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Determined to avoid more horrible headwind, we hopped a train to Toulouse this morning. What would take us two days to bike took just over an hour on the train, which was both depressing and fantastic.
Toulouse immediately struck us as a vibrant, lively city, with lots of construction projects underway, and people bustling everywhere when we arrived at mid-day. We immediately biked to our hotel, the Hotel Des Arts. After storing our bikes in their secure garage and cleaning up, we headed out on the town for a look around.
We started in the touristic and old civic center of the city, the Place de Capitole. Like everything else in Toulouse, it seems more like an active space for the city residents than a tourist Disneyland. We started by visiting the Capitole itself, which is still used as the City Hall.
The city hall has a lot to recommend it, and a lot to teach our American governmental buildings!
How could you pay attention at a public hearing with murals like these on the walls??
Then we headed to the Cathedral, which is an unusual and striking hodgepodge of architectural styles on the outside...
And quite rundown on the inside. Apparently with limited funds, the city has wisely decided to focus on the church of Saint Severin, which we, and you, will see later.
Dinner, unfortunately, was a disappointment. We headed to our local square, Place St Georges, and tried a restaurant that our hotel recommended, Le Van Gogh. Once again trapped by the French set menu, we were compelled to eat three courses each!
Ravioli with truffles for both
Salmon for Arah
Steak for Eric (and a stolen fry for Arah!)
Chocolate fondant for A
And grapefruit pannacotta for E.
Then, as the first raindrops fell, we rushed home and enjoyed the first thunderstorm of the summer from the comfort of our room.
Our second day in Toulouse was a national holiday - Victory in Europe Day - and lots of locals were out on the town enjoying the day off. It was obvious the Toulouse is a university town, with over 100,000 students in residence.
We started by seeing the other major church, Saint Severin, which is the largest Romanesque building remaining in France. It's quite impressive, both from the outside and the inside.
They have a reliquary and crypt, which has remains and relics of quite a few saints. Somewhat morbidly, the walk around here is called The Tour Of Holy Bodies.
Then we headed to the Victor Hugo market, which is a typically mouthwatering display of meats, cheeses, seafood, bread, and desserts. We refrained from buying everything in sight, and just had a coffee. (Jay: That's 14 different kinds of oysters.)
Premade duck confit!
Bagel tragedy - almost as bad as blueberry.
We've noticed a lot of changes in France since our visit five years ago. More people speak English willingly, there are no bidets in the hotel bathrooms, every place has Wi-Fi, and then there's this, sadly... We saw these signs everywhere, even inside the churches..
For lunch we stopped for quick sandwiches
And Arah discovered a new favorite beverage, zingy citrus seltzer!
In the afternoon we mostly wandered around the streets of Toulouse, which is one of the prettiest, most intact small cities I've seen in Europe.
We visited the small, but very interesting and well done Musee Saint Raymond. The museum's focus is the Roman and prehistoric history of Toulouse, and the displays are both Roman artefacts found in and around Toulouse, and some of the most amazing dioramas I've ever seen. And you know how I love a good diorama!
Eric went on to the Convent of Saint Jacobin to see the remains of St. Thomas Aquinas
And the Palm of the Jacobins
Before dinner we stopped by the No5 Wine Bar, voted best wine bar in the world in 2017. We blew €13 pretty quickly playing with these automatic wine dispensers, and decided that we should definitely open one of these in Somerville!
For dinner we headed to international restaurant row and hit the Japanese izakaya, IORI. It was a nice change.
Then back to the room for a good night sleep. We both have itchy legs and are ready to hit the road tomorrow!
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