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FRANCE 2012
Day 20 Saturday, September 22
Toulouse
We slept a little later this morning. There are washers and dryer
down stairs for the residents to use, so Kathleen went down and put a
small load in the washer and then
had
breakfast in the breakfast room. We finally figured out that the 1st
floor of the apartment building which is part of the Pullman Hotel is
really 9 floors up so we are on the 8th floor of the apartment section
but are really 17 floors up.
After finishing the laundry, and some lovely down time, we started
walking to the Basilica of St. Sernin. I was anxious to visit it not
only because it is a beautiful and famous church, but my research on a
model by Jean Louis Piroux could only be purchased in the book store.
ST.
SERNIN
As we approach the church, they were
having an antique “yard sale” all around the church. Everything
imaginable was spread out on the walk and the crowd was very large.
We
went into the church, and I immediately looked for the book store which
turned out to be one small counter against the back wall. They didn’t
have the model. A very helpful young man said he hadn’t seen it in some
years. He wrote out on a piece of paper in French what I wanted so I
could hand it a lady in the museum across the street. We went there and
she didn’t have it either but we did find 2 of Instant Durable post card
models – Mausolee de Glanum and Theatre Antique.
We went back across the street and visited the church. The
young man then gave us a map on which he marked the location of several
bookstores that might have the model.
St. Sernin is the most famous and the most magnificent of the great
Romanesque churches in the South of France and has one of the largest
collection of holy relics. The site was home, in the late fourth
century, to a Basilica containing the body of St. Sernin, who was from
Languedoc, the first Bishop of Toulouse and was martyred in 250 by being
tied to the legs of a bull he had refuse to sacrifice to pagan gods,
which dragged him
down a flight of stone steps.
With the donation of numerous relics by Charlemagne, the church
became a focus of pilgrims from all over Europe, and also a stopping
place for pilgrims on their way to Santiago de Compostela.
The present building was constructed to meet those growing needs. It
was begun in 1080 and completed in the mid-14th century. General
restoration was undertaken in 1860 by
Viollet-le-Duc, whose works we have seen numerous times on this
trip. St. Sernin is constructed from red brick and white stone. The apse
which was
begun
in the late 11th century has more stone whereas the nave is built almost
all of brick. The apse is the oldest part of the building and it forms a
magnificent ambulatory of five chapels. The five tier octagonal
belltower stands above the transept crossing. The three lower tiers are
embellished with early 12th century Romanesque rounded arches. The two
upper stories were added 150 years later. The spire was added in the
15th century.
The interior was designed to accommodate large con
gregation,
with room for choir of cannons and consist of a nave flanked by double
sided aisles, a broad transept, and a chancel with an ambulatory from
which five radiating chapels open off. Beneath the dome of the transept
crossing is an altar table of marble from the old Romanesque altar.
NOTRE DAME DU TAUR
We started walking to more churches and the Capital and found a
Subway so we had a sandwich. Is always fascinating to find a great
number of American fast food restaurants in
European
cities.
Across the street was another church called,
Church of Notre-Dame du
Taur. The current church was built starting in the 14th Century on the
spot where, as legend has it, the bull stopped after dragging St-Sernin
thus the name" Our Lady of the Bull" . The church has a large bell-gable
with numerous battlements and a triangular gable typical of the Toulouse
region. It's recently restored façade which extends considerably higher
than the adjacent buildings, attracts the attention of those walking
from the Place du Capitole to Saint-Sernin. Because the street was so
narrow and the façade so tall it was impossible to photograph the entire
front.
It was rather unusual inside with
a lot of dark wood, framed paintings on the wall and a large mural of
the bull dragging St.Sernin.
\
Around
the corner was the Capital building, a huge building with a very large
square in front filled with people. There was a sign on the street
indicated a little train ride so we took it. We got to see sites that we
would not have been able to see walking.
We came back to the square and walked to another church – The
Jacobins Church which is a
Dominican Church. 
THE JACOBINS CHURCH
The
interior was wonderful. Down the center of the entire church nave were
columns that radiated into the vaulted ceiling. The one in the front, in
the apse, is call the Palm Tree. Surrounding the column of this column was
a mirror, which allowed you to see up to the “palm tree” easily. It was
a very unusual effect. It was very beautiful. Near the front was the
reliquary of Thomas Aquinas. And then, all of a sudden a blond lady in a
long aqua dress stepped up in front of the reliquary and started singing
an Ave Maria in a beautiful soprano voice. Her voice echoed throughout
the church. When she finished, she stepped down and spoke to a few
people and disappeared.
We left and stopped in a bookstore that the clerk in the bookstore
at St. Sernin recommended….no luck on finding the model. Then we walk
back past the Capital and found our way back to the street where we
live. It was now about 5:00 pm. We probably walked ten miles today.
When started out it was cool and overcast and we wore our jackets. By
afternoon it was very hot. Toulouse is a very large and very busy
city. Of the 1.2 million inhab
itants,
I think we saw at least half of them today. When people get married the
wedding party drives through all the narrow streets honking their
horns. There must have been a dozen weddings today.
About 7:00 we went next door to the Pullman hotel’s bar. A
very nice young man, Bastein, waited on us. We were the only
people in
the bar. The bartender spoke very good English so we are able to communicate.
They had Jack Daniels, so I was happy. After we finished our drinks, we
crossed the lobby to the SW restaurant. It was very tastefully
decorated in shades of cream. He brought us another round of drinks and
talked to us more. For dinner I had a wonderful piece of salmon and
asparagus risotto, and Kathleen had –what else- duck! Kathleen had
chocolate soup for dessert-we’ll remember that – chocolate soup!
