Albi

Albi takes 1 day to see: Sainte-Cécile Cathedral, the largest brick cathedral in the world, built as a fortress-church after the 13th-century crusade against the Cathars, on one day, complemented by the Toulouse-Lautrec Museum, dedicated to the painter born in the city, inside the former bishop's palace. April-September is best. It's inexpensive by French standards. Its fortified cathedral, with walls up to 40 meters high and almost no exterior windows, reflects the climate of distrust left by the region's repression of the Cathar heresy.