Two Loose In Toulouse, 1: Cathedral of St. Etienne

We visited Toulouse briefly in 2013, taking the train from a campground in Grimont in for a day. We liked the place and were satisfied we had "done" France's sixth largest city. On our 2022 Dordogne campaign we actually hadn't planned on driving as far south as Toulouse, but Marriott's "use it or lose it" approach to loyalty points, and the paucity of their hotels in France, took us back to Toulouse again for a couple nights, June 30th and July 1st. We're glad it worked out this way, since we much enjoyed our brief visit to the old city, revisiting a few places, appreciating them much more thoroughly this time, and also seeing more that was new to us.

Our hotel was out by the airport, so we took first a bus and then the Metro to get into the central city. We started off just ambling along the apparent main drag, then decided to see the cathedral--which we'd not seen in 2013--and then, disappointed with it, decided to cross the old town and see the Romanesque St. Sernin church we'd visited in 2013, back when we were only impressed by Gothics. This time, St. Sernin was a knock-out, largest and greatest of all Romanesque churches still standing. And then we just ambled around more a bit in the university and Capitolium areas, knocking off yet another church, St. Mary of the Bull (I swear I am not making this up), before settling into dinner at a restaurant on a beautiful square, replete with a lively Friday evening crowd. It was a good but somewhat loose and disorganized day, as this and the following posts will reflect.

Since our hotel was out by the airport, I did wander over to what
Toulouse is nowadays best known for...Airbus, and the French/
European aerospace industry...one of the best flights ever, for me,
was an Airbus 380 from Dubai to Barcelona in 2017

Much interesting architecture in Toulouse

Reminiscent of Paris in some respects, except the red Toulouse
brick, sometimes in bands, sometimes not

Approaching the cathedral St. Etienne...the weirdness already
apparent from the north side (Google photo)

You enter at what might be the north transept

In the south of France they did not get the memo 
about flying buttresses; these are grounded, integral, 
that is to say

Chancel, Gothic, 13th century or so, the newer part of the church,
with one of the longest choirs we have seen

Elevation in the choir

Flying organ; 19th century

In the huge choir, nice carving

Helpful plan of the church, where you begin to
understand its weirdness: note that the nave is
relatively small, and seriously off-set from the
chancel and choir

Many nice chapels radiating out in the chancel; here,
St. Vinnie

And here the ever popular St. James, festooned
with shells...

Now at the rear of the choir, looking into the (off-set) nave

Three bays, 12th century Romanesque

The west rose window, so close in design and theme to Notre
Dame de Paris' west window, both done within a few years of 
each other...originally 1230, but none of the glass is original

Looking from the nave's west portal into the church;
though some might be tempted to architectural
shaming, it's really a matter of grand Gothic designs,
interrupted by plagues, financial reverses, reformations,
revolutions, and wars...the old Romanesque nave was to
be torn down and a new nave to be built to match (and
fit) the choir and chancel, centuries ago...but, well,
sic transit, Gloria

West facade; note that even the portal and rose
window don't sync

Ghost signs in the vicinity

Walking back across town (after pausing at Amorino's);
reminiscent of Paris, as I said, except Paris doesn't have 
a nice centrally-located Monoprix

The Capitolium, city hall

Gearing up for a run, a 10k or whatever; soon
the place will be swarming with skinny, skimpily-
clad, numbered people...

Love the curvy old streets