June 29 and we're in Toulouse all day.
All I can say is I'm glad it's only one day. Not to much to recomend about this place. I'm sure if you visited here and then read about it in the travel book we're using you would not connect the two.
A dull drab city with low buildings and dull drab people. More bums (ya ya I know) than we've seen elsewhere in France. Bums living on the street with two or three dogs. Saw this one guy who didn't even have shoes. Or maybe he was just saving them for his next job interview.
Anyway we set out with no expectations and started the day with a typical French breakfast of coffee and pastry at a streetside cafe. Our hotel wanted 26 Euros ($39.00) for their buffet and I could feel a mental breakdown approaching so I just ruled it out right off the bat. Mine's the croissant and Terri's is the chocolate muffin. I ALWAYS try to eat healthy (HA!).
After breakfast we decided to visit the Basilica of Saint Sernin, some guy the ancient romans did in a way long time ago so then they made him into a saint and built this huge freaking church for him.
The gypsies and other swarthy and swathed types were having some sort of a street fair all around the church and it was very busy plus there was a service going on inside so we said we'd come back later. There were also guys playing music that sounded like a person being being tortured. Jeez...keep your religion at home a-holes!.
I noticed this funny thing on the sidewalk outside the church: A public outdoor toilet. The french are so clever! And practical. Who wants gypsies and other swarthy types peeing all over the street?
A little further down the road we came upon the Victor Hugo market. You name it - they got it. And they got stuff there I never imagined anyone would eat. Like a pig's face - not the entire head that might have some meat on it but just the skin of the head with eyeball holes and a squished piggy nose. Christ knows what they would do with that? Maybe scare the shit out of their kids?
Balls to brains - they had everything. And more different kinds of fresh fish than I've ever seen in one place. Makes the Calgary Farmer's Market look like a MAC store.
There was another church on the way that we visited - something to do with the Jacobites. Are they like Hudderites?
The two shots below are of the ceiling of the church. The first shot was just a shot pointing the camera up. The second was pointing the camera down onto a HUGE mirror they have installed for (I assume) taking pictures of the ceiling. When you first look in the mirror it seems you are looking into a very deep pool of water.
We stopped by yet another church (apparently the main church of Toulouse) there was some sort of ceremony going on. Not sure what it was..some sort of an ism I suspect...baptism, circumsision (ya ya I know), exorcism?
A cool church though...
The shot below is of a main boulevard in the city and shows the lack of care given to it. It's like this everywhere: garbage, leaves laying around, etc. Really not too impressive.
Being good and diligent tourists we needed to take the tour bus. I think the gal in the picture thought I was shooting her. We saw a lot of the same things we'd already seen although this time with a bit of explanation.
Now that all the gypsies and swarthy types have gone from Saint Sernin's church we decided to give it another try. Another cool church.
A video of the main square in town.