Cities
of Art in the French Midi
Toulouse - Carcassonne - Albi
5 days / 4 nights
Price per person: €620
(base 2 - dble occupancy)
Day
1: Toulouse – Suggested visit of the city
Arrival at Toulouse airport. Delivery of your car.
Suggested visit: 2 hours walking tour “Discovering Toulouse”:
this tour offers a comprehensive overview of the main sites and
monuments. During the tour, you will be able to admire the Capitole
city hall and Saint-Sernin basilica, as well as many churches and
private mansions, and appreciate wonderful views along the Garonne
River.
Overnight in Toulouse 3*Hotel
Day
2: Toulouse - Suggested visit of Carcassonne / Sorèze
Visit
of the fortified citadel of Carcassonne which dominates the old
town. It's a town within a town, a maze of
narrow cobbled
streets within severe ramparts of thick walls and turreted towers,
but bustling with life and colour. Traffic-free, you will be able
to look around at your leisure. At the centre of the Citadel lies
the Chateau Comtal, a fearsome castle where the lords of Carcassonne
lived and ruled. Through the vineyards of Cabardès, route
to Revel, in the lea of the Montagne Noire (40 minutes). Settle
into your room in the 3* Abbey-hotel and take a look around the
tiny mediaeval village before a champagne welcome and gourmet dinner
of regional specialities.
Overnight in Abbey of Soreze***
The
Hôtel Abbaye de Sorèze ***
At
the heart of the village of Sorèze, in a 6-hectare estate,
the Abbey School forms an architectural complex testifying to 12
centuries of history. The Hotel Abbaye Ecole de Sorèze is
located 5 minutes from Saint-Ferréol Lake and 60 minutes
from Toulouse, Albi and Carcassonne.
52 Rooms with En-suite bathroom and toilets - telephone - minibar
- satellite TV - modem connection - lift
The Les Collets Rouges restaurant located in the old refectories
serves quality dishes based on fresh local produce.
Day 3 : Sorèze - Suggested visits : Albi & Castres
Depart
through the Gaillac vineyards to Albi, magnificent pink-bricked
town on the banks of the Tarn. Admire the fortified
cathedral of
Ste Cécile before touring the Toulouse-Lautrec museum in
the old Bishop's Palace.
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec left Albi in 1883 to live in Montmartre
in Paris. Many of the most famous of his works were painted during
this period; the portraits and scenes from café-concerts,
cabarets, and "maisons
closes".
• Lunch where you will in one of the many restaurants in Albi.
After lunch a thirty-minute run through the Tarn countryside brings
you to Castres - the Midi's best-kept secret. This unpretentious
weaver's town over-looking the river Agout abounds with interesting
corners and sights.
Above all it houses a museum devoted to the works of Goya among
which: Self-portrait with glasses, c. 1800, The portrait of
Francisco del Mazo, 1815-1820, The Phillipine Junta, 1815
Return to Soreze (25 km).
Dinner & Overnight in Abbey.
Day
4: Sorèze - Suggested visit : Revel – Lac
de Saint Ferreol
• Guided
tour of the Abbey's buildings and estate.
Visit to Revel, mediaeval bastide founded in 1342 by Philippe VI
de Valois at the foot of the Black Mountain.
With its octagonal shape and geometric design Revel is the perfect
example of a Bastide and is nearly unique in France.
The Saturday morning market which is held in the hall and under
the surrounding arcades is one of the finest in southern France.
Since the XIXth century joiners, carpenters, sculptors and woodworkers
of all sorts have made Revel the capital of hand-made furniture
in France. See the exhibition space «Revel Art et Meuble»
•
The lake of Saint-Ferréol: created in the XVIIth century
by Pierre Paul Riquet as the key element in his life's work – the
Canal du Midi. By an ingenious system of irrigation channels Riquet
insured that rainwater running off the Black Mountain would first
fill the lake at St Férréol before being diverted
into the Canal at its highest point – the watershed between
Atlantic and Mediterranean basins.
Today the lake still serves its original purpose while providing
a delightful site for locals and tourists alike to enjoy its
water- sports, fishing and 80 hectare park.
Dinner & Overnight
in Abbey.
Day
5: Sorèze / Toulouse
Return to Toulouse after breakfast.
Net price per person : 620 €
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