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)