The good news was that the weather was forecast to be much brighter today than yesterday. When we stepped outside of the apartment in Toulouse it was a bright sunny day, without so much as a cloud in the sky. Our plan was to visit two towns - Gaillac and Albi - which are both located on the same train line.
Gaillac was our first stop, after about an hour on the regional train from Toulouse. We found the main square full of some kind of Sunday market.
Gaillac is a very pretty town, with lots of medieval buildings.
The biggest building in the town is the Abbey of St Michel.
The abbey is situated on the banks of the river Tarn.
The river itself is large and fast-flowing, with a big weir.
We walked around the back of the abbey...
...and got a view back towards the bridge over the Tarn we'd just been standing on to photograph the abbey.
Then we looped around through a park, which was beautiful in today's bright sunshine.
We were on a strict timetable as we only had about an hour in Gaillac before our next train on to Albi. Gaillac and Albi are very close, so after a journey of less than 15 minutes we had arrived in our second destination. Albi is famous for its enormous cathedral and we got a glimpse of it in the distance as soon as we arrived.
At least there was no doubt about what direction we needed to walk in out of the station to get to the centre of town!
We passed a war memorial...
...walked through a square with pink blossom trees...
...and saw that the cathedral was now getting closer.
It really looks more like a fortress than a cathedral!
It was after midday by this point, so we found an Italian restaurant where we could sit inside and eat. Although it was sunny today, it felt quite chilly in the wind.
Although we didn't run into any Zamenhof Streets in Albi, Tim did spot the Esperanto word "akvo" on this multilingual water bottle in the restaurant.
After lunch we headed out to explore a bit more of the town.
The cathedral is so enormous that it's hard to give an impression of its size in photos.
We went inside to have a look around.
The interior was spectacular too; I really loved the ceilings in particular.
Leaving the cathedral behind, we walked downhill towards the river.
Albi is also situated on the river Tarn.
We had a good view of the old bridge, which was originally built in the 11th century.
It was a lovely scenic walk alongside the river 
Like in Gaillac, the river is very fast-flowing here and we passed a hydroelectrical plant.
Once we reached this newer bridge, we began climbing back uphill towards the town centre.
There was just time for one more view of the cathedral, as we headed back towards the station for our train to Toulouse
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