The Nakeds

Picture this...you're walking down the streets of Barcelona...

Wall to wall people: look left- there's a mass of German tourists straight of the bus, look right-there's an even larger mass of Japanese tourists shooting pictures blinding you with their camera flashes. Everyone looks the same: heads, shoulders, arms, legs, hair or no hair, glasses or no glasses, clothes....

or no clothes?????

Eye stimulation was everywhere. Cam, Elise and I had spent the past two days walking around the city gathering an arsenal of beautiful pictures of all that the city of Barcelona had to offer. Between the enormous market just off the side street of the Ramblas and the Sagrada de Familia- the church that Gaudi designed and is under permanent construction to be finished in the distant future- our heads were overflowing with Catalunyan culture! It was spectacular.

At the particular moment referenced above, we had just spent an entire day walking all over the city. Our brains were saturated, and brain function took a couple seconds longer to process than normal. Elise and I were walking next to each other with Cam trailing a few steps behind (although Cam can out-hike most people on any mountainside, when you get him traveling he walks slower than any snail I've met). ;)

We were walking down the Ramblas (a famous tourist street in Barcelona) and I was observing all the funny fellow tourists around me, when I noticed a couple of men that somehow just didn't fit in with the rest of the crowd. Focusing in on them, I wondered, "Hmmm....something is different about those guys. What is it? It looks like that old man has a lot of tattoos...is that it? No, though old guys with lots of tattoos aren't totally normal, there's something even stranger about these guys." As I reflected on why these two men struck me as looking so strange, it hit me like a ton of bricks...: "I see their penises!!!! They have no clothes on!" Then I realized that they had no body hair either...they had definitely prepared for this moment for a while! I knew there was something different about them! There was an older man and a young man just trompsing down the most crowded street in all of Barcelona totally buck naked!

Suddenly, when I realized what was happening, I turned to Elise, "Elise, do you see their weeners??? They have no clothes on!" Of course, Elise had realized this fact without my help. After the initial shock waned I noticed that there was a crowd of people following the naked men snapping pictures of the onlookers (Elise and me included), who must have had their jaws fully ajar coupled with hilariously shocked expressions on their faces. I immediately picked my bottom jaw up off the ground and passed the "Nakeds". I had to get just one more glimpse after I had passed them (I mean how often do you get to see two naked, completely shaved men walking down the middle of the street) and noticed the old man had what looked like the butt of a swimming speedo tattooed on his butt! At least he covered his bottom for us all, how proper of him.

Needless to say, Cam, Elise and I laughed the whole way home remembering that scene...crazy naked people in Barcelona! ;)

Fêtes des Fleurs - Cazères

Continuing the tradition of local festivals, last weekend was the annual Fêtes des Fleurs in Cazères, which consists of a variety of activities, including a parade of floats adorned with flowers.  Despite being small, the parade was fun and entertaining. In sharp contrast to American parades, where the parade route is guarded vehemently by police and barriers, the Fêtes des Fleurs parade was relaxed, low key and hardly regulated. 

In fact, much of the parade seemed to consist of people just enjoying themselves, like this group of ladies, who were walking along, laughing and having a good time and seemed somewhat oblivious to the fact that they were in the middle of a parade.  Here they stopped for a quick snapshot, before continuing on to the next camera person who was waiting another 5 feet down the road.  

I milled in and out of the paraders for most of the time, which was far more fun than just standing in a crowd of sweaty people, trying to look over someone's shoulder to see the floats roll by.  Granted, we were in a small town, with a small parade and this may not be representative of the greater French culture, but I would say that it was refreshing.

Lots of stuff going on...

Things are a bit hectic around here for the moment, but we've been doing lots of cool stuff and will post things in more detail as we get more time.  But, for now, a few pics...

A weekly market in Rieux Volvestre. Steph and Elise picking through the produce and learning how to manage market crowds/lines.

We also went to a "Vide Grenier," which translates literally as "empty the attic".  It is basically the French equivalent of a town wide yard sale, where people try to sell all the random junk that have been collecting dust for the last who knows how long.  Needless to say, there are a ton of intriguing and slightly bizarre objects that appear...everything from clothes, to climbing shoes (size 42 Mythos if anyone is interested), to religious relics, dishes, rusty tools... the list is endless.  This ice axe thermometer caught my eye because it seemed lonely and out of place among all of the other, very clearly non-climber objects. 

