An Indian Feast

Friday night we had a great time with our neighbours at the villa. The house has 3 other apartments besides ours, and in the courtyard behind us there are two other apartments which are all occupied by young engineers from India. Most of them are working in Bangalore and they've been sent to Toulouse to get training in the aerospace industry. Two of them were leaving on Saturday to go back to India so we had a big dinner together. Novice cooks all of them, they did an awesome job of cooking up a storm. (they told us they cut down on the spices for us) We learned a lot about their country and had fun dancing in the garden. Jean-Pierre, made a great daal and Charlotte arrived later with a French dessert. Another late night but that's o.k., we've got to pack as much in as we can.

Rio Loco et la Fete de la Musique

Wed. June 20th was the beginning of Rio Loco. It's an annual festival in Toulouse which features a different country and its culture (mainly music). This year it's Espagne. We saw a great band on Wed. night - Ojos de Brujo - out of Barcelona. Flamenco fusion, a great mix of flamenco, hip hop, reggae, jazz, gypsy. Check out their sounds on youtube or myspace www.myspace.com/ojosdebrujo. Neither really do the performance we saw justice though unfortunately. I think they were trying out a lot of new ideas that night.

The 21st of June was la Fete de la Musique. A night of celebration of all things musical. It's an international event so maybe some of you also celebrated. We walked around Toulouse with thousands of other people. Jammed into the streets like sardines we heard lots of bands set up on the sidewalks, or on stages in different locales around town. People were walking around with drinks in hand enjoying the night. We got home around midnight but the festivities continued all night. What a great way to welcome summer.

Visiting des Jacobins

There are still a few churches that the boys and I haven't seen, at least from the inside. Last week we went inside Couvenant des Jacobins. Built in the 13th and 14th centuries, they comprise a church, cloister, and refectory, which is now an exhibition room. The most impressive part is inside the church. Long and narrow, there are seven columns that are vaulted and resemble palm trees. Along the walls are a series of tall, narrow stained glass windows.

The cloister was pleasing as all cloisters are, however it seemed a bit neglected and didn't have any gardens to speak of. The church has a bell tower which is 45m high. It is very similar to the bell tower of Eglise Saint Sernin.

Hanging out in Toulouse

Our friend from Peterborough, Miguel Botero, just spent 2 weeks with us. We had fun showing him the sights of Toulouse. Luckily, we also got the chance to take him outside of the city to the country. Despite the car sickness from the winding mountain roads, and the encounter with the stinging nettles, it was a highlight of his trip. Jacob and Nicholas were thrilled to have him around. We enjoyed our chocolate taste tests - most expensive isn't always most tasty - and getting him to try new foods, even ratatouile. We spent his last night going to the final football match of the season, Toulouse against Bordeaux, and Toulouse won 3-1. Fireworks finished off the night. It was a great show.

Weekend in the Cevennes

We welcomed Miguel to Toulouse last week. He saw some sights around Toulouse and then we were lucky to be able to take a little trip out of the city to a beautiful area of France, about an hour northeast of Nimes. Our friends Claire and Walter invited us to their house in the country. We loaded up their van and car and drove for about 3 hours until we reached Ales. Then we took a road which led to their house. It kept getting narrower and narrower, windier and windier, higher and higher. Finally, we glimpsed the house on the hillside.


Miguel -- Well I didn't because I was in the back of the van with my head in between my legs trying to keep from throwing up (I was a little car sick) anyways apparently the sight was incredible and from the few glimpses i got when we hit a bump that knocked my head up high enough to see out the windows i would have to agree. When we finally got to the house it was even cooler than we had excpected it looked (and probobly was) as if it was just made of rocks stacked on top of each other it looked almost ancient! Margaret -- Actually, it would be over 200 years old.



The area is fairly sparsely populated, very green, peaceful, but traces of man are everywhere when you look carefully...stone walls, terraced land, stone bridges etc. Up until the late 1950's with the advent of nylon, the area was the main producer of silk in France. The silkworms eat the myrtle leaves which grow in this region. Actually, the house we stayed in had a room where the silkworm cocoons were kept. Also, there is a small stone hut on the property which was the chestnut house, where they would dry the chestnuts (another industy in the area). After we spent a great three days here we took the long way home through the gorges de la jonte. Carsick kids but spectacular scenery! This was my favourite area of France so far.

