Toulouse

We went on our first major excursion today, a trip to Toulouse.  Toulouse is a fairly large city.  Our guide was a gentleman named Eric, who is teaching the students religion.  He is a very impressive teacher with a great deal of knowledge about religion, art, architecture and a host of other subjects.  He came to the Prieure on Tuesday night and had class until around 10:30 pm.  We then loaded ourselves in to the cars and drive to Toulouse the following morning.  I was driving one of the cars and half way there one of my students said, "Is there a bag in the car?"  Well needless to say, she was getting car sick.  We called Gerry in the lead car and told him we had a sick kid and may have to pull over.  Gerry proceeded to slow down and we spent the next 45minutes going about 70-80 km an hour (that's between 42-48 mph) on a 130 km per hour road.  Cars were passing us and staring at our short, very slow caravan.  meanwhile the student was anxious to get to where we were going.  She told us as long as we didn't slow down or stop she thought she would be okay, and the next thing that comes up is a toll plaza and we are stopped.  I kept waiting to be drowned from the back seat, but the trooper our student was, she kept things in until we got her to a bathroom.

The parking garages over here are very tight.  Going in, you are just about touching both walls.  Spaces are unbelievably small.  We then did a marathon around Toulouse to a museum, and a couple of churches.  I don't think we really rested until lunch.  The art and architecture was something else!  We also went into the hall where the Inquisition started.  I decided to get a souvenir, a medallion of the building they did the Inquisition hearings at.  Well not quite hearing, it was an accusation of being a heretic and then torturing you until you admitted it.  Sounds like some classes, huh?  Anyway, here I am with my souvenir of the one of the most horrific places in church history.  Pretty neat though.

We had lunch at a truly French cafe in Toulouse.  The picture depicts Dr. Lori Woods, Deb and I.  The wine was complimentary with the meal!


On the way home I was driving again and following Gerry through some of the tightest streets and craziest drivers I've ever known.  Gerry went through a light and I got caught at the red.  Our fearless leader, John, was sitting in the back seat and as we accidently passed Gerry, he said, "Go ahead, we'll find the road".  Famous last words, right.  We drove onto a freeway and followed what we thought was the correct road until we started see signs for Paris and Bourgeiose.  Now I don't know much about France, but I knew if I wanted to get to Ambialet, Paris was the long way around (about 14 hours there and back).  I couldn't exactly pull up to someone and ask, didn't know how, so we just drove.  For some reason, we decided to take an exit and try to find our way back to where had started from,(which we would have NEVER have been able to do), and saw a sign for Albi, which is what we needed.  I call it the New Miracle of Toulouse!

Tonight we had rabbit for supper.  Quite good, bit one student protested because he has a [pet rabbit at home.  We tried to convince him that this wasn't HIS rabbit, but he still wouldn't eat it.  I guess it was his loss!