The Vide Grenier is also excellent for people watching.  We happened to see this couple dressed up as clowns, who proceeded to randomly approach people and do clown things much to the amusement of everyone around, especially Elise and I.  In fact, we both stopped at the exact same time to take a photo of them.  I would say that clowns are not a normal occurrence, but it was indubitably entertaining nonetheless. 

A Thursday Promenade

Similar to the weather back in Colorado, the weather here has been rainy, cloudy, (snowy at times) and much colder than normal.  According to Patricia, the local weather expert, this is pretty out of character, and the end is in sight, which we're super excited about.

That being said, we have found that cloudy, rainy, miserable weather is excellent for going on exploratory drives of Ariège.  Thursday, we decided to drive south past Foix toward the Spanish border.  We joked that we could drive to Andorra (a tiny country tucked in the Pyrenees, between Spain & France) for a quick cup of coffee before a dinner engagement with an English couple on the other side of Castex.  We laughed, thinking it was actually a totally absurd idea, but set off to explore anyway.  Shortly after driving through Foix, we found ourself faced with the dilemma of actually driving to Andorra, which lay an hour or less further, or turning south toward the small town of Niaux and unknown sites along the small roads at the base of the Pyrenees.  We chose the small roads...

Our route is marked in Green above.

The first stop along a winding road came after Steph had to repeatedly tell me to keep my eyes on the road because I was gawking too much at all the limestone cliffs everywhere.  After seeing a giant cave not far off the road, we had to pull over and investigate.  Ironically, it turns out that people have been visiting this particular site for quite a while, and we weren't the first people to be drawn to it's towering opening.  After putzing around on narrow side roads and a brief pit stop at a smaller cave, we realized we were at the famous Grotte De Niaux which is a prehistoric site dating to the Magdalenian era of the Upper Paleolithic period (around 18,000 - 10,000 Before Present).  

The site boasts a number of prehistoric paintings, but also serves as an interesting timeline of human history up to the present day.  Along with ancient rock art, the cave walls provide glimpses (amusing at times) into countless generations of inhabitants.  In "recent" history, there are scrawlings dating back to the 1600's, including a newer entry that proclaims, "Ici, j'ai perdu mon pucelage à l'age de 13 ans".  (Here I lost my virginity at the age of 13).  

One of the things I find most fascinating and enriching about exploring France is the visible depth of history.  While the Colorado has archeology dating back to at least the Clovis time period (11,500 BP +/-), it is extremely difficult to see.  The ancient history is normally hidden & buried under feet of dirt, like the Lindenmeier Site just north of Fort Collins.   Looking at dirt mounds and imagining what it would have been like is ok, but actually getting to stand where someone painted a bison with a twig 18,000 years ago is spectacular. 

Needless to say, our Thursday visit to the Grotte De Niaux was slightly hindered by a bus load of middle school kids from Andorra who were running around like crazy and had filled all the tour space.  We're hoping to return soon (maybe with Elise?) and check the grotte out in full detail.  In the mean time, here are a few pics...

A small grotte just before you get to the main entrance to the Grotte De Niaux.

The entrance to the caves.  I don't fully know what the building is on the right.  It seems to be a visitor center of some sort, but I'm not exactly sure what the story is behind the architecture or why it was built here.  We'll do more research and report back.  As a little bit of scale, you can just see the top of a tour bus on the left side of the frame.  If it weren't a major historical site, the cave would have a ton of amazing routes out it. 

View of adjacent town from the Grotte.

After noodling around at the Grotte, we made our way back onto our promenade itenerary (if there is such a thing, and headed farther south toward the Pyrenees before contouring west along the foothills.  Before long, the road became smaller once again and the persistent drizzle turned to a fog.  Houses and other attractions would appear and disappear with equal aplomb, including this roadside waterfall that was overflowing.  

