Today I went for a walk in Toulouse (the capital of the Midi-Pyrénées région). Here is the Capitole (it's the seat of the municipal administration of thetown):
(As you can see, the weather is really bad!!!)
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The Capitouls (governing magistrates) of Toulouse embarked on the construction of the original building in 1190, to provide a seat for the government of a province growing in wealth and influence, but the current façade, 135 metres long and built of the characteristic pink brick in Neoclassical style, dates from 1750.
The eight columns represent the original eight capitouls.
In 1873, Eugène Viollet-le-Duc built a bell tower typical of the style of northern France on top of the donjon of the building. It was in this donjon that Jean Calas, a Protestant victim of a religiously biased trial, was interrogated. Brrrr
Here is the Musées des Augustins :
It's sited in a gothc convent
Then I visited some old mansions such as The Hotel d'Assezat :
and here is the main courtyard
It was built in the second half of the XVIth century for Pierre Assézat, a prosperous merchant in the pastel trade that flourished at the time.
Then I went to the Pont Neuf (New bridge)(which in fact is the oldest bridge of the town)
In the back you can see the "Chateau d'eau" (water tower)
The visit goes on, and here is the church of the Dalbade (XV century)
quite austere don't you think ???
Looks like a medieval fortress
Have you seen this half-timbered house ?
By the way, I think I forgot to tell that Toulouse is known as the Pink town because of its distinctive brick architecture, and indeed here is one the streets (rue des Paradoux):
Then here I am in front of the Jardin des Plantes entrance :
It's a botanical garden who was first created in 1730 by the Society of Sciences of Toulouse.
The Garden has several old buildings or vestiges.
The entrance door is a reconstitution of one of the doors of old Capitole, and dates back to 1886.
There I saw strange winged creatures
This one is the most pretentious peacok I ever met
He was everywhere I was taking pictures
I wanted to take a picture of this scupture, and the peacok came !!!
Then we came back home ... and this time I met two other guys, Caramel (on the left) and Nounours Bleu Marine (right) ... doing their homeworks... So I asked them if I could help them, and here we are like pupils at school
(Caramel was doing geometry,Nounours Bleu Marine drawing, and I was doing French grammer!!!)
Indeed, I've learnt to write my name in french! I was very proud!
But I also wanted to see how a real french school looked like, and asked Mood to take me to school ...
The day after, we went to the Ecole Jules Julien
Here are the two entrances : one for the girls
and the other one for the boys
But Mood explained me it was the old entrances, and now schools are mixed !
Unfortunately, we couldn't go inside, but I could see the playground
When we came back home, a parcel was waiting for us ...
I had a quick glance at it
and surprise, a funny little Martian came out of it
His name is Auggie
