Tag: toulouse

Postcard from Toulouse, France: Arts festival reflected on contemporary condition

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“Going from Nowhere. Coming from Nowhere,” a neon installation by Maurizio Nannucci, casts reflections onto the Garonne River during Le Printemps de Septembre.

When we were in Toulouse this past fall, several of the city’s major museums were closed for remodeling, COVID or a combination of the two reasons. They were all scheduled for reopening in early 2022, so probably have unlocked their doors by now.

The arts were not being ignored though, particularly during Le Printemps de Septembre, a month-long city-wide celebration that ran through mid-October. The theme for the 2021 festival was “Sur les Cendres de l’Hacienda/On the Ashes of the Hacienda,” a theme selected pre-pandemic and promoting artists who expose disaster, stand up to it and look ahead. For the gallery-hesitant, the night-time illuminations along the banks of the Garonne River were stunning.

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Postcard from Toulouse, France: How to fall in love, one quirky detail at a time

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Above: 19th-century molded terracotta caryatids

Walk and walk. And, even at the risk of stumbling, always look up. The rewards are rich, and you will be smitten.

An architectural embellishment I’ve never noticed elsewhere is the frequent usage of lacy, “picado” metalwork at the top of windows in Toulouse. Hoping someone will provide a proper term for this or know of other places it is found. Sometimes the wrought-iron designs on balconies echo those patterns, and often elaborate wrought-iron railings meticulously match the carved or molded work adorning the buildings. And the contrasting patterns of brick and stone are striking and distinctively Toulouse.

These architectural details range about six centuries or so in age, but this randomness represents how they are encountered around the city.

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Postcard from Toulouse, France: A basilica with great bones

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Above: Reliquary in the Basilica of Saint Sernin

Most people reading this headline would assume I’m talking about religious architecture, but those definitely are not the only bones on my mind. This does not mean that the architecture of the Basilica of Saint Sernin is not amazing; it is. So, we’ll just get those bones out of the way first.

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