Toulouse, France… a glimpse through my son’s eyes

Though I’ve never been to Europe, I can drool over the thought of it. I don’t know which I’d pick first to visit… Ireland, England… Or I’d love to see Germany and Austria… but I think my design heart yearns for France… maybe someday. Our 3 adult children have all traveled the world way more extensively than we have ever had the opportunity to do so. In fact, just a couple months ago, one of our sons had a business trip to Toulouse, France.

He sweetly sent me captured moments during his visit. For he too, has a great appreciation for history and architecture and knew ‘his mama’ would love to see some scenes of his time there.

So here are a few scenes from Toulouse, France via my son:

The detail on the buildings is so beautifully inspiring to me.

There is history for Toulouse, dating back to the 2nd century B.C.! Whew! That’s a long time ago for a town’s history… and to think that I’m impressed with the age of the towns in the US on the east coast that have history dating to ‘only’ 1600’s.

Some of the amazing history that this now modern city has witnessed… 2 bouts of plagues, wars and battles, including the Hundred Years War, but it was during the 15th century that the city really started to build its wealth, (that’s 700 years ago!) thanks to its involvement in trade, primarily of Bordeaux wine, grains and textiles. Then the gorgeous grand buildings apparently started to be built, including stunning townhouses for the wealthy traders themselves.

It’s quite interesting as to what happens with old buildings over years and generations and in this case even centuries of people living there and using the buildings… sometimes with very different uses than what was originally intended. Like for instance this building above here, with the lovely arched doorways, looking almost like it was tucked in the side… well as I understand it from my son,  it was originally the morgue, (or ‘morgue’ as they say in France… I don’t know much French, so I had to look that one up… ) and now? Well now, it is a cafe! I guess during the hours of operation, they pull out cafe tables and chairs and ta-da time to eat!

Here’s a very old bridge. It was built in the 1600’s, in Toulouse and crosses the Garonne River. This very old bridge, interestingly, is named ‘Pont Neuf’… which translated means ‘New Bridge’. Ha! everything’s relative, isn’t it?

So Toulouse has fantastic old architecture and really amazing history attached to it, but it boasts now of being a modern city. It is the 4th largest city in France… but by the looks of it, parking can be a bit tight!

Or, if the street says no parking… you can just park on the sidewalk. Unfortunately, that does make it a bit tight for the pedestrians.

And one last picture of Toulouse, France that my son shared with me….

It seems that no matter where you are in the world, you can always find crazy cat people…

Ahhh…

C`est la vie!

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