THE RACE LIVE

Departure town

(Photo : Ville d’Albi - Michel Fabre)

Albi

Very much a sporting town, with 160 clubs and their 16,000 members, Albi welcomes the Tour de France for the 10th time in 2005. With a population of nearly 50,000 and 4,000 students, Albi is a thriving city which manages to combine past glory and present youth, with a truly dynamic economy. Over 600,000 tourists visit Albi every year. The town is famous for its Toulouse-Lautrec museum, with a unique collection of paintings and prints by the artist, as well as St Cecilia Cathedral, a masterpiece of Mediterranean Gothic architecture. Albi is the birthplace of illustrious navigators La Pérouse and Rochegude. Arts, sports, education… Diversity is the hallmark of Albi the "erudite and audacious", making it even more of a city on the move, but where the living is easy.

www.mairie-albi.fr