We left Paris and took the high-speed train to Toulouse - 200 mph average speed and I believe it. My ears were popping for about the first hour until I got used to it. We kept passing all these bright yellow fields, which I found out later are rapeseed - a plant used to produce vegetable oil. The picture is a little blurry, because I took it out of the window of the train.
Many of the streets in Toulouse are VERY narrow. This wouldn't even constitute an alley in my neighborhood, and I wouldn't want to try to drive a car down it. They are almost too skinny for two people to walk side by side. We had dinner at a little cafe down one of these side streets.
The Toulouse Triathlon was on Sunday just a block away from our hotel. It wasn't a typical triathlon, because they had no swimming component. The participants ran 2.5 km, then biked 19 km, then ran another 5 km. We frequently passed them throughout the day as we went on a walking tour of the city. Most of the shops in town were closed, because I think everyone was either running in the triathlon or volunteering for it.
We walked over to the Botannical Gardens. The flowers were absolutely gorgeous - very, very colorful with many different varieties of flowers in a single bed. Lots of young families were taking advantage of the day and having picnics on the lawn.
We stumbled on a flea market near the garden. Too bad my suitcase is already jammed, because I saw a lot of neat antiques I would like to take home.
It was the first Sunday of the month, so all the museums were free. We stopped in the
Musee des Augustins. It's a 12th century monastery that has been renovated and now houses medieval sculptures. I think this is the first red brick building I've seen in a month. Paris is full of white stone buildings, but Toulouse seems to be mostly made of brick (you can definitely tell we're close to the border of Spain). Some of the buildings have a stucco facade, however, which gives them a beige appearance.
