Author: Linda

Jacobins’ Cloisters ~ May 24, 2016 

  • Tuesday, May 24, 2016
  • Day 24 (Day 21 Camino / site-seeing day)
  • Toulouse
  • Distance: 5 1/2 miles (100% tarmac) 301 1/2 total miles
  • Ascent 558 feet and descent 666 feet
  • Time: 7 hours
  • Weather: 50-60 degrees, cloudy becoming blue sky’s with clouds

Toulouse may have always had the most pilgrim interest along the Arles Route to Santiago because of its numerous churches, convents, monasteries and hostelries/hospitals.

Cloisters, Convent Church of the Jacobins.

  1. Toulouse – Convent Church of the Jacobins
  2. Toulouse – Convent Church of the Jacobins
  3. Toulouse – A  musical instrument. As a golf ball descends each step, a musical note is produced creating a tune.  Convent Church of the  Jacobins

Convent Church of the Jocobins ~ May 24, 2016

  • Tuesday, May 24, 2016
  • Day 24 (Day 21 Camino / site-seeing day)
  • Toulouse
  • Distance: 5 1/2 miles (100% tarmac) 301 1/2 total miles
  • Ascent 558 feet and descent 666 feet
  • Time: 7 hours
  • Weather: 50-60 degrees, cloudy becoming blue sky’s with clouds

Toulouse may have always had the most pilgrim interest along the Arles Route to Santiago because of its numerous churches, convents, monasteries and hostelries/hospitals.

Flooded with light, it’s my favorite! The Convent Church of the Jocobins. Gothic in design, the supporting vaulted columns create a palm forest effect.

  1. Toulouse – Convent Church of the Jocobins
  2. Toulouse – Convent Church of the Jocobins
  3. Toulouse – Convent Church of the Jocobins

Cathedral  Saint-Etienne ~ May 24, 2016

  • Day 24 (Day 21 Camino / site-seeing day)
  • Toulouse
  • Distance: 5 1/2 miles (100% tarmac) 301 1/2 total miles
  • Ascent 558 feet and descent 666 feet
  • Time: 7 hours
  • Weather: 50-60 degrees, cloudy becoming blue sky’s with clouds

Toulouse may have always had the most pilgrim interest along the Arles Route to Santiago because of its numerous churches, convents, monasteries and hostelries/hospitals.

Cathedral Saint-Etienne, largely Gothic

  1. Toulouse – Cathedral Saint-Etienne
  2. Toulouse – Cathedral Saint-Etienne
  3. Toulouse – Statue Saint-Jacque, Cathedral Saint-Etienne

Basilique Saint-Semin ~ May 24, 2016

  • Tuesday, May 24, 2016
  • Day 24 (Day 21 Camino / site-seeing day)
  • Toulouse
  • Distance: 5 1/2 miles (100% tarmac) 301 1/2 total miles
  • Ascent 558 feet and descent 666 feet
  • Time: 7 hours
  • Weather: 50-70 degrees, cloudy becoming blue sky’s with clouds

Toulouse may have always had the most pilgrim interest along the Arles Route to Santiago because of its numerous churches, convents, monasteries and hostelries/hospitals.

Saint Semin was the first bishop of Toulouse and was martyred in 250 AD by being dragged by bulls through the city streets. His body, along with 128 saints, lie in the Basilique Saint-Semin. Completed in C14th, it’s the largest Romanesque church in France.

Devine providence? None other than two of the French-Three-Some appear!

  1. Toulouse – Basilique Saint-Semin
  2. Toulouse – Basilique Saint-Semin
  3. Toulouse – Françoise and Jean-Françoise, Basilique Saint-Semin

Loose in Toulouse ~ May 23, 2016 

  • Tuesday, May 23, 2016
  • Day 23 (Day 21 Camino)
  • Toulouse
  • Distance: 5 1/2 miles (100% tarmac) 301 total miles
  • Ascent 558 feet and descent 666 feet
  • Time: 7 hours
  • Weather: 50-70 degrees, cloudy and few drizzles

Loose in Toulouse.

