Many of Albi’s citizens and tourists came to discover or rediscover the Madeleine cloister for this second year of its being open on the occasion of the European Heritage Days. In the last two years nearly 2,000 visitors came through our historic doors…… on these only two weekends.
Informational leaflets had been made for the occasion and nearly seven hundred were distributed. Greg KUCERA and Larry YOCOM, property owners, were absent. Not a wish, of course, but a problem in their agenda since they had planned a trip back to Seattle in the USA, where they are from. the Atlantic. Many of their friends in Albi generously took turns to welcome the visitors.
Like last year, the place aroused the enthusiasm of the visiting public, who did not lack superlatives to congratulate the owners and salute the beauty and history of the place.
People who knew the cloister at different times of its renovation also came. Descendants of the MARAVAL family who had lived here in the 1950s-1970s; assistants of Hervé CANIVET who developed the property in the 1990s; many former students who had attended primary school here; historians of the Madeleine church, or old residents of the neighborhood,… all had touching and vibrant stories to tell.
For example, one visitor was a former employee of Tarn Libre who had fought to obtain the machines used to make the felt hats during the 1990s. He helped them to be obtained by a museum located in Salvagnac.
Finally, due to the rarity of the opening of the cloister, the event has been widely relayed in the local press (see the press review below – click on the image to open in a new tab).
La Dépêche du Midi – 18.09.2024
Le Journal d’Ici – 19.09.2024
Le Tarn Libre – 20.09.2024