Shortly after stopping to gawk at the waterfall, the snow began to fall, then get heavier, then it began to blow sideways, and I wondered if we had been somehow teleported back to Colorado.  The road seemed to wind on forever, switchbacking up and up...into more snow and less signs of civilization.  We finally summited and I saw an obscure sign that said Port something or other....  I'm not spectacular at French by any means, but I thought "Port" meant "Port"...as in the place where there is lots of water and boats...  Looking around, there was lots of water (in various stages), but no boats.  Perhaps that is a funny French way of saying bobsled?  The road after the "Port" seemed to certainly resemble a bobsled run a little bit...maybe they were on to something.

Merry 13th of May.  We saw a Santa Clause on someone's door the other day.  It's not quite as funny and out of place now.  :)

Nearing the end of the snow.

The houses seemed to change with the landscape as well.  The closer we got to the Pyrenees, the more they became Chalets, to the point where I felt like I was in the Swiss alps rather than in Southern France.  I'm amazed by how France has an amazing amount of diversity within such a small area.  The rest of the drive was excellent, including a cool sideroad with tunnels, but I'll let Steph tell that one...

Fêtes Du Papogay

Ariège and the surrounding departments are full of festivals and activities throughout the summer.  It seems that every weekend there is something to do and see within an hour's drive.  Last weekend was the Fêtes Du Papogay (Festival of the Parrot) in the medieval town of Rieux Volvestre in the neighboring department of Haute Garonne.

The festival has a variety of activities, but is most known for it's archery competition, where competitors of various ages attempt to shoot a bird shaped wooden decoy (Parrot) off poles of varying heights, up to 45 meters (147 ft).  The archers (all men...see history section below) are divided into three age groups, Petit (14 and under?), Moyen (teens), and Grand (18+).  Each group, consisting of 20+ archers, shoots at a decoy at a height that tests their skill level and it takes several volleys of arrows before a bird is knocked down.  The archer who knocks the bird down for their age division is crowned Roi (king) of the festival for the year.

The roots of the festival stretch back to the 14th century, when King Edward III of England defeated King Philip VI of France at the Battle of Crécy in 1346 (one of the most important battles of the Hundred Years War).  Edward used the Welsh Longbow and superior field position to defeat the French, despite being greatly outnumbered.  Philip realized the tactical value of the bow and proclaimed a series of ordinances to encourage the development of archery in France.  Gunpowder replaced the bow over the next two centuries, but the tradition of archery remained in the culture, especially in the North and South.  The first preserved records of archery traditions in Rieux Volvestre date to 1585 & 1589. 

I'm not sure exactly how the tradition of the festival evolved from the middle ages to the mid 20th century, but apparently the event took on a legendary aspect in 1958 when a Gascon poet named Jules Ponsolle wrote a ballad to describe the event.

Rather than a mere display of archery, Ponsolle converted the event into a tale of seduction and trickery, where the Devil sought to seduce the daughter of the lord of the town.  The lord feared that his daughter would become enchanted, so he ordered the town people to kill the Devil, promising the hand of his daughter to whoever killed the demon.  To escape the horde, the Devil converted into a parrot (Papogay) and attempted to flee, but was shot down by a young shepherd boy named Tantiro.  As a reward for killing the demon, Tantiro won the title of "king" of Rieux and the heart of the lords daughter.  

Today, the archery portion of the festival begins with a parade of all the participants through the narrow streets of Rieux.  It is a lively display of horsemen and horsewomen, bands of various sorts, people clad in medieval garb (frequently displaying the yellow and green colors of the city), and archers (all men) dressed in black pants, a white shirt and a red sash.  The parade ends at a soccer field where the archers set up and arrows start flying.

The birds are difficult to knock off (they weigh 4.5 Kg, 9.9 lbs)  and generally take several shots before eventually getting brought down.  We watched the kids burn through all their arrows before someone realized that the bird was still totally stuck to the pole and wouldn't fall.  Watching the kids shoot at the bird was sort of like watching an inevitable bicycle crash...They all line up directly under the bird, then launch arrows straight into the sky...most of them fly in all sorts of random directions, bouncing off the poles, bird and other random things.  Usually the arrows fly into the field to be later recovered by the overly excited kids, but occasionally, arrows fly directly back down into the archers, or into the crowd of musicians and spectators behind them, making for some exciting sports action.  :)

They fixed it and after a couple more volleys, one of the kids knocked the bird off the pole and was crowned.  We didn't stick around for the men to shoot at the highest bird at 45 meters, but I imagine it would be an impressive sight.  Apparently, there can be up to 100 archers that each shoot 20-30 arrows per volley....

