Finishing Up Before Starting Something New: Verdun Sur Garonne and Toulouse

So, I realize that I've let 3.5 months go by without touching the blog. Despite the fact that I wasn't finished. As I was saying to a friend when describing the blog today, I at least need to write myself home. So, relying on my very good memory, here goes.

Ankle slightly recovered, I took the train from Paris to Toulouse. Amusing fact: on picking me up (very late), my cab-driver (yes, I know it should have been the Metro, but my backpack was heavy and cumbersome and I didn't feel like dealing with the transfers and the trek) bombarded me with questions and comments and observations. Actually, I have no idea what he bombarded me with, because he spoke in French more quickly than I speak in English. Fortunately, he was very good-natured about my not really speaking French and we managed to have a non-conversation (in French) to the station. I could sit in that cab and not talk with him for hours. And still find plenty of things to not talk about.

The train ride: well, again, I splurged a little, in this case getting the first class ticket (really only negligibly more expensive than second class, and such a lovely compartment). Unfortunately, I failed to notice that the seats were assigned, and was forced to relocate. My favorite part of the ride, aside from the lovely countryside: two women sitting across the aisle from me both had cats, which they took out of their carriers for most of the trip. I kept up a bit of a flirtation with the cat nearer to me (shiny and black with big green eyes) and fantasized about getting one just like her when I got back to the US. (More on that later.)

So, a long train ride and a short train ride later, and I arrived in a village (Dieupentale) in the Midi-Pyrenees not too far from my friend's even smaller village. Let me just say that I loved visiting my friend and her family when I came in summer of 2006. She wasn't working at the time, so the only real time limits imposed were for dropping off and picking up her son from school (also for lunch). Granted, this meant that unless her husband took off from work, we couldn't venture far, but there was plenty of time for catching up and sitting around in their lovely old home or the garden. This trip was a little different, as my friend now works. But she likes her job and the people she works with, and the job is pretty flexible, so there was still plenty of time for relaxing.

Highlights of the visit from a tourist perspective: we took a long drive one day, primarily to visit an old castle and some ruins in Bruniquel, where Romy Schneider (aka Princesse Sissi) and Phillippe Noiret filmed in "Le Vieux Fusil" ("The Old Shotgun") [THANK YOU, JUDI], but also just to drive and talk. A lot of the visit centered around talking (with some driving) and it was very satisfying. Judi (the friend I visited) is my oldest friend with whom I'm still in regular contact (we met when we were fourteen), and it's nice to have that kind of history. But I digress. I spent one day of my week there as a real tourist: a nice three-course lunch with wine at a restaurant on the Place du Capitole, a visit to the Basilique St-Sernin, a stroll around town, a stop at the Cathédrale St-Etienne (which, I am ashamed to say, I preferred to the Basilica, possibly because I have never studied architecture and don't properly appreciate these things), and a visit to the Musee des Augustins. A note on the latter: one room is full of nothing but pieces of statuary from the above-mentioned two churches. This may be interesting the first few times, but an entire room? I'd just come from the churches themselves; I felt that it was overkill. Also, I have very little knowledge of fine arts and no knowledge of how to hang art in a museum or gallery, but I am not a fan of the stacking method. The painting galleries at the Musee des Augustins had ridiculously high ceilings which the curators chose to fully utilize by hanging pictures as high as they could, making it impossible to see most of the paintings without craning my neck AND standing on the other side of the room. I suppose it made the experience memorable, but it did not make me long to visit that museum again.