Jun 17th - Carcassonne to Toulouse

 Travel day

Well known for its food, and aerospace industry, and just about an hour and 100 kms away from Carcassonne, we took off for Toulouse today.  

On arrival, and with the ‘Canal du Midi’ on the doorstep of the railway station, first impressions were positive. However, it wasn’t long before we got that ‘Bigger/ Big City’ feel which was a touch disappointing and just reinforced our general preference for smaller places while travelling. 


Once we’d checked-in we went on a little bit of a ‘religious’ tour taking in both a convent and a basilica.  The first, the Convent (and/or the Church) of the Jacobins, is a deconsecrated church and cloisters built in the 13th century.  Strangely for a place that’s been deconsecrated it still houses the relics of Thomas Aquinas, the well known catholic friar, priest, philosopher and theologian. When entering you’re struck by the amount of light coming in through the huge stained glass windows, which is great.  However, for some strange reason they’ve hung coloured neon lights from the ceiling which look completely out of place against the gothic columns and arches. 

Our next visit was to the magnificent Basilique Saint-Sernin, a UNESCO World Heritage site that was was built between the 11th and 14th centuries to serve the pilgrims on their way to Santiago de Compostela in Spain.  The church is home to the tomb of St. Sernin (Toulouse’s first bishop) and still houses a piece of the ‘True Cross’ (apparently!). 

The last place on our list to checkout was the ‘Le Capitole’, Toulouse’s massive city hall.  With its Neoclassical style, pink brick,135 m long facade, and dating back to 1750, it completely takes up all of one side of the ‘Place du Capitole’, the city’s major square.  Unfortunately for us though the building was closed so we dipped out. 


This evening, when out for dinner, our restaurant had a huge screen set up to show the French Rugby Union cup final between Toulouse and La Rochelle.  Obviously being ‘locals’ we had to support Toulouse, and luckily they went on to win.  It was a good night. 





Comments

  1. Lyn WalpoleJune 20, 2023 at 12:35 AM

    Did you have your favourite dish Paul, this being the 'home' of a key ingredient?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Paul DorkingJune 21, 2023 at 12:11 PM

    Hi Wal. Not only did I NOT eat a Toulouse sausage I didn’t even SEE one! Every time I ordered one it came out as sliced salami! (To be fair though that might be a reflection on the standard of my schoolboy French!😆)

    ReplyDelete

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