On the way back from Andorra via Toulouse, my friends and I decided to stop for a night in Albi to visit one of newest World Heritage of France. Before I planned to visit this city, I asked my friends who graduated from Toulouse and spent couples of years in that region, to my surprised none of them had been to Albi, so I initially thought Albi to be just a small normal French city that off the beaten track with few visitors. But when I approached Albi from highway, I was surprised that Albi is quite prosperous and has large young population and when I reached its historic quarter, even on weekday in March, I saw substantial number of tourists around its gigantic cathedral.

The first place we visited was the famous Cathedral of Saint Cecilia, one of the largest brick buildings in the world. Its enormous size and unique design are already really impressive and can be seen from far away. Its interior is absolutely stunning and really contrast to its exterior. The cathedral’s nave size is very large together with side chapels making this cathedral to be very spacious. The decoration is really rich with impressive stunning wall painting of many colorful motif and its ceiling is amazingly golden blue. The quality of this Italian styled renaissance painting in Albi Cathedral is really a true masterpiece. Its choir and transept are also impressive. If this cathedral is located near Paris, it surly would be one of the landmark of France. Then I walk around the cathedral to see the equally lovely Bishop Palace of Barbie, its fortress shape is very eye catching. Later I looked around the old town. The area is very well preserved with interesting mix of red brick buildings and half-timber ones, something like a red brick version of Strasbourg’s Petit France. For the best view of the old city and cathedral, we walked to another side of the river and looked back. From that view we had a unanimous conclusion that Albi is a great place to visit.

I really pleased with Albi, its architecture is quite unique, and I felt welcome that France chose Albi to represent this type of regional architecture that popular in Toulouse area. Its Cathedral alone is already made the visit very worthwhile, but its lovely old quarter made the trip more enjoyable. While France has many nice historic cities, I always wonder why only few cities have been pushed to be World Heritage Site by its own outstanding value. After visit Albi, Lyon and Strasbourg, I really appreciated what France offers to the UNESCO in term of OUV on historic cities.