20/10/09
So I’ve been going to gym class twice a week, but this week the instructor is out of town so tonight Sophie and I went to check out this country-dancing thing just down the street from my apartment. I had no idea what I was in for, but it was better than just sitting at home. We entered a large dance hall that was decked out in American flags, cactus murals, and Native American dream catchers. Every inch of the room was covered in decoration including a wooden stage at the front of the room on which the dance instructor stood. Talk about a culture shock. This instructor runs all levels of square dancing classes that have about 50-70 people in them. The best students even put on performances for the community sometimes. I was very impressed at their level of skill. I mean, I’ve been trying (and failing) to learn “The Hustle” since I was a kid, but these French people have got down intensely intricate dance sequences. Also, I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many fancy cowboy boots and hats outside of country-infused areas of the US. It was incredible and so very odd. They fact that the dance directions were being called in French did little to convince me that I was indeed still in rural south-western France, for all intents and purposes I had teleported to a mecca of country music, dance, and culture.
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
16-19/10/09- A Weekend in Toulouse
This weekend Rosa and I took our first expedition outside the Lot-et-Garonne region. On Friday evening we took a train from Monsempron-Libos to Agen then the TGV from there to Toulouse. Anna was catching a ride with a Spanish teacher who works in Villeneuve (where Anna is stationed) who was going to Toulouse to see some kind of show. Rosa and I got to Toulouse first and made our way to the hotel. It was a bit farther outside of downtown than I thought it would be but it turned out to be a very generous room with a nice kitchenette and a separate bedroom. Anna called us when she arrived and we decided to meet her in Capitole (the grand square of Toulouse where the town hall is and around which most of the main attractions of the city lie). There was a student festival of some sort going on all weekend and on Friday night the Capitole Square was packed with people. We decided to grab some dinner and then head back to the hotel. The main façade of the square directly opposite the Capitole building has a long logia boasting all kinds of restaurants. We found one that wasn’t insanely priced and sat down for a very nice meal. Rosa and Anna had pizzas and I had a very respectable mushroom risotto (it still didn’t match up to the incredible risotto I had in London a long time ago but it was very respectable indeed). Even though it was freezing cold, we decided we needed ice cream. Here’s a funny thing about France though, you have to pay extra at places if you want to sit down to eat whatever you buy. I, for one, think that that’s ridiculous, so even if it’s freezing cold I will insist on not paying extra to sit inside a place to eat my ice cream. So there we stood, three girls huddled together like penguins conserving heat radiating from an underground vent….quite the scene….
The next morning we decided to take in the tourist sites of Toulouse. There are at least six churches in the downtown area, some of which are wedged so tightly between other buildings that you don’t know you’ve reached them until you’re right at the front door. My favorite church of the day was the Eglise St. Pierre des Chartreux. It’s an absolutely stunning early 17th century church with a glorious central altar. The entire church was done in a silvery grey stone with detailed carvings in the central dome. The walls of the organ and choir stall area were covered in gorgeous paintings. To make it all the more magical, we happened to arrive at the church just in time to catch the end of a pianist’s performance. The entire choir area was packed with people listening to her. It was quite the spectacle.
After St. Pierre’s we ventured back towards Capitole and wandered around the open-air market. We explored some other churches, including the Basilique Saint-Sernin, which boasts an altar akin to the one by Bernini in St. Peter’s Basilica. It had tall marble columns topped by golden angles and putti (little cherub figures). The Basilica’s crypt and apse were also open for viewing. Personally, I’m a big fan of crypts since that’s usually where the “jewels” of the church are preserved. The crypt at the Basilica was definitely full of “jewels”. Unfortunately none of them were labeled so it was difficult to determine what tiny piece of relic each ornate container contained. It was nonetheless impressive.
In addition to the permanent culture fixtures of Toulouse, we were treated to the cultural site of the city being decked out for a “student’s weekend.” There were all kinds of tents set up with sponsors from international societies promoting student experiences abroad. There were also lots of street performers, including a marching band, taking advantage of the increased crowds.
In the mid afternoon we visited my favorite museum of the trip. Le Musée des Augustins was originally (as you may have guessed) an Augustinian monastery. It was opened to the public as a museum in 1795 (a very short time after the Louvre was opened). Aside from the varying types of collections on display at the museum, what I found to be truly refreshing was the set up of the museum itself. Rather than room after identical room of chronologically arranged paintings and sculptures, le Musée des Augustins constantly surprised me with new presentations of its pieces. Its ability to do this was most definitely given impetus by the museum’s setting in a monastery. The museum used its stonewalls and uneven floors rather than covering them up with drywall and laminate. The museum itself was art. As you can tell I was very taken with it.