The king of the 2010 Fêtes Du Papogay!

This should spike reader interest

WARNING!

(To American Viewers)

Do not view this post if you are in a "public" venue, such as work, school, a day care, Catholic nunnery, or a similar place.   Close this tab immediately, go back to whatever mundane task you are procrastinating on, then come back when you are in the privacy of your home.  The following content is considered to be inappropriate by American public media standards and could get you fired, put on suspension, investigated by Big Brother and/or scoffed at by spying Nuns.  We are not responsible if you get fired for surfing at work.  If you are willing to accept these risks...Read on.

*** The following commentary is based on stereotypes, so feel free to chime in with any corrections or alternate points of view.***

It's funny how culture shapes your perception of the world in ways that you never realize.  Like this for example...I went searching for another jar of Nutella the other day and was just ambling (I can do that here now, since I actually have time in the day) past a magazine store, when this magazine cover jumped out at me.

Obviously, the supermodel in funky clothes, with the spaced out/stoned look isn't abnormal, yet NEVER in America would you find this in plain view next to a supermarket.  In a rare fit of Puritanical shame and uneasiness, I looked around to see if there were any kids around who might be gawking at the cover as well.  There were kids...  However, rather than gawking, they simply continued past my bewildered state and entered the supermarket, along with the rest of the people on a random Wednesday afternoon. 

I am by no means suggesting that people don't gawk at half naked supermodels in magazine stores...they obviously do, otherwise the pictures wouldn't appear on the covers.  However, the interesting differences the image raises are in regard to sexuality and what society defines as acceptable and unacceptable etiquette.

In the States, it is generally accepted and promoted that displays of sexuality are confined to the private sphere of life (or a select number of predetermined situations) where the consumption of images is regulated and perpetuated by an entity (which is given either implicit or explicit control over the media through a variety of means).  For example, news, magazines, public television, mainstream movies, and the internet to a limited degree (obviously excluding the porn industry) are all censored on various levels by an official organization because the perpetuation of sexually explicit images has been determined to be negative to society (supposedly according to our cultural values and beliefs).  As a result, it is extremely uncommon to see images of nudity in the most accessible channels of media such as newspapers, front shelf magazines, public television, etc.

Here, in France, things seem to be slightly different (with various implications by extension) yet a variety of similarities still persist.  Semi-nude or nude images (of both men and women) are far more frequent in the media, including on public television, but the images don't seem to be portrayed as always sexual or erotic.  Rather, the images seem to be displayed as a mix of provocation and art, or as an extension of life in the reality that it actually exists...where people take showers without it leading to having sex in the shower...

In general, based on our limited experience here, the consumption of images appears to be different from the States in that its end goal is not always eroticism (although it obviously still is in some cases, as with the image above).  In many ways, this is a refreshing point of view because it allows for a more profound portrail of the human experience, yet I'm sure that this more liberal display of sexuality is also subject to regulation and perpetuation, albeit simply on a different level than that of the States.

Whether or not directly correlated to images of sexuality, the public display of sexuality and affection in France is an interesting cultural identifier.  Most Americans think of French culture and think of three things: French Fries, French Kissing, and nude beaches.  Everyone loves French fries, so there's nothing to discuss there, but french kissing and nude beaches are two symbols of French culture that exhibit some interesting stereotypes and cultural paradoxes.  I have yet to visit a French nude beach, so can't talk much about that, but I've gotten to see a fair amount of french kissing since we got here and have a few observations.

Observation #1:  It is culturally acceptable to display affection in public.  This is contrary to the anti-PDA (Public Display of Affection) rules which are explicitly enforced in primary and secondary schools in the US, and are later implicitly applied to adults within the greater American society.  Here, it is common to see couples kissing, making out, and groping in public.  The stereotype that France (especially Paris) is "Romantic" likely came from an outsider's perception of these displays of affection (in my opinion).  In many ways, it seems that the "French Kiss" is the embodiment of this stereotype.

