Adventures in France -Chateau du Bosc, family home of Toulouse-Lautrec

We had asked at the Information Office in Albi about visiting the Chateau du Bosc as Sandy had read there was no public transport to Naucelle, and from there to Camjac, where the Chateau is.  The very helpful member of staff suggested we might try to get a BlaBla car and showed us on his computer screen how we could order one if there was anyone travelling there and said it would be best if we checked on the morning of our proposed visit.

For anyone who does not know, a BlaBla car is a service that lets you find a car with a driver going to the place you want to travel to, at a very reasonable cost.

We duly checked on my iPad the next morning and found to our relief that the page could be translated to English, which helped enormously.   We put in that we wanted to go to Naucelle from Albi and found several drivers going that way.  We opted for Ophelie and who would be leaving Albi at around lunchtime which suited us.  I received a message on my mobile, in French, so went down to speak to Rachdi, the very nice receptionist and he translated it for me.  Ophelie was offering to pick us up at the station opposite our hotel and Rachdi replied for me that the station would be perfect.  Naucelle was probably about 20 miles away, and the cost was €10. 

Ophelie arrived promptly and we had a pleasant drive to Naucelle. She is a student and told us that she is studying to be a vet.  She offered to drive us directly to the Chateau du Bosc at Camjac. We were delighted as this saved us a 2 km walk from Naucelle. 

We had arrived at just about 2 pm and were the only visitors. A very nice and helpful young man showed us over the Chateau.  He conducted the tour in English and it was so nice just being the two of us.   The mediaeval chateau has been occupied by the same family since the 12C until 2016 when the last family member died at the age of 91.  As she had no family members left, the Chateau was left to the couple who had helped her run the property for the past few years.  Henri Toulouse-Lautrec spent most of his early years at the Chateau.  

Unfortunately no photographs allowed inside the chateau, but these are from the outside.

The Chapel - built when the property was modernised

Originally there were four towers - one at each corner but two were removed when the property was modernised in the 19C

Originally built as kennels for the hunting dogs. Now used as stables.

Entrance to the Courtyard - originally where the drawbridge was

You may now be wondering how we got back to Naucelle.  As I mentioned above, there was no transport to the chateau from Naucelle - no transport back either.   So we walked - 2km on a hot sunny afternoon.  We stopped to take pictures of these charming cows.  I think they are young Charolais.

When we arrived at Naucelle we discovered there was a train service directly back to Albi, but we had an hour to wait - we were so relieved we would have waited longer.

More soon.