Yes you can-can

Ste Flora

Yesterday's weather: Sunny and mild

We took Mum to Albi yesterday to keep a long-held promise to take her to one of the most amazing cathedrals I have ever seen. It's a two hour drive through some lovely countryside, along the Aveyron gorges and via the village in the sky Cordes-sur-Ciel, a stunning 13th century bastide full of gothic mansions with gargoyles on the corner of every building.

The approach to Albi from the northwest is equally amazing, from above you see the beautiful Cathedral of St Cecilia, claimed to be the worlds largest brick built construction.

The austere red outside towers over the town and hides the most incredible interior with virtually every surface painted. The ceiling arches of the Choir were painted by artisits from Bologna and are quite - well, I've run out of superlatives to use.

We arrived at midday, just as all the buildings closed for lunch, so, after admiring the outside of the cathedral we went in search of our own lunch in a small nearby restaurant where we were looked after by a smiling young man who was delighted when we ordered from the chef's special selection - Poêlée de Saint Jaques, scallops cooked to such perfection with a little sauce that did nothing to mask the flavour of the shellfish whilst still being delicious. The restaurant was very cosy but I'm sure on a sunny, warm summer's day the terrace outside must be crowded and busy.

Waitering (is that a verb?) is a very serious business on the continent. In the UK waiting staff tend to be mostly young people, students perhaps or part-timers. In France as in Italy and I am sure other European countries, it is a career. I'm not sure how well paid it is, maybe the majority of waiting staff are family and it is all taken as being part of the family business, so different from the UK.

After walking off our lunch around the narrow streets of Albi, we toured the cathedral and choir then decided to visit the neighbouring Toulouse-Lautrec museum which, frankly, we found a little disappointing.

I associate Lautrec with colourful paintings of can-can dancers at the Moulin Rouge, but the majority of works in the museum were sketches on cardboard with little colour; there were many portraits of very stern-looking people and lots of small oils of horses. I'm sure many would call me a philistine, but paintings of horses frankly leave me cold and I could never understand the fascination for painting these magnificent creatures. Is it a challenge? I'm sure someone will tell me.

The best work we saw in this museum was 'Yvette Guilbert Greeting the Audience' which did make me smile - I wondered what this amazing lady thought of the unflattering paintings of herself which filled one small room at the museum. T-L obviously had a sense of humour.

We just had time to stop at a little chocolatier which smelt just wonderful and which always reminds me of Joanne Harris' novel Chocolat which was set not so far from Albi, before making our way back home, hoping not to make all the drive in the dark.

Albi is a beautiful town, well worth a day-trip from home once in a while - best to do it out of season though as the cathedral is one of the most visited sites in France - mostly in summer.