Toulouse, France

I realized that I have never written about our day in Toulouse, France. If you read an earlier blog, you'll know that we were stuck in Toulouse for an entire day before we could fly out. We made the best of the day by storing our lugguge at the hotel, taking a free shuttle from our hotel to the airport and then catching a city center bus from the airport to the downtown area. Not many Americans visit Toulouse so the French assumed we were British. When they found out we were Americans, they were very surprised and delighted and then started asking lots of questions! So forget everything you've heard about those rude French! It is simply not true................

When you are an American travelling in France, there is only one place to eat lunch; McDonald's!
No really, this was the last day of our vacation and we were broke and looking for a cheap place to get something quick to eat.


I wish I could remember the names of all the places we visited. This is the first Cathedral we stopped by. It was closed for lunch so we had to come back later. Look at that tower; this was very typical for the towers we saw around Toulouse.



On our walk, we passed a small park with some play equipment. It must have been lunchtime for the Toulouse kids because it was packed with student groups. MK wanted to play on this merry go round and these French teenagers were happy to oblige as long as Matt kept spinning them around, too!

This stop was another old church and former monastery converted into an art museum. Here we take a break in the inner courtyard where monks used to take daily walks. The museum featured architectural items from the various churches in Toulouse from the different time periods. The statues and columns were mostly from the 14th and 15th centuries. There was also a modern art gallery featuring impressionism and post-impressionism works and marble statues. What impressed me the most was all the school children groups. When you grow up in a city next to a world class art museum, you get to take daily field trips with your art teacher and practice drawing the art that you see.Every city in Europe has a city center, or markplatz, or town square. This is the Toulouse city center and the building is a former royal residence. The town hall is located directly across. Toulouse was a delightful little detour on our travelling home day. If you're ever in the area, stop on by!