Day 13 - 25th October - Toulouse (Part 3)
Hotel d'Assezat, with presumably bricked-up archway
Hotel d'Assezat courtyard
Ramparts
The building itself was already very pretty, but it was also a museum. Luckily it closed at 9pm, which I found out after buying a ticket, so I resolved to return later (I ended up returning quite soon anyway).
Road
French kissing in the street - this is France!
Angel with hand organ
Cockroach condom
The Fondation Bemberg (in the Hotel d'Assezat) did not allow photos and I was too tired (and didn't have enough time) to play games. Anyway it wasn't that impressive. It was laid out more like a palace than a museum, with objects in situ and in cabinets (not all labelled, or labelled clearly) rather than labelled and well-presented like in a museum. They had a "Scene d'Auberge" by Pieter Brueghel the Younger but it was in an exhibition in Italy. Actually quite a few items were away for exhibitions, including many Cranachs (e.g. Cranach's Venus and Cupidon - so famous it was on the museum's publicity). I was surprised they let so many go - 5-10% of the collection.
Lucas Cranach's Hercules and Omphale was interesting - women were more dangerous than the Lion and the Hydra.
Labille-Guiard's La Princesse de Montléar seemed to be a portrait of a bad hair day.
Actually the most annoying thing about Palace-Museums is that all the chairs are tempting me to sit, but I can't.
Odilon Redon's L'Enlèvement de Ganymède had Ganymede being grabbed by his loincloth. How unfortunate.
The only thing special about Giovanni Boldini's Elégante à la robe bleue seemed to be her cleavage. Maybe that counted as elegance.
Roger De La Fresnaye's Jeune fille retirant sa chemise had her in an unusual pose - her dress was about to cross her mouth level and expose everything below her breast. Maybe this was technically difficult to execute.
I disliked the palace layout - it was very cluttered. The second half of the collection was in cleaner and more open spaces. Unfortunately this housed Impressionism and later works.
One item (pencil drawings) was so fragile it was covered with velvet, and one had to pull it aside to look.
The museum catalogue was only in English. Hah.
Balcony
Toilet art
I decided not to cheong the Musée des Beaux-Arts this day from 4-6 - I knew they'd chase people out from 5:30 or 5:45, and Musées des Beaux-Arts were a dime a dozen. I also called the tour company again, but they were still not running the Albi-Cordes tour - next time!
Granita publicity: "Le plus givrée des boissons !" This roughly translates as "the most frosty of drinks" or "the drink with the most ice crystals"
Next was the Toulouse Cathedral.
Toulouse Cathedral
Nave
Altar, altar detail
Stained glass
The Church on divorce. OR "Why the Church is dying"
Prayer
I like the line about "let the tealight be a flame so that you will burn away all my egotism, pride and impurity" and "I can't stay in your church for long. In leaving this flame alight I am giving you a bit of myself"
Chapels in a row, with Stations of the Cross
St James chapel
Stained glass
The cathedral had neogothic heraldry - I knew it was too new-looking.
Chapel Sacre Coeur
Chapelle de la Sainte-Croix
Stained glass
Pulpit
Pieta
Rose Window
Since age was catching up with me I slacked a while in the cathedral.
Cathedral outside. It has a weird shape. According to Wikipedia, "The irregular west front exists because the cathedral consists of two incomplete churches, the first dating from the early 13th century, which includes the rose window from 1230; and the other begun in about 1272, on a new plan and a different axis, which was later abandoned".
Cathedral with fountain
Fountain of Saint-Etienne
Side of Cathedral
Door
WWI Monument
Detail
Flower bed
"L'emploi nouvelle génération"
Temp contracts - the reality for youth
Place Dupuy, with obelisk in memory of Dupuy, the general from Toulouse who died in the Egypt Campaign
Halle aux Grains
Buy one get one free milkshakes from 3-7pm. There're disadvantages to solo travel!
Coiffure (hairdresser) selling a lot of random crap
For dinner, I did something arguably very risky. I accepted an invitation from a stranger (via Contacts Francophones) to go to his house for dinner. I figured no one would want to rape me, so after giving some friends the person's contact details I went to wait at a metro stop at the end of one line.
Park and ride is very affordable - you get free parking as long as long as you have a metro ticket, which is only €1,60. Granted this is out of town, but it's a great way to encourage Park & Ride.
I checked in on Foursquare once we got near his home too, so people would know where to find my dead body (if he turned out to be an axe murderer). In any event, everything turned out fine and it was interesting. Among other things the family had 20-30 cats, a wild duck, a pythin, a boa constrictor, mice (for the snakes), guns, samurai swords, some birds and fish at home.
Eyeliner is very popular with French women. I notice when someone is *not* using it (she is almost always old).
