The first thing you notice about Albi is that all the buildings range from being a glorious rich red through to some fabulous shades of pastel pink. What’s more they are constructed from brick, even the enormous Romanesque Cathedral, which is almost unique when stone was the material of choice elsewhere.

The City is located on both banks of the River Tarn from which clay has been extracted for centuries and turned into the bricks which give the City its distinctive red look. A stroll through Albi first thing in the morning or the evening when the sun is low in the sky brings out some amazing colour variations.

There has been a settlement here since the Bronze Age. In 51 BC Julius Caesar’s Romans took over and called the town Civitas Albigensium but left no evidence of their presence. The Franks later turned the town into prosperous place and it attracted many adherents of Catharism due to its relative independence from Northern France. This didn’t last and the Cathars were persecuted during the Albigensian Crusade, many being burned at the stake. Albi was never actually besieged and was in fact easily taken by the Crusaders led by Simon de Montfort. The Crusade was nevertheless named after the city because the Crusaders wrongly believed that it was the centre of Catharism.