Inn of the Wandering Dragon

I don't remember if I have already posted about this or not - but has anyone else noticed that there seems to be a lot of really whiney adults out there? From the guy on the phone who's late returning the rental (yet feels he should never have to pay of course), to the couple out shopping or wherever and one of them is doing a very impressive impersonation of a two yr old (I have witnessed both men and women doing the "whine dance").

I have two questions: 1. When did it become acceptable for adults to act like little kids? (and not in a good way) 2. Does anyone else feel this near overwhelming urge to throttle them?

I just had my first class on rendering 3D forms in AutoCAD. Initially there was the "just how do I accomplish this task?" running through my head but the commands started flowing back to concious memory so it wasn't long before I was zipping along in putting together my staircase. There is definately an element of play with rendering. AutoCAD has made it fairly easy - select your finishes and attach those finishes to the object. However there is some room to fine tune how the finish looks, and unless one was to memorize every single finish chances are good that some play will be required to get the image "just right". Prior to this learning went along the lines of, "here is the command, now build X". Now I get to play with X along with light, shade and surface texture. And this has made things a lot more interesting!

I love gargoyles, those medieval guardians of sacred places. In St. Augustins some of these weathered beasts have been brought down and put on display along the cloister. Normally they would be sticking out from the walls so on the ground they look like they have lifted their voices to sing, chant, howl - whatever your imagination happens to hear.

In architecture, a gargoyle is a carved stone grotesque with a spout designed to convey water from a roof and away from the side of a building.
The term originates from the French word gargouille, originally "throat" or "gullet", which represented the gurgling sound of water. These gargoyles have a channel dug into their backs to funnel the water away from the building and out through the mouth.

These are not as elaborate as some of the more famous gargoyles, but you can still make out individual features based off of various animals. There are boars, dogs, bats and some more fantastic creations.

Now that I finally have my photos scanned and available to upload I am goint to try and be a bit better at posting stuff from my trip. No more leaving a week between posts! We'll see anyway.

In the mean time I am almost shocked to say that I have finally been shopping - and I have bought clothes! To most people this may not be a big thing but for myself, the only time I enjoy shopping is when I am in the market for more art supplies or books. Clothes are one of those annoying neccessities I would rather put off until another time, or when said existing articles are full of holes / paint/ or otherwise no longer appropriate. My boyfriend is most impressed with me for this - doubly so considering that I actually purhased a dress! Wow! Talk about a red letter day. But it was the annual Art Market downtown and I am (occasionally) a sucker for the fun and funky.

I just thought after all the history it would be nice to post some general shots around the city. Most of these were taken on my last day there as Kim and I did some last minute shopping.

There is actually a whole series of statues around Toulouse by this artist although I was never able to find out who that is (if anyone can tell me please do).

I admit, I'm a sucker for a well done large scale mosaic like this one. In the rays surrounding the figure are different words like 'sciences', 'arts', 'information' etc.

It was such a lovely break to sit down at the local creperie for lunch and warm drinks. I am used to seeing desert crepes but this cafe had a wide assortment of savory crepes to choose from. For anyone wondering, the little dragon on the table is Jinx - he was given to me as I left for Australia many years ago and has joined me on all of my major trips. If nothing else I do enjoy the looks on the faces of the customs officials when they find him in my purse.

Our Thursday in Toulouse started off pretty slow with everyone sleeping in and relaxing. We all set off for St. Sernin - one of the largest and most complete Romanesque churches in Europe. The original chapel was supposedly built in the 4th century over the grave of the first Bishop of Toulouse who was martyred around 250 A.D. Over the centuries the current basilica-shrine was built up to meet the demands of the public, as the place had become a very important stop for Christian Pilgrims. The current incarnation of the building was begun in the late 11th century.

To a second generation Canadian like myself the concept of a single permanent building, let alone a town/city existing for so long is mind boggling. The oldest standing building in Alberta was erected in 1861 - Father Lacombe Chapel in St. Albert. How is that for some perspective?

Our next stop was Muse St. Raymond - literally right next to the basilica. I think at one time it was part of the abbey cloisters. So in keeping with our current theme, the main exhibit of the museum focused on what was found while the city was building the second metro / subway line. In the process of digging the long tunnels the crews came across artifacts and structures from the prehistoric periods right through to the late 18th century. Starting with 25 million yr old fossils; findings from the earliest human settlement; foundations of the antique city; traces of a forgotten pottery workshop; the remains of a convent destroyed during the French Revolution and a forgotten medieval graveyard complete with carved stone sarcophagi gives you a brief glimpse at times and lives that is difficult to imagine.

