Southwest France - continuing the Post-Conference Tour Day Two

September 20 - Friday:  After a good night's sleep, this hotel's breakfast was particularly comfortable, surrounded by French countrystyle furniture.

breakfast buffet

more breakfast buffet in a colorful cabinet

Into Albi in the rain to visit the former Palais de la Berbie (now the Toulouse Lautrec Museum).  This is a huge palace begun in the 13th century by the bishops of Albi and now a UNESCO world heritage site. Hugely large and elegant, it enclosed a very formal garden, which we could see but not visit.

The bishop's garden in the Palais de la Berbie

Rather foolishly I purchased an umbrella from the museum's gift shop, while the rain began to let up. The entry courtyard had an unusual umbrella stand, which you can see here.

Some of my friends are inside; the umbrella stand is out in the courtyarad.

The T-L Museum is very extensive.  The artist is not my favorite, but I could appreciate the great volume of work done in a fairly short life.  there's a wonderful photograph of him seated on the floor, wearing a Japanese costume, and with his eyes crossed.  Quite whimsical. Briefly but quickly we walked through some streets to the plaza where we'd been dropped off - -

The large plaza not far from the Palais

A great urn with a small fountain.

not really a coach stop, the driver just pulled over and we clamored quickly aboard and were off again.

Geppetto, the shoemaker.

Looking down a street next to the Cathedral in Albi.

I think we were headed to Montauban to see the double lock that connects the Garonne with the Tarn via a short (11 km.) Canal de Montech.  The pair of locks lowers boats into the Tarn River, running concurrently beneath both a railway line and a road.

The bridge over the locks carries road and railway.

Climbing back up from the locks.

The waterside walkway is a pebble mosaic. 

Near the Garonne end of the Canal de Montech is a most interesting structure: a "pente d'eau" - the Montech Waterslope (an incline plane that bypasses five locks).  This structure is, I believe, one of a kind, and no longer in use.  Nevertheless, here's an explanation:  A canal boat enters the waterway and travels beneath a large shield that will be dropped behind the boat.

The giant black shield, when lowered into the channel, pushes water and boat uphill.

Two locomotives mounted on huge tires run on concrete tracks on either side of the waterslope.  They push the shield uphill (and thus the water and the boat)

Imagine that the black shield is lowered behind a boat; the locomotives (trams from Argentina) begin operate, and the whole thing travels up the slope.  Ingenious, no?

When the water level in the wedge of water pushed uphill is the same as the level at the top, the dropgate at the top lowers and the boat moves on. Confused? I certainly was. Unfortunately, the machine does not operate now. Perhaps someday?

Montech is a nice little town with a mayor who is very proud of it.

City hall in Montech

We had a very low-key, casual lunch in the city hall - no wine, just various kinds of soda, juice and water, snacks, trailmix, nuts and squares of various types of pizza. It was evident that we love this kind of meal - Not more than 40 people, small room = intimate setting and group.

Low-key lunch.

Next on our agenda was a visit to the Moissac Aqueduct, built in the mid-19th century.

A very beautiful, well-built aqueduct - it survived a 1930 flood when the twisted wreckage of a railway bridge was thrown against it.

We scrambled up to the towpath. Our timing was perfect, as we saw a boat travelling upstream and then one travelling downstream, as well as a number of bicyclists.

Many camera focused on this pleasure boat.

Moissac has a truly beautiful abbey and cloister, the Saint-Pierre Abbey from the 12th century. We had English-language accousti-guides for both the cloister and the church, an excellent choice by our guide, David Edwards-May.  The columns that line the cloister alternate single column with double column.

One side of the cloister - note the man listening to his acousti-guide.

The capitals are wonderfully preserved; the interior walkways are pebble mosaics.

Who are those monsters and what are they doing?

Outside the church the carvings on the Tympanum and above to the left and right of the entry stairs told biblical stories to the illiterate medieval inhabitants.

Those backpacks display the scallop shell that marks them as pilgrims on Le Chemin de St. Jacques de Campostelle.

The holy family fleeing Herod's massacre of innocent babies.

Inside the church itself was a moving wood sculpture of the interment of Jesus, surrounded by seven figures.

This is nearly lifesize.

The Hotel Moulin de Moissac was quite a bit different from where I normally stay.  Four and five star hotels have spacious rooms, lots of amenities, and meals that take forever to eat, with fairly small portions.  Is that why so few French people are obese?

The hotel is on the foundation of an old mill.

That structure in the water marks location of the lock; small white buoys on the left mark the channel from the lock into the river.

The Pont Napoleon upstream from my hotel window, illuminated at night.