Paris – Toulouse – Albi

Friday 22 September

A travel day today. Taxi from the Marais district to the train station at Paris Montparnasse. It’s about a 4-1/2 hour journey to Toulouse, before catching a local train across to Albi.

We have travelled through some very fertile agricultural areas today.   On all my train trips through the the countryside I haven’t yet seen any livestock though.

Our apartment is right in the heart of the old city and this city is truly ancient.  I am yet to discover the history however I did find out yesterday that the building we are staying in dates back to 1150AD. The walls are about 2 foot (60 cms) thick. The interior has been modernized for comfortable living and our host has thought of everything it seems. She works for Guerlain Parfum so we are in plentiful supply of all things that smell beautiful.

Dining out was an experience. We chose the equivalent of a banquet and we were warned there was a huge variety of food and plenty of it – snails, pork ribs, bream, duck, pate, terrine, tomatoes, potatoes, radishes, melon, roast vegetables, octopus and these were all separate dishes. We ended up with some take home containers!