes et plus de bons ouvriers. Plus de mètier en un mot."
Fewer artists and more good workers. More business in a word.

"Vive la Révolution! Vive Manet! Un vent d'impressionisme souffle sur l'atelier."
Long live the Revolution! Long live Manet Vive! A wind of impressionism blows about the studio.

"Elle est si grande et belle et moi je ne suis ni grand ni beau."
She's so big and beautiful, and I am neither big nor beautiful.

I'll drink milk when cows start grazing on grapes!

We got to the cathedral to find huge restoration work going on. Parts of the place were 'out of bounds', but we had a fine time poking around the place, getting more photos to add to the set wee took last time! The choir was closed off, and you could only get into the apse thsat lies beyond it. Nevertheless, it's still very impressive. The painted ceiling, dating back to the middle ages is stunning. The stained glass is being restored, and looks wonderful.

The cathedral has a few idiosyncracies. First of all, the main altar is in the west, not in the east as is usual. This is becasue there is a huge rood screen separating the eastern end of the nave (the chancel and the choir) from the western end (the nave proper). When the church policy changed, and the celebrants of the mass were no longer to be separated from the parishoners by a screen, they considered the screen too precious to destroy, so they simply built a new altar at the western end of the basilica, below the magnificent organ, and services are now held in the western end of the building. Similarly, the depiction of the last judgement, usually at the back of the church, is right behind the altar. The centre of the Last Judgement fresco (where God is in the centre and the archangel Michael weighing the souls is usually depicted) was removed to allow a chapel to be set up behind the altar — this is the only bad decision they seem to have made!

A possible reconstruction of the Judgement Fresco

Part of the Treasury

A painting in the Treasury

We left the cathedral and, because the sun had come out, we strolled down to the old bridge over the River Tarn, then slowly back to the van for the night.

Distance driven — today, 22 miles ( 35 km ); to date, 15,787 miles ( 25,407 km )