Observation #2: It is not culturally acceptable to openly "watch" people displaying affection in public.  If you are in a public place, like a restaurant for example, and the couple next to you is babbling "sweet nothings" and playing tonsil hockey ("French" kissing for any French people who might have miraculously made it this far into my ramble), you may not directly look at them.  If you do, you will be greeted with unpleasant glares.

This is where the interesting cultural paradox appears between what is defined as public space and what is private space (especially in regard to the consumption of images).  In the US, images and actions that are presented in the public space (broadly defined here as anything "public", like TV, news, etc.) are intended to be consumed by anyone and everyone.  People who view public media have expectations regarding the content that will be made available, and the producers of the media comply with a predetermined formula based on what is deemed acceptable and what is not.  For example, PBS (does anyone even watch this anymore?) provides programs to an audience of all ages and demographics.  People who view PBS know that they will never see any nudity, hear any cursing, and have a general understanding that they will probably be bored out of their minds with Bob Ross' "pretty little trees".  Viewers who are looking for nudity, vulgarity and action buy HBO or Cinemax.



Thus, in the US, public spaces seem to be structured such that a viewer is never going to be surprised by content.  It would be like if there was a late night Bob Ross Uncensored show.  One where he screwed up one of his pretty little trees and was like, "WTF!  Dammit Janet! This new paint blows donkey balls...I just spilled some on my shoes.  Take off your blouse and clean this up for me will you?  ...And while you're down there..."

Obviously I'm not the first person to poke a little fun at Bob Ross...here are a few other funny ones to rest your brain from my useless rambling:





In my opinion, viewer expectations of what they are going to get are very clearly defined in most public media.  For America, sexuality in the public sphere means no partial or full nudity (in any way) and actions displaying sexually provocative material are restrained to very censored scenes that portray private spaces.  Getting back the point....In the US, it seems that when people are in public places, they have a similar expectation about what they are going to view, and by extension, how they themselves are going to act as a result.  Private spaces are generally where sexuality, vulgarity and all the other suppressed elements of society are acceptable to view and partake in.     

In France, there seems to be a mingling of public and private spaces (that perhaps exists in the States as well, but to a much lesser degree regarding the proliferation of sexually explicit images and actions by extension).  There may be expectations and regulations regarding what images are made available in the public sphere, but it is certainly more liberal that the States (in terms of both sexual content and language).  However, beyond the obvious differences in standards between what is acceptable and what is not, France seems to have an interesting society where private spaces exist within the public spaces on a much more pronounced level.

For Americans, this mix of public and private spaces creates one of the most culturally confusing paradoxes, where it is a complete mystery why images of nudity are promoted liberally on newstands and public television, yet it is a total taboo to view people displaying affection in public (the embodiment of the sexuality that the images seems to convey & propogate).

I must confess...I'm confused by the delineation of public and private spaces here as well.

Strikes!

Well, in typical French fashion, we decided to go on strike!  A blogging strike to be exact!  We're demanding that people leave comments, interact and show that they are reading our random rambles!

It seems like most days, there is a strike of some sort happening here...a train strike, a milk producers strike, an educators strike...a farmers strike...  Since I read French at a pre-K level and understand it worse than any French border collie, I'm not exactly sure what is going on, or why the people are striking, but it is an impressive display of social organization and determination.  I love the photo above of a current farmers strike where they have descended in mass on the highways leading to Paris.

Given the way I've seen French people drive, I can just imagine a 20 mile line of pissed off commuters, all tailgating each other with 5 inches of space between themselves and the car in front of them...looking for that sketchy passing window where they might be able to slip one car length closer to the head of an endless line of traffic.  Oh!  What a sight!

Ironically though, Steph claims that the crusty French commuters would not be angered by the strikers, but rather by the fact that they are now in a 20 mile long parking lot (which just happens to be sprinkled with cow manure and mud clods from a random horde of tractors).  There seems to be a logical disjunct somewhere in the equation that I don't quite understand yet, but perhaps I will when I get to Lassie's comprehension level of French.

