Cathedral Saint Alain in Lavaur, Tarn

As I promised, here are some pictures from the Cathedral Saint Alain in Lavaur in the South West of France. If you stopped by this city, you have to visit this huge pink brick monument. It is a former roman catholic cathedral, built between 1225 and 1300. It got a magnificent portal with Gothic decoration. Inside you can see the very fine organ and the Romanesque altar table from 11th Century.


The particularity of this Cathedral is, it is inhabited by the famous Jacquemart, this is an automated character in wood who ring the bell every hour.
The legend said that the first Jacquemart was built by a prisoner sentenced to ring the bells every hour to indicate its presence. He then built a wooden automatic man for striking the bell in its place and so he could escape.


At the opposite of this huge monument, there is my high school and then the Hotel de ville* ou La Mairie*, with a beautiful jardin*. You go to La Maire to get married officially, to get your birth certificate passport etc.. to get all your administrative documents. Usually, the new married take some pictures in this garden, see below. What do you think? it is not pretty?


***French vocabulary***
Hotel de ville (m)/ La Mairie (f): City hall/ Town hall
Jardin (m): garden