Escape from Najac and Return to Albi

As we were packing up this morning, a man in a van arrived and duly unravelled the contents of the ticket machine. It turned out that the ticket roll had got crumbled which meant the tickets weren’t coming out. He identified and gave us our ticket and gave our new English friends theirs.

After emptying and filling - remember them’s the rules (empty & fill whenever you can!) we drove to the gate. Emma entered our code but the computer said no - “vehicle already outside”! Of course, we hadn’t used the ticket to enter so the machine assumed we were still outside. So with the assistance of the metal pole covering the road sensor on the outside, we entered the code on the outside keypad. Sure enough the barrier opened and quickly closed. Re-entering the code on the inside keypad opened the barrier and we finally made our escape.

First stop today was Cordes sur Ciel which is another hilltop town. It’s name means Cordes in the sky and from a distance you can see why - with low cloud or fog in the valley, the village would appear to be floating in the sky!

We had coffee and chocolate to fortify us for the climb and headed out to explore. This is small fortified town which sits astride a long steep ridge. The oldest part of the town was built at the top of the hill and was encircled by a high wall with reinforced gates. As the village grew, more houses were added outside the walls and lower down the hill. Another wall was built surrounding this next part. A third enclosed area at the lower part of the hill completes the village. It’s quite a climb up the steep main street all the way to the fortified church at the top. We made our way back down around the outside of the top enclosure and then followed the main street back down to Kiki.

Heading south from Cordes, we duly arrived at Albi and parked in the new Aire de Camping Car which is situated on the opposite side of the river to the town. Last time we were here we parked right next to the cathedral but there were only a handful of spaces.

After lunch we took a walk into Albi but as we’d already seen the centre we decided to follow a path along the river. The path took us past a weir with the obligatory old mill now serving as a Hydro Electric generating station. We then turned away from the river and followed a stream which skirted round the eastern side of the city. We survived a scramble over some slippery stepping stones and eventually came out at the far end of the main street. We followed the main street to the massive red brick cathedral where Emma took some arty shots. Finally we returned to Kiki via the vieux pont for our evening meal and spent the night in the Aire.