Anyway, we have more pics and stories to post later if anyone cares or reads this...let us know if we should continue to post or just stockpile all of our footage for a later point and time.

Faux pas...did I mess up???

So Cam and I have had a few funny situtations happen to us so far (and I'm sure we'll have many more to come through out our stay). But I thought I'd share some so far.

1. (Star: STEPH. Stage Left enters Steph and Cam in one of the 80 hardware stores they've been to since they've got to France) Following the tradition in France when one enters a store, Steph turns to the store clerk to say "Bonjour". In the millisecond before Steph says bonjour, the store clerk says something to her. Thinking he also said bonjour, Steph continues with the greeting. A half of a second after the whole greeting ceremony has past, the store clerk is looking at a Steph with a strange expression on his face. Only at this moment does Steph realize that the store clerk did not actually say "Bonjour", rather he said "This is an exit, not an entrance". Now Steph realizes that's what he said, and that her response was "Bonjour!" --said with a big Steph smile! Ahhhh, it was great. After that Steph laughed and her and Cam hurried out to the actual entrance of the store. :)

2. (Star: CAM. Stage Right are Cam and Steph waiting in the check out line at one of the 90 gardening stores they have been to since coming to France) Cam and Steph are waiting in line, for the cashier is just finishing up with the customer in front of them. As the cashier is starting her closing or "au revoir (good-bye)" with the customer before us, she turns her eyes quickly toward Cam, as if to acknowledge that she knows we are next in line.

Now here I must pause for an explanation...Cam is working very hard trying to learn French, and one of the most useful techniques he has picked up is the "Parrot Technique". It is named this for the fact that the technique uses mimicry in place of analytical thought processes. It goes as follows: someone says something, you say the same thing back. It's a great technique for saying hello, putting a closing on an email, and saying good bye (or so he thought until this situation occured).

Now, back to the check out line...there is Cam looking at the lady, using his most masterful "Parrot Technique" skills. The cashier says "au revoir (good bye)" to her customer, glances at Cam, and Cam responds "au revoir" back to the cashier. As you can imagine, the next couple of minutes were a little strained, for the cashier then had to say "bonjour" to Cam to check out the items we were purchasing. So in true Parrot fashion Cam responded "Bonjour". So essentially, the conversation went in reverse. An english translation: Open the greeting with good-bye, then say hello, then say good-bye again! It was hilarious! So just a word of warning to those that are considering using the parrot technique...use it carefully, it can backfire as much as it can help.

2010 Tour De France

So, I've never followed cycling much, aside from mocking Matt in his spandex diaper pants, but this year, I might get a little bit more excited about it since the 2010 Tour De France basically goes through our back yard.  I know waiting two and a half hours on the side of the road to see the peloton blow by at 30 miles an hour might not be the most exciting thing in the world, but the Tour is perhaps the one thing that the majority of American's know (and perhaps even revere) about France, which is monumental in itself and certainly worth experiencing. 

 

Stage 15 of this year's Tour goes from Pamiers (a town about an hour northeast of us) to Bagnères De Luchon, which lies 187km (116 miles) to the southwest.  The course of this year's race is monumental for Pamiers because it is the first time the town has hosted a Tour stage.   Although the exact course of the race hasn't been released yet, the hill profile below shows the Tour passing through the Côte of Carla-Bayle, which is about 10 km (6 miles) from our house.  

Carla-Bayle is a beautiful fortified village perched atop a hill (the pic above was swiped off the internet...I'll try to post some other pics later).  Construction of the wall that surrounds the village was completed in the 12-13th century and is a much smaller version of the famous walled city of Carcassonne which lies farther to the northeast.  

From Carla-Bayle, the Tour winds its way southwest across the department of Ariège and into Haute Garonne.  The stage ends with a brutal climb (6.2% grade) at kilometer 166 (mile 103), before reaching the resort town of Bagnères De Luchon which is tucked away in the middle of the Pyrenees, just north of the Spanish border.  

I imagine things will be somewhat like a circus when the Tour rolls through, but it will be cool to see (and hopefully share with Ben and Shawna when they're here!).

