9th Sept - A trip into Albi centreveille and the magnificent bastide town of Cordes

To check out what all the fuss was about in the medieval ages, we drove into town to visit the largest cathedral in the world built of bricks and what a sight it was.

The goings on to build the most impenetrable church by a rotten Bishop incurred him the displeasure of the Royal Family and the total undending hatred of the population.  Be that period as it was, it has been restored into a magnificent place of prayer and contains a museem. 

The old town is very charming with its 12th to 19th century buildings all built in a cacophony of streets and alley ways.

We had a home made baguette with some local sheeps cheese as an addition in the little park behind the church.  The riverside parks are very shady and peaceful.

We then headed back to Corbes for another afternoon of climbing and exploring the bastide.The hill that Cordes is built on is so steep that you cannot get any perspective of a street longer than 60 metres.

and after climbing from the car park toward the summit, some life saving figs just happen to present themselves from the sky!!

They even built fortified external stairs to get between the levels - very fit people in those days.

They built a time tower in recent centuries - L'Horloge Tower as they had smiths who made time pieces.

After such a day of climbing we needed a nice home made salad -'Salade de Maison Albi'