Biking Along the Canal du Midi

We had a great day biking along the Canal du Midi. We started in Toulouse, of course, and cycled out of the city. The path follows the canal and is bordered by trees the entire way, keeping it nicely shaded. It was easy to go further than we had anticipated. We ended up in Montgiscard, which is about 20 km from Toulouse. We stopped to eat lunch in the village square and then back on the bikes to ride home. It was a very pleasant ride and, needless to say, we all felt a little sore by the end.

Speleology in south western France

Not being speleologists we did the best spelunking we could.

First we boated on a subterranean river at Labouiche which is billed as the longest navigable underground river in Europe-- about 1.5km. (Sorry no pictures-- it was completely verboten. ) We felt like we were on a journey to the centre of the earth.

Then we travelled to Niaux to visit a prehistoric site of some cave paintings. A famous site and quite awe-inspiring. (No pictures please.) You are led through the caves by a guide in small groups with minimal lighting following an ancient waterway. The trail is about 800m long as well so there is plenty of time to reflect on the people who came there 10-14,000 years ago. The first thing you see is a number of red and black geometric markings on the flat surface of a rock about about 350m in. These artists were surprisingly selective in choosing the sites for the painting as well as being fairly economic in their output considering how many years passed. Apparently as much as 1000 years passed between various paintings, and then they are remarkably similar in subject and materials both within the cave and across Europe. 95% of the world's rock art is found in southern France and Cantabria (northern Spain). What do the markings mean and how did they communicate the location and the ingredients for the paint, etc? After another 400m or so you arrive at the black cave which rises from the floor. The paintings are concentrated in this one gallery. Why so many bison? And horses? Bison and horses are both plains animals and weren't very high on their diet. Were they especially revered? There were mammoths roaming around at this time and some kind of wooly rhinocerous and big cats as well as wild boars. Pretty impressive subjects one would think. And no human subjects-- here anyway. Questions, questions. The big one is why. What were these artists thinking?

After pondering the imponderables, we finished our course of speleological findings by visiting the Grotte duMas d'Azil a large cavernous tunnel through which, unfortunately, they built a road. There is also a prehistoric site here which we didn't have time to take in. The Azilian age is named after this cave.


Prehistoric caves in Ariege. Tourist Info

Niaux art. More pictures here.

Jouer dans le jardin

Ce n'est pas le parc d'Inverlea mais nous aimons notre jardin.

The lilacs have come and gone. Now we are enjoying the roses. As always, the pines stand tall providing a home for the mourning doves and little songbirds. The bells de Saint Sernin faithfully ring out the hours and quarter hours.

Easter in Barcelona and La Garriga

Adding to Sander's last post of Barcelona, we saw many sights...Parc Guell, Sagrada Familia, the gothic quarter with it's cathedral, the Picasso and Miro museums, and of course a stroll down La Ramblas. Jacob's favourite spot: Parc Guell, Nick's favourite spot: Miro museum on Mont Juic, Margaret's favourite spot... ditto Jake and Nick, Sander's favourite....walking down the ramblas and around the port at night, Hans' favourite, the gothic area.
We made a trip to the village of Vilafranca del penedes to visit our friend Rosana, whom we hadn't seen in many years. We enjoyed our lunch together and our tour of the village. Thanks to Ross, Carme and Neil for hosting us in La Garriga. We had great food, very "typical" Catalan, as Carme would say.

After we left La Garriga we stopped in Figueres to go to the Dali Museum. Of course it was quite a spectacle. Then on the way back to France we took the coastal road. It was very scenic, a bit scary at times... steep narrow road, hair pin turns, sometimes with the sea right over your shoulder. Very exhilirating! (a short clip)

The way to barcelona

We rented a car for a few days for our trip to Barcelona, and to see friends in Figueres and La Garriga. That's not it there, unfortunately. The scenery was enough to keep us occupied on the way down, with a constant stream of mountains and rugged hills once we crossed the border. Plus, we saw Nick's truck. We arrived at La Garriga later that afternoon, had some typical food for dinner (essential to the experience) and then went for a walk. Here are some pictures. Street, Church, Haunted house, Roof shot, 'nother Roof Shot.