On Sunday, since any sort of commercial entertainment was out of the question, we decided to take in another museum. This time we walked to the Natural History Museum, which is set among the Botanical Gardens. We took the scenic route down the Allée Forain François Verdier starting from a Triumphal Arch memorializing WWI soldiers and ending in a lovely sculpted garden. The Natural History Museum was hidden amongst other theatres and museums among the Jardin des Plantes. (By the way, naming a garden “The Garden of Plants” is just hilarious to me. What else would the garden contain? Jello-jigglers?) Our tour of the “Natural World” started with a discussion of tectonics and the earth as a living, dynamic creature. We then were guided through a “zoo of the dead.” There must have been at least 500-750 different taxidermied species in glass display cases. It was both incredible and creepy. Dinosaurs and a discussion of evolution were next on the agenda. Then, we were ushered into a room of prehistoric artifacts and African art. I know that being an art history lover, I should have an appreciation for all art but honestly, African art freaks the shit out of me! Especially the masks and the figures with nails sticking out of them. Eeeek. I can’t deal with that stuff. Anyways, we concluded our tour with a sobering look at what modern society is doing to the planet. I felt very guilty being an American standing in front of the chart saying that the US is responsible for 30% of all carbon emissions worldwide. (At least I recycle though!) In front of the museum was a spiral garden of exotic plants. It was such a gorgeous day outside that we couldn’t deny ourselves a nice long walk in consecutively diminutive circles.
Our last day (or half day) spent in Toulouse was filled with checking out of our hotel and donning our heavy backpacks, then having lunch with some of Anna and Rosa’s friends, then quickly exploring the Capitole building. The interior murals and decorations conjured up images of Versailles. I however, found one of the side halls, with pointillist paintings of Henri Martin, to be more interesting than the Grand Hall.
After concluding our tour of the building we took the metro to the train station and boarded a train back to our respective home bases.
The next morning we decided to take in the tourist sites of Toulouse. There are at least six churches in the downtown area, some of which are wedged so tightly between other buildings that you don’t know you’ve reached them until you’re right at the front door. My favorite church of the day was the Eglise St. Pierre des Chartreux. It’s an absolutely stunning early 17th century church with a glorious central altar. The entire church was done in a silvery grey stone with detailed carvings in the central dome. The walls of the organ and choir stall area were covered in gorgeous paintings. To make it all the more magical, we happened to arrive at the church just in time to catch the end of a pianist’s performance. The entire choir area was packed with people listening to her. It was quite the spectacle.
After St. Pierre’s we ventured back towards Capitole and wandered around the open-air market. We explored some other churches, including the Basilique Saint-Sernin, which boasts an altar akin to the one by Bernini in St. Peter’s Basilica. It had tall marble columns topped by golden angles and putti (little cherub figures). The Basilica’s crypt and apse were also open for viewing. Personally, I’m a big fan of crypts since that’s usually where the “jewels” of the church are preserved. The crypt at the Basilica was definitely full of “jewels”. Unfortunately none of them were labeled so it was difficult to determine what tiny piece of relic each ornate container contained. It was nonetheless impressive.
In addition to the permanent culture fixtures of Toulouse, we were treated to the cultural site of the city being decked out for a “student’s weekend.” There were all kinds of tents set up with sponsors from international societies promoting student experiences abroad. There were also lots of street performers, including a marching band, taking advantage of the increased crowds.
In the mid afternoon we visited my favorite museum of the trip. Le Musée des Augustins was originally (as you may have guessed) an Augustinian monastery. It was opened to the public as a museum in 1795 (a very short time after the Louvre was opened). Aside from the varying types of collections on display at the museum, what I found to be truly refreshing was the set up of the museum itself. Rather than room after identical room of chronologically arranged paintings and sculptures, le Musée des Augustins constantly surprised me with new presentations of its pieces. Its ability to do this was most definitely given impetus by the museum’s setting in a monastery. The museum used its stonewalls and uneven floors rather than covering them up with drywall and laminate. The museum itself was art. As you can tell I was very taken with it.
On Sunday, since any sort of commercial entertainment was out of the question, we decided to take in another museum. This time we walked to the Natural History Museum, which is set among the Botanical Gardens. We took the scenic route down the Allée Forain François Verdier starting from a Triumphal Arch memorializing WWI soldiers and ending in a lovely sculpted garden. The Natural History Museum was hidden amongst other theatres and museums among the Jardin des Plantes. (By the way, naming a garden “The Garden of Plants” is just hilarious to me. What else would the garden contain? Jello-jigglers?) Our tour of the “Natural World” started with a discussion of tectonics and the earth as a living, dynamic creature. We then were guided through a “zoo of the dead.” There must have been at least 500-750 different taxidermied species in glass display cases. It was both incredible and creepy. Dinosaurs and a discussion of evolution were next on the agenda. Then, we were ushered into a room of prehistoric artifacts and African art. I know that being an art history lover, I should have an appreciation for all art but honestly, African art freaks the shit out of me! Especially the masks and the figures with nails sticking out of them. Eeeek. I can’t deal with that stuff. Anyways, we concluded our tour with a sobering look at what modern society is doing to the planet. I felt very guilty being an American standing in front of the chart saying that the US is responsible for 30% of all carbon emissions worldwide. (At least I recycle though!) In front of the museum was a spiral garden of exotic plants. It was such a gorgeous day outside that we couldn’t deny ourselves a nice long walk in consecutively diminutive circles.
Our last day (or half day) spent in Toulouse was filled with checking out of our hotel and donning our heavy backpacks, then having lunch with some of Anna and Rosa’s friends, then quickly exploring the Capitole building. The interior murals and decorations conjured up images of Versailles. I however, found one of the side halls, with pointillist paintings of Henri Martin, to be more interesting than the Grand Hall.
After concluding our tour of the building we took the metro to the train station and boarded a train back to our respective home bases.
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