  1. Toulouse – Pont St-Pierre and Dôme de la Grave
  2. Toulouse – Hôtel Dieu St-Jacques, the former C12th and C13th pilgrim hostelries/hospitals…huge stone scallop shell
  3. Toulouse – Street Musician

Pilgrim Gifts ~ May 23, 2016

  • Monday, May 23, 2016
  • Day 23 (Day 20 Camino)
  • Toulouse
  • Distance: 15 1/2 miles (100% tarmac) 295 1/2 total miles
  • Ascent 670 feet and descent 728 feet
  • Time: 7 hours
  • Weather: 50-60 degrees, cloudy, steady rain, blue sky’s with clouds

Yesterday’s rain washed clothes began the day dry, only to be laundered by today’s rains.

The Camino provides…The French-Three-Some and I separate company today. As they ends their walk, Françoise offered the standard goods: Compeeds (blister treatment) and zip-lock bags. After two rains in two days, she insisted the loan of her rain poncho. Through I have a backpack cover, Gortex rain jacket and paints, yesterday’s rain totally soaked my pack. A poncho better protects the bag and walker; albeit, hotter and more weight in my pack.

  1. Toward Toulouse – Canal du Midi
  2. Toward Toulouse – Canal du Midi
  3. Toward Toulouse – Canal du Midi

“Stay the Course” ~ May 22, 2016

  • Sunday, May 22, 2016
  • Day 22 (Day 19 Camino)
  • Baziège
  • Distance: 14 miles (100% tarmac) 280 total miles
  • Ascent 474 feet and descent 551 feet
  • Time: 7 hours
  • Weather: 50-60 degrees, 20 cloudy than heavy rain

Weigh the differences. Stay on The Way walking through beautiful evolving French countryside for longer miles or stay along the Canal Du Midi dodging cyclists and seeing a good deal of sameness in shorter mileage. Rain dictated walking along the canal.

In 1681, it took 12,000 workers 14 years to build the canal.

  1. Toward Baziège
  2. Toward Baziège
  3. Toward Baziège

Plane Trees ~ May 21, 2016

  • Saturday, May 21, 2016
  • Day 21 (Day 18 Camino)
  • Avignonet-Lauragais
  • Distance: 20 miles (5% tarmac) 266 total miles
  • Ascent 616 feet and descent 683 feet
  • Time: 9 1/4 hours
  • Weather: 50-60 degrees, 20 MPH winds with blue skies

Joyful arrival of a café at a historic mill. I had the sweetest strawberry well placed on a perfect brownie.

The park had an avenue of “Plane” trees over a hundred years old. In some places I see these trees taged and consecutively numbered.

  1. Toward Avignonet-Lauragais – Walkway at Mill
  2. Toward Avignonet-Lauragais – Walkway at Mill
  3. Toward Avignonet-Lauragais – Mill

Thomas Jefferson ~ May 21, 2016

  • Saturday, May 21, 2016
  • Day 21 (Day 18 Camino)
  • Avignonet-Lauragais
  • Distance: 20 miles (5% tarmac) 266 total milesAscent 616 feet and descent 683 feetTime: 9 1/4 hours
  • Weather: 50-60 degrees, 20 MPH winds with blue skies

Thomas Jefferson’s tribute along the Canal du Midi. It reads…

13 April 1743 in Shadwell, VA in Virginia 4 July 1826 in Monticello in Virginia

SYMBOL OF THE FRANCO-AMERICAN FRIENDSHIP

AMBASSADOR OF THE USA IN FRANCE 1785-1789

3RD PRESIDENT OF THE USA 1801-180

MAIN AUTHOR OF THE AMERICAN DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE 4 JULY 1776. LOVER OF FRANCE, HE TRAVELLED IN OUR LAND AND PROMOTED IN THE USA OUR ARCHITECTURAL PATRIMONY, OUR LAND, OUR CULTURE, A HUMANIST, HE SHARED OUR VALUES OF LIBERTY, WITH HIS FRIEND LA FAYETTE HE PLAYED A KEY ROLE IN THE DRAFT OF THE FRENCH CONSTITUTION AND THE DECLARATION OF THE RIGHTS OF MAN AND OF THE CITIZEN IN 1789.

1789 – 2009
A BRIDGE FOR LIBERTY

220TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION

  1. Toward Avignonet-Lauragais
  2. Toward Avignonet-Lauragais
  3. Toward Avignonet-Lauragais