Toulouse Part Ii

The people in Toulouse dress the way you might imagine Parisiennes do. They are well dressed and sophisticated but they are also very friendly and helpful. When we took the bus to the Metro I asked the driver a question and a woman decided to look after us. She made sure we got on the correct train in the Metro and she told us that AirBus is the biggest employer, Pharmaceutical research was next and then health care were the next biggest employers. For young people unemployment is about 50%! No one is retiring so young people just get short term sick leave positions. She got off at our station and showed us around the Capitole district.
In fact everyone was helpful except, wait for it, a woman who works for Tourist Information. She was the only one working so I guess she was stressing out. I gave her the Look and she was apologetic.

We had breakfast and then visited Basilica Saint Sernin which is one of the oldest Romanesque churches in Europe. It is also a centre for the Camino de Santiago ( Chemin de Saint Jaques ) so we went back later on for their Camino meeting. People walk from Arles through Toulouse to Spain. It takes about eight days to walk from Toulouse to St John Pied d Port and THEN another month to get to Santiago! After the Camino meeting we watched people arrive for a wedding and some of the dresses were lovely - inclining the bride - and the hats and fascinators were great. Maggie says her niece was more tbeautiful!

After our morning visit to Saint Serin, we walked to la Plage and took a canal cruise through the Canal de Midi going through several locks? Toulouse used to be a tobacco centre and the old buildings have been converted to university buildings along with new buildings built in the same style. The architecture is similar to Paris but it may be a bit more ornate and the colour is rosy. The buildings are either brick or stucco that is pinkish.

We spent some time at the train station arranging for our trip to Lourdes. There was a strange raised pattern in the floor that consisted of parallel lines the sometimes went at right angles. Qu'est que c'est? Floor markings for the blind to go from the door to the ticket wicket and to the train! I won't say what we thought.

We bought groceries and took the Metro and a bus back to the hotel. Once again the driver was watching out for us. We had a short dip in the pool - the pools are not heated and far too cold! Once back in the suite, we were treated to thunder and lightning.

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Location:Toulouse