Page 16 - DreamScapes Magazine | Fall/Winter 2023

À LA CARTE
PRETTY IN PINK
Montauban and Albi are both accessible by rail from Toulouse, but we snaked around the sleepy bends to these river valley villages by car where France’s acclaimed artists Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, Antoine Bourdelle and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec once lived.
In Montauban, get ready to wander pink arched colonnades, see two newly restored plazas, and spend time in the charming shops and stylish restaurants, after you visit the newly renovated Ingres-Bourdelle Museum.
Continue the odyssey in jaw-dropping pink-popping Albi. The scenic panorama of this UNESCO city overlooking the Tarn River is eye candy that takes your breath away as soon as you set eyes on it. It did for me!
At Maison Garcia, an entire corner is the cockpit of this acclaimed 62-year-old family-owned butchery. Specialties include their award-winning Toulouse sausage (there’s a plump gamey female saucisson sec and the milder skinnier male saucisse sèche) and the stand-alone prize winner, “Pata Negra Bellota,” voted best ham in the world in 2020. We tear into the tradi- tional baguettes (a piece of UNESCO World Heritage), sample the Holy Grail of ham that retails for the price of a luxe Gucci sneaker, savour sharp cheeses akin to France’s king of cheeses, which is the Roquefort, pro- duced here, and toast with a bubbly rosé from the locally grown Mauzac grape.
“Santé,” proclaims Jessica, nodding her head, eyes fixed on the toastee (me). “Don’t ever cross your arms in a group and always gaze into the other person’s eyes,” she reveals about the French tradition.
Indeed.
Throughout my Occitanie journey to this storied southwestern French region, I admit, there are loads of good memories. After all, closer to Spain than Paris, this corridor of plenty that spans west to the Atlantic and gurgles south into the Mediterranean Sea via the Midi Canal is rife with life’s finest pleasures, which are naturally wrapped around good eats and inspiring places bien sûr. DS
16 DREAMSCAPES FALL/WINTER 2023
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TRAVEL PLANNER
For travel information to the Occitanie region, Toulouse and surrounds, visit Destination Occitanie tourisme-occitanie.com, Toulouse toulouse-visit.com, Tarn et Garonne Tourisme tourisme-tarnetgaronne.fr/en and Tarn Tourisme tourisme-tarn.com/uk. For general information on France, visit france.fr/en and for year-round air service see AirCanada.com
PHOTOS: ILONA KAUREMSZKY | TOURISME TARN ET GARONNE | ALBI TOURISME