Mike spent the first week in Toulouse at a conference. Since he would be there already, with airfare and hotel already paid for, we thought it would be a good opportunity for me to join him for a few days. I've passed up many international trips of this sort due to work scheduling and money, so we finally decided that I just HAD to go.
I flew out for Paris on Wednesday night, not thinking much about the scheduled Air France strike on Thursday. Unfortunately I thought about it a LOT when I arrived in Paris, as my flight to Toulouse had been cancelled. So I spent the night in a distant suburb of Paris (Cergy), thanks to Delta/Air France. I did meet a nice young woman from Ireland/Edinburgh, though. She's a PhD student in biology. We had a nice dinner together in Cergy, at the marina on the river Oise.
The following day I was able to catch another flight to Toulouse (long story involved here, I'll spare you the details), and met up with Mike Friday afternoon. We went to his favorite pastry shop near the hotel, and had the best pastries I may have ever eaten. Here's what I got:
After pastries, we walked toward the city center, stopping first at the Basilica Saint-Sernin. It is the oldest basilica in existence today. Simply amazing to stumble upon this while walking through town on a sunny, warm afternoon. I didn't get many pictures of the basilica, but here is one looking toward the altar. Pictures can't really do it justice, although if you follow the link above you will see a lot better images.
Here is a view of what we saw while walking down one of the many, many, many narrow and beautiful streets in town.
While at the basilica, I saw the coolest poster EVER for an organ festival. I realize you may think this is rather un-noteworthy, but I think it was really cool!
Here is the Capitoleum, in the main square in Toulouse. The main square is amazing in and of itself, but this massive building really dominates the scenery.
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