TRIP TO TOULOUSE

With hindsight our 'mini break' to Toulouse was not a great success. The main aim was to team up with friends from N.I. and in that respect it went very well, we had a very enjoyable time in their company. But from a tourist visit point of view we failed miserably. I had done some minimal research, i.e. the inevitable scan of TripAdvisor to see the 'must dos' for Toulouse, and the only thing apart from churches and galleries that leapt out at me was the existence of a Japanese garden. Anything Japanese is a must see for us, land of the Husband's birth, our interest is reflected in our ceramics collection, interior design, gardening, and t.v. viewing - there's always something of interest on NHK channel.

 

Looking Tranquil

 

The Japanese garden is set within a bigger park, neither of which are particularly large, the compact size of the city centre is a boon as everything is within comfortable walking distance, but having looked at google maps prior to arrival this dinkyness wasn't apparent. It is a lovely place (except the gravel garden was not maintained - needed a jolly good rake) but an oasis of calm it certainly wasn't. One poor guy was sitting by the lakeside trying to meditate, not a chance! firstly we blunder past and them the heavy metal started! The encompassing park was hosting some sort of music event, making the visit all the more bizarre.

 

 

Not too clear a photo, it's a rusty recycled metal dragon just beside the Japanese 'oasis'

 

Sculpture (and parks) became the theme of our stay. Mainly because our timing was a bit off, a Sunday and Monday visit, therefore galleries and museums closed, stupid me, didn't think.

 

 
 








 Another park, another 'statue', it is a Wallace fountain, I had thought I had already blogged about Wallace fountains, but apparently not. I have just discovered how rubbish the search engine on blogger is and can't find any reference to them here, so that's the next story sorted.

War memorial

 

This relief panel is situated within the arch of the Monument aux Combattants de la Haute-Garonne.

The memorial is very fully explained on the internet here -  archives.toulouse.fr/visite360/monument/index.htm 

We speculated about this panel, my eye had been drawn to grimacing faces and I had thought of the bodies thrown together into mass graves - so showing my happy outlook on life!  It was then pointed out to me the contented faces, cheering, caps held aloft in celebration. And indeed it is a portrayal of a scene of the returning soldiers, one or two, towards the top reunited with their loved ones. We were stunned by the sculpture and having read about all the other reliefs around the arch I wish we had spent more time studying all of it.

 

 

To sum up, Toulouse is a super city, lots to see and do and we shall return to see and do all the things we missed out on; top of the list being the covered market (closed Monday morning) and the 'gallery walk' which I only found on the internet after we were back home. It culminates with a visit to 'Les Abattoirs' the contemporary art centre, and they are always good for a laugh! There's even more little back streets to explore and interesting individual shops to nosey through. And if we leave it for a couple of years the road works on Jean Jaures will be finished, hurray! Must go and give it a rave review on TripAdvisor............