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Every time I post about France I must write about Toulouse. “La ville Rose” is almost no longer so “rose” in color. It is modernizing at a frightening
pace and some of the new buildings going up are most certainly not any kind of red. Instead
they span the spectrum, all modern-y and square-angled and not at all old. Following
in Paris’ lead I guess, putting the new right up against the ancient. And yet, through these photos you'll see Toulouse retains its charm and beauty.
Toulouse has one of the most beautiful “Hôtel de Ville” in France. The
square upon which it sits is not being let to go the way of the rest of the
city with modernity or shops that are out of place.
The square is a monument in
itself, with the Croix Occitane (The symbol of the region and is on the flag) set in metal right
into the very paving stones, along with the signs of the Zodiac which are what
they say the twelve points on the cross stand for.
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| Place du Capitole, Toulouse |
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| L'Hotel de Ville Toulouse |
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| Place St. Etienne, St. Etienne is the only cathedral in Toulouse |
Galleries, museums, universities, high schools, tea shops,
comic book shops (Oh I could do a whole post just on French comic books),
regular book shops, restaurants, cafes, jewelry shops, shoe, clothing,
hardware, parks, statues, monuments…Stop! You can find anything in Toulouse.
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| Bread. Need I say more? I didn't think so. |
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| These plaques were all painted by local artists. On the Place du Capitole |
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| A street in Toulouse |
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| Three stories DOWN parking |
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| Life in the city... |
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| My husband's "High School" in Toulouse |
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| An electric, driverless, automated vehicle on a pedestrian walk Jules Guesde |
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| At a tram station. Against bullying. Basically saying "If you want to harass/abuse someone, think again." |
We have friends who love living in the city, but I’m happy
(country girl that I am) that my parents-in-law live in one of the outer towns
that surround it. Another sign of modernization, Toulouse is slowly but surely
eating up all the smaller towns and ingesting them into the great beast that is
the big city.
Yet they retain their charm, as does Toulouse.
There are
three canals (Canal Du Midi, Canal Lateral, Canal Brienne) that run through the city and each of them is beautiful and used
by everyone as parks, walking or running areas, and a green place in the city
to relax.
Missed some of my A to Z 2019 posts? Well look no further...
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| Toulouse by night |
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| It looks like there is no one in this city. But it is full of people! |
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| Green walks like this are common |
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| So are "eye-candy" statues... wink wink! |
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| Jardin du Grand Rond. Gardens are specially taken care of in Toulouse and there are a lot of them |
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| The entire front of this building is tiled. Click to make it bigger and see the detail... |
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| Canal Brienne |
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| Waiting for the bus. Cool "seats" you can lean against. |
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| In the church St Jerome |
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| How about we all calm down...! I loved this ad in a shop window |
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Musée des Augustins
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Musée des Augustins
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Musée des Augustins
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| Le Donjon du Capitole |
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| A Toutain statue by Le Donjon. Jean-Louis Toutain was from Toulouse |
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| St Jacobins Church |
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| Le Pont Neuf. The "New" Bridge is only 486 years old, the oldest one in Toulouse! |
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| New apartments on the Garonne. Ugh. |
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| The "Tramway" very useful! |
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| A pedestrian bridge over the Rue Boulingrin takes one directly into the Jardin du Grand Rond |
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| A modern bridge over the highway |
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| Yes, you can find public toilets free of charge now! |
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| Love the different architectures in this city |
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| A piece of the original Roman wall that surrounded Toulouse in Roman times. See us? |
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| Rue Alsace-Lorraine, now completely pedestrian because Toulousans love to shop |
All photos by Buie-Collard
Wow it is getting big, I miss the barge life with D&A :)
ReplyDeleteThank you for all these photos, beautiful as usual ;)
ReplyDeleteToulouse seems like a place with old world char, It's so picturesque and beautiful. :)
ReplyDeleteThis is a lovely place. That narrow street between the buildings is pretty cool.
ReplyDeleteArlee Bird
Tossing It Out