A visit to Toulouse - Part 1

A few weeks ago, we got an excellent tour of Toulouse from our friends Marion and Samy.   The weather was a bit cold, but we cruised around downtown Toulouse for just long enough to get a quick taste of the city and realize we want to spend more time exploring it.  Samy and Marion were excellent tour guides and provided a wealth of information about the city and area which has helped us get better acquainted with the landscape here and given us insight into subtle parts of the French culture that we probably wouldn't have picked up for quite some time.

 The Capital and surrounding buildings.

Known as the "Ville en Rose" (City in Pink), Toulouse has long been defined by the red brick that was used to construct many of it's buildings.  Lacking a nearby source of natural rock, early constructors manufactured brick out of local material, which happened to have a reddish hue.  The Capital building sits in the center of the city, near the Garonne River that slowly makes its way toward the Atlantic Ocean. 

The Garonne has it's natural headwaters in the Pyrenees, but is also part of a waterway system that connects the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean with the help of two canal systems (The Canal Du Midi & Canal De Garonne) that were built in the 1600's.  The canal project was revolutionary at the time in terms of redefining engineering principles, but also was notable due to the importance that women played in the construction and design of the waterway.  Many of the women involved in the project were from towns that were former Roman bath colonies, and had an innate understanding of classical hydraulics that wasn't an integrated part of contemporary engineering at the time.  With massive labor and financial resources as well as the help from the women, the canal was finally finished in 1681.

Although the canal system is no longer used for the transport of materials from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic, Toulouse still is a thriving city with a diverse array of influences, attractions and offerings for the citizens and travelers alike.  Facing the Capital pictured above is another building with a long covered walkway whose ceiling tiles exhibit a series of contemporary murals that show the history and defining elements of the city and surrounding area. 

Pastel
This blue pigment was produced and sold in the Toulouse area, and, by the 16th century had made Toulouse the "Land of Plenty".  Many of the merchants of pastel became extremely rich and used their money to build extravagant hotels and houses in the city.

Saint Dominique (1215 a.d.)
According to the plaque below the mural, Saint Dominique was a Castillian who moved to Toulouse in 1215 and founded the Dominican order in order to combat Catharism by gospel, charity and living the example of a poor life.  Whether or not Saint Dominique played a role in the Inquisition is apparently a much debated topic.  However, regardless of his direct role, religious tolerance during this period seemed to disappear and the Cathars were soon persecuted formally in the Albigensian Crusade that began in 1220.

 

Montségur: The end of the Albigensian Crusade (1244 a.d.)
Toulouse was the capital of the Languedoc region when Pope Innocent III declared a holy crusade against people of the Cathar faith (a sect of Catholicism) in the early 13th century.  Known as the Albigensian Crusade, this religious persecution served to massacre somewhere between 200,000 and 1 million people.  The final stronghold of the Cathars lay in Montségur (about an hour east of our house), a fortified castle at the top of a tall, rocky hill.  After 10 months of siege, the remaining 200+ Cathars finally surrendered and were subsequently burned alive by the Catholic crusaders. 

The Spanish Civil War (1939)
The Spanish Civil War was one of the most profound events in contemporary Spanish history and was also an important element in the lead up to World War II.  When the Second Republic was defeated in 1939, the Republican government installed itself in Toulouse as Francisco Franco took power in Spain and launched the country into nearly 40 years of dictatorship and oppression.  As the Spanish Civil War came to a close, thousands of Spanish citizens fled persecution by seeking asylum in southern France. 

Toulousians Today
Today, the identity of Toulousians is diverse, international and historically profound.  Although we have just begun to learn the city and meet the people, we are excited to experience more.

Cultural Mysteries - The Bise...aka the most confusing social custom on the planet...

France has an abundance of cultural customs that are obvious (most of the time) to the French, but a complete mystery to Americans.  Perhaps the most awkward custom for Americans is the "Bise," a series of kisses that inevitably results in a miffed French person and an American who almost scored a peck on the mouth from a complete stranger (which sometimes isn't neccesarily bad, except when you are meeting someone's 87 year old grandmother).  Thus far, I have completely bungled just about every interaction where a bise has been involved.  Here's a funny vid to check out if you're bored...Perhaps we'll get some video footage of us awkwardly meeting a French couple for your viewing amusement in the future....