After dropping our friend Lucy off at the airport in Toulouse we decided to stop in Montauban, a small city on the way home. We have always just driven by on our way to somewhere else, and thought it might be worthy of a stop. We were pleasantly surprised at the quality of the old town, and by the lunch we enjoyed in the square. It is most famous as the home of the painter Ingres,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Auguste_Dominique_Ingres

and has an Ingres museum. We were less impressed by the museum. It’s in an interesting building by the river, but has very few of his paintings – he seems to have sold most of them in his lifetime, and left drawings, sketches and wherever was in his atelier to his birthplace when he died.
The building itself consists of a large vaulted room at ground level known as the Black Prince’s room as the English constructed it during the Hundred Years’ War. We couldn’t tell whether this shield over the fireplace was original but it seemed to indicate the place had gone to the dogs after the English left. The upper three stories were reconstructed as an Episcopal palace in the seventeenth century and contain many original features such as the intricately painting ceilings.


The central square, la place Nationale, (previously la Place Royale), we found quite reminiscent of Toulouse with its red brick work, arch ways, bars and restaurants.