Albi the city of red bricks  and  its Cathedral precinct

 The Episcopal City has managed to preserve its original, age-old layout, marked by the Pont Vieux, the Riverfront fortifications, the Palace keep, the flowered terraces and the imposant Cathedral.

The right bank of the Tarn affords a magnificient view of Albi overlooking the river.

• Its museums    

Toulouse Lautrec museum

 keeps the most remakable public collection worlwide dedicaced to the famous Albi-born painter.

Henri de Toulouse Lautrec was born in Albi in 1864, into a very noble family.

A congenital bone disease prevented him from living out the life of a provincial squire,

instead pushing him towards drawing.

Set up in the Montmartre neighbourhood of Paris, he painted local dances, prostitutes and cabaret artists.

But he was first a remarkably gifted portraitist and  a keen, faithful recorder of human nature.

After 1901, his parents bequeathed the works of their son that had been refusedby the Parisien museums,

 to the city of Albi

Lapérouse museum

Jean François de Galaup de Lapérouse was born in Albi in 1741.

Admitted into the navy at the age of 15, he fought on the French coasts and stayed a while

on Ile de france before winning considerable fame during the American war or independence.

The immense scientific research project carried out under the aegis of Laperouse

came to an end after 3 years with the wrecking of the expedition’s 2 frigates in the Salomon islands.

The museum exhibits numerous objects found at the site of the shipwreck.