Oh yes and on the top floors there are exhibits of roman statuary and mosaics from when Toulouse was essentially a roman outpost.

Between the shifting colours on the walls and the nature sounds piped in over the speakers, this is actually pretty surreal in comparison to the rest of the airport!

At last! I am finally sitting down to share my latest travels... (The cat is aware of this of course and conveniently parks his butt in front of the monitor as I try to type this.)
Honestly - it was one of those trips for getting bounced around by the airlines. We had called the cab to take us to the airport, our bags on the front step waiting to go and then the phone rings. Our flight has been changed, we are now leaving 4 hours later. During our layover in Frankfurt we found our gate and sat down with our books to wait, only to find no staff and no other passengers ever showed up to the gate - that too had been changed (as we discovered about 25 minutes prior to departure). Announcements had rung out at regular intervals in both German and English but when they kept to that very fine line of "is it recorded? is it live?" it became fairly easy to tune them out. I'm partially deaf after a flight anyway so really, would it have made any difference? Fortunately it was only a difference of walking down the hall. Anyone who has been to a large airport with multiple terminals can imagine the joy in running from one terminal to the other (been there - not fun)!
We arrived in Toulouse on schedule and called our friends to get their address. As they were unable to meet us at the airport we would take a cab into the city. Mental note for any future trips - calling from a payphone to a cell phone is not cheap! I did manage to get the whole address written down before getting cut off.
Taxis queue under a small overpass and come out one at a time to collect passengers. I did notice that all the taxis were clean and well kept, which made me wonder if there are similar by-laws in Toulouse as in Calgary (as in your car cannot be more than x years old to pick up at the airport). Our driver was polite but not talkative, and I'm not sure if that was because of perceived language barriers or if culturally they are just not talkative with their fares? Back home it's practically unheard of to have a driver who does not try to strike up conversation.
Kim and Cedric's apartment overlooks a quiet street not far from the botanical garden. Kim and I had not seen each other for several months so we're thrilled to meet up again. Cedric gives me the traditional cheek to cheek. I never know what to expect with those kinds of things and I have made the mistake in the past of turning the wrong time/way and either bonking heads or getting a surprise kiss on the lips. No such mistakes this time though. As we did not arrive until the evening we just relaxed in the apartment with a few snacks and talked about our flights and what there was to do in Toulouse. Kim and Cedric had just come back from a trip to Portugal - which they tell us was fantastic! Needless to say we were all pretty tired so it wasn't long before the makeshift bed was set up and everyone was getting ready for sleep. The adventures would have to wait until morning.

I'm happy to say my experiment with the morrocan recipie has turned out well. It is an assortment of veggies (celery, onion, yam), millet (grain) and spices. The spices come across quite subtle since it is simmered with a couple slices of lemon so the lemon taste dominates (but not overpoweringly so). I did forget to add the lentils but even so the soup is filling. This will be another recipie to keep.

I have just spent the afternoon cooking up a storm for my detox. Soups were the thing today and after creating a vegtable broth I put together one of my favorites - carrot/ginger soup. I'm also trying a new recipe for a morrocan vegtable and grain soup. The emphasis was on getting as much made as possible so I'll have to let you know tomorrow how the morrocan soup turned out. There was also a request for the boyfriend's favorite curry lentil dish so there should now be enough of that to keep him happy for a while. He is not doing the detox with me although he does not mind trying the food on occasion. As for myself, after a rough first few days I'm starting to feel better about the whole thing. But I am still craving bread like mad.

Friday night saw a last minute invite to supper with some good friends. On the way we quickly picked up the now developed photos and did not notice until much later at home that the requested cd's of images were not present. It turns out the developer forgot? At any rate that means I can't post anything quite yet since I do not have a scanner (yes, yes I know I should get my butt into the 21 century). Having a look through the photos however has shown me that my trusty camera is getting less trusty and I think a new camera will be on the list for Christmas. But I still have some lovely shots to enjoy in the meantime. Heaven only knows when they will all get sorted into an album (along with postcards, tickets etc.