The Big Day has arrived – our first Bath match of the season! However that is not until tonight and we hope that the weather will improve as it rained over night and is still raining this morning. When we enquired at the tourist information office about buses to the ground, the only one that they found had the last service at 16:30, which is of no use when the match starts at 19:00. We could get very wet walking there if this weather continues.
The weather also means that we have not got the enthusiasm to get moving early but we will put our wet-weather plan into operation – museum and cathedral. The Toulouse-Lautrec museum, housed in the former Archbishop's Palace, is next to the cathedral and we are parked just below the cathedral, so we haven't got far to go!
Well, I have to confess that I was a little sceptical about Toulouse-Lautrec and was concerned that a whole museum of his work would be too much. I was wrong, not only did I really like his work but there was so much variety in the exhibition that I was never bored. We even had to rush the last few rooms before the museum closed for lunch. The whole of his life was represented, from his teens through to the last year of his life. I particularly enjoyed his drawings, even his very early ones and it was intriguing to see his preliminary sketches and the final works. Henri Toulouse-Lautrec was born in Albi and they are very proud of him and this might explain why I could find no mention of the fact that it was a combination of syphilis and alcoholism that caused his very early death aged 37. His mother donated a huge number of his works to the people of Albi and gave money to allow the museum to be established.
The Sainte-Cecile Cathedral was very impressive and interesting building. It is a huge, austere brick-built building, its looks being explained by the dual use as a church and a fortress. It was built between the 13th and 15th centuries and the exterior was designed to be covered in plaster and then painted, which would have made it look much more attractive. After the plain exterior, the interior comes as a very pleasant surprise with beautiful carvings and paintings. The 'Last Judgement' used to cover 200m² and, although it has suffered from the passing of time, it is still very impressive with a lovely, evil looking devils in amongst those unfortunate tortured sinners in Hell. There is some exquisite stone carving in the Choir but my favourite part of the cathedral was the ceiling. These Renaissance frescoes were painted in wonderfully vibrant colours and are even more remarkable given that they retain those colours even though they have never been restored. My photographs hint at their beauty but are no match for seeing them in situ.
We braved the weather for a while, getting cosy under an umbrella, to follow part of one of the many town trails set out in the tourist information leaflet. We broke off to visit an Internet café where I posted the blog and checked in emails. We asked there for restaurant recommendations and ended up over the other side of the Place du Vigan at a vegetarian restaurant. The meal was excellent and it made a pleasant change from meat-dominated menus.
We decided that we would cut short our tour as the rain was making it difficult to admire the architecture. So it was back to Henrietta for a relax before the match.
We set off early for the walk to the stadium and, thankfully, the rain was not as hard and even stopped occasionally. It only took 20 minutes to get there and we saw a sprinkling of Bath supporters also making their way there. We bought out covered seat tickets for €15 (£10.50) each, which compared with £34 for uncovered seats at Bath, were a real bargain. We stopped off at the bar in the ground for a beer (me) and a 'vin chaude' (Jane) and listened to a group of Bath supporters singing 'Jerusalem'. We thought that this was a bit nationalistic but they did follow up with the French National Anthem, although that may not have gone down well in this Catalan area!
We sat next to two guys from the Isle of Man, currently working on a contract for Airbus in Toulouse. One of them played for many years for the Manx Vagabonds and travelled around the North East playing rugby. He is a Bath supporter but cannot easily travel to see their matches so he goes to see Sale as often as he can, but even that must be quite a journey. I had a very pleasant chat with them about life in the Isle of Man and their aerospace work.
Albi played well in the first half and, although we appeared to be the strongest team and had the bulk of the possession, Albi's defence was good. As normal, I was shouting 'Come on Bath' to encourage the lads but in the second half, with memories of the European Cup Final victory against Brive all those years ago, I yelled 'Allez Bath'. The Frenchman in front of us immediately looked around and started talking to us. He was typically Catalan – dark-skinned, short (about 5 feet) and wearing a beret. We had the most bizarre and amusing conversation with much hand waving and Franglais from both sides. He was there with his grandson, son-in-law who was of Italian origin and a friend who was Portuguese. The Portuguese guy came in for lots of stick from his friend with many references to his sardine eating. At the end of the match, which Bath won convincingly 26-18, we all had to strenuously decline his offer to join him at the bar – it could have been a very long evening! So, with much handshaking, we bid them farewell and made our way back to the car park, thankfully in the dry.
Photos: Albi Cathedral; Cathedral Choir; Detail of 'The Last Judgement' – a lovely Devil!; Detail of the ceiling.
No comments:
Post a Comment