.
FRANCE 2012
Day 22 Monday, September 24
Toulouse
The first task for this morning was for Kathleen to get on line with
British Air and book our seats for both flights – Toulouse to London
Heathrow and Heathrow to Dulles. This can be done on line 24 hours
before the flight. After another late breakfast (we finally figured out
why we eat breakfast so late – that is because I have to shave, and we
both have to shower, wash and dry our hair,and get dressed before going
to breakfast- we can’t go down in our PJ’s like home).
The second task of the day was to return the car. When we booked
it, the return location was out some distance from our apartment. We
weren’t sure how we would get back to our apartment. We discovered that
we are just several blocks from the train station that has an Avis
office, but sometimes there is an extra change if you don’t take them
back to the right location. We walked over to the train station and
talked to the agent who said that we could bring it over there and we
won’t get an extra change. We had about ¾ tank of diesel so we said
they could fill it up because it was difficult to find gas stations.
We walked back to the apartment and made our way down into the
bowels of the apartment/hotel complex and found the car and drove it
about 6 blocks and turned it in. The return was on the 3rd floor of
the train station parking building, with no indication how to proceed
after parking the car. We got back to the office just as the staff
was closing for lunch. The woman was 30 seconds from leaving. She was
kind, and stopped for a minute to take our key and sign the paper. This
VW Polo was a nice little car. We drove 1358 miles and push in the
clutch and shifted gears – 120,347,594 times at least--my left leg and
right arm feels that way.
It had rained last night and this morning was overcast and windy. I
wore my sweater to the Avis office, but decided I needed my jacket too
as we were going back to this historic district. About ¾ way down our
big street to the large cross street, it started to rain so we dashed in
a very nice Italian restaurant and had pizza (one pizza split in
half)and since it is our last day we enjoyed a half bottle of Rose’ and
chocolate profiteroles. We had promised ourselves that we would have
profiteroles once! The tables were very clos
e and the couple next to us
spoke English. They were originally for Colorado, but several years ago
moved to Ireland and opened a wine store. They just bought a house
locally and are going to live here in Toulouse. They had an interesting
story.
By the time we finished lunch, the sun had come out. It was warm
and still windy.
Cathedral of St. Etienne
We walked to the
Cathedral of St. Etienne. From the
outside it was very large and quite high.
The interior was rather
strange because its building wa
s spread over five centuries, from the
13th century to the 16th century, during which the architectural concepts went through significant transformations. Inside the west
front door was the Medieval Romanesque nave built in the 11th century.
A newer part of the building was in Gothic style, not centered but to the
left. In other words (see the photos) – to get a straight line view of
the altar, I had to stand again the left wall of the old nave.
The
choir and sanctuary were gothic in design.
The reredos behind the altar
was almost Baroque.
There is one column separating the two parts that
is reported to be the highest column in any church in the world.
The
cathedral contains some interesting features - stained glass windows,
tapestries, paintings, a large rose window, a large organ suspended high
on
a wall and seventeen chapels.
We headed home, passing a model shop, but it only carried plastic
planes.
We are very tired, but happy with all the wonderful things that we
have done and seen. I have taken 2243 photos. I hope to finish our
website of this trip within a month, maybe 6 weeks. That statement was
written 3 years ago, and I am just now publishing this journey on
October 20, 2012
We didn’t want to walk back down to the main street for dinner, so
we asked the desk clerk for recommendations. He recommended several
cafes in the area behind us, but we didn’t find any that met our
needs. We walked out on the main drag that the hotel is on and stopped
at Taverne Brennus. It was a good place because they had Jack
Daniels. I had wonderful lamb chops and Kathleen had – guess what?
Duck. I was bad and had a crepe Suzette for dessert…it was wonderful.
We bought a book at each church- we visited 27 churches plus several
castles. The books are rather thin but they do weigh something and take
up space. We need to get to bed early so the taxi can pick us up at
6:00. Our flight is at 8:30 that is 2:30 AM eastern time. We get to
Dulles 6:00 tomorrow evening, will get our car from the motel and head
home.