We left the next morning for Barcelona and the apartment we had exchanged for. After driving around construction, some crappy neighborhoods and in circles for... a while we found it, and it was pronounced to be "actually not that bad". This picture's from the balcony.

More Barca photos and fun to come..

Bastide villages: Castelnou de Montmiral, Puycelci and Bruniquel

Some more shots of high up, stony, impossibly romantic places. There is a ready supply of medieval villages here, many of them built on top of rugged hard-to-get-to hills. See more pictures on the web album accompanying this blog.

Also these three sites are among the 140 or so "Most beautiful villages in France" Or read about them en francais (better pics)

A resto-bar where we had coffee. (The first pic) The server was happy enough to serve us seeing as we were the only tourists in town.


Sartre was here. De Beauvoir too, natch. She writes about it. Briefly.



Looks a nice spot. Chairs out but nobody home.

Stony, mossy steps.


Approaching Puycelci .


Jake running up the hill forwards.


Bruniquel. A couple of lads peeking over the wall. Kilroy was here.

Au jardin de notre villa

On the street side of the wall surrounding the small garden in front of our house is a plaque commemorating a certain Toulousian poet and author. After doing some research at the Bibliotheque Municipale I was happy to find that the author's daughter was also a writer and had in fact written a memoir of her childhood, of Toulouse, of the times at the turn of the last century : her earliest memories are of this very house. Below is the opening paragraph of her book in which she remembers this house. You can see Margaret in one of the photos walking on the same terrace stones where father and daughter once played.

De plus loin que je me souvienne, je me revois, jouant dans le petit jardin du 2, de la rue Royale (devenue depuis rue Gatien-Arnould) a Toulouse, dans l'ombre rose de la basilique de Saint-Sernin.
C'est la qu'assise au pied d'un laurier poussant contre le mur de briques dorees, j'appris a lire en regardent de belles images.
Dans ce quartier tranquille ne passainent que quelques devotes. On entendaient le tintement des closches carillonnant aux heures et aux demi-heures 'l'Ave maria", et le bruit des voitures de laitiers et de maraichers sur lespaves pointus et sonores.
(Delbousquet, Germaine-Emmanuel. Au Jardin de mon Pere. 1954)

Photos from around Toulouse

Still raining so here are some pictures.

Place St. Etienne

Crappy pano from a small little bridge going over the Garonne. This is near the old center of the city.

the Canal du Midi.

Some short clips

Here are some videos from

Protest at the Capitole (they have protests about everything here; this was about loss of jobs at Airboos).

Scenery around Albi

Nick demonstrates his crepe-making technique.

In other news, it was freezing this morning for the first time. We had a 20 minute walk to school in really cold wind and rain. I was supposed to go as well as Jake and Nick but apparently my papers didn't get through properly. Or they weren't sent. We've found them to be pretty strict about this kind of thing, there's no way around the set process. So, we'll see. Jake and Nick are getting home now for lunch so somebody will probably get them to write something about their day in a bit and give you a look at french schools. Life on the inside.

A la prochaine.

A day trip to Albi and Cordes

Introducing Jean-Pierre, a recent acquaintance and a terrific friend. Our guide and driver on a recent sortie. Albi and Cordes are two towns in reasonable proximity both of which have a strong medieval presence. Cordes is a traditional bastide town, a fortified village on a hilltop with steep winding streets and crumbling walls. Albi is a larger town that was the birthplace of Toulouse-Lautrec. The cathedral and adjacent palace are massive towered brick edifices. Very imposing. It was lunch when we arrived so the museum and church were closed as was the Tourism Office. So we made a little stroll around the palace gardens where we took some amazing photos of the gardens, river scenes, bridges, towers and walls.

In Cordes we had a picnic lunch of baguettes crepes and cider. Very fine it was. Good thing too. Most places were closed in Cordes. After a steep climb through several ancient portals we arrived at the pinnacle and most heavily fortified area of town, where the inhabitants were more likely to be cats and pigeons than people. The various streets and plazas offered some amazing views of the surrounding hills and valleys which were blanketed in green fields dotted with friut trees some already in bloom. Very pretty. Very photogenic.