 |
| playing the continued role
of japanese tourist. |
|
 |
| thierry greeting me at
the welcome desk. the conference didn't start until the 10th so i
decided to do a little sightseeing that day. |
|
 |
| which included seeing
many of the little cars which french drivers just love trying to
run me and other pedestrians over in. |
|
 |
| on certain days, local
merchants set up shop to sell fresh fruits, vegetables, and other
things. there's blocks and blocks of this stuff. |
|
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| some gallery that i didn't
go in but thought would look nice in a picture. |
|
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| another building near it
which is fairly representative of the types of things one sees in
toulouse. |
|
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| after walking around a bit,
i decided to try someplace new for lunch. this place looked as good
as any. |
|
 |
| the staff was friendly and
helpful, as was pretty much everyone i met in france. |
|
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| i planned to eat seafood today
so i went with a white. armed with an assortment of french to english
dictionaries, i anxiously awaited to decode the menu in search for the
elusive stingray! |
|
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| but they didn't serve it. :(
so i started with the salmon. (yes this is a starter!) |
|
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| and next, a salad of course. |
|
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| and finally, some french seafood
dish. i thought i had ordered something else. i'm sure of it. i guess
it was faulty translation on my part.
|
|
 |
| this guy apparently likes
to eat in similar places. jun xu. he goes to school in the uk at
south bank university. |
|
 |
| he started with some
shellfish. |
|
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| then had the salmon for
his entree. |
|
 |
| while all of that seemed
good enough, i soon realized i'd really missed out with my poor
translation of the menu. check this out! |
|
 |
| everyone is welcome
to dine here. he doesn't seem very interested in the menu though. |
|
 |
| he's not amused. |
|
 |
| nothing particular exciting
about this. around this time, some guy actually asked me for
directions in french. guess i was starting to fit in or something. :)
|
|
 |
| more brick buildings near
the capitole. toulouse is often called "la ville rose", i.e., the
pink city. that's a little factoid i got from my $24.95 lonely planet's
guide to france. that's all i got out of it. |
|
 |
| not intentionally, i ended
up at the capitole again. it was like groundhogs day or in the
mouth of madness, that movie with that jurassic park guy in it. no matter
what direction i chose, i invariably ended up at the capitole. |
|
 |
| since i didn't have a day shot
of it, today seemed as good a time as any. the hpca reception, not surprisingly
was also held here. as henry bal from the vrije universiteit
amsterdam tells me,
so were the receptions at two previous conferences in toulouse as well. how
unimaginative is that!?
|
|
 |
| the basilica of saint-sernin. this
little toulouse guide that came with my hpca packet actually came in handy.
i think they might have used photoshop on it or something though. the picture
looked much sharper and vibrant than the real thing. |
|
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| the donjon du capitole. built in
1530, "it was constructed to house and safeguard the archives of the city."
|
|
 |
| while in france, i wandered down many a
street like this one. the area near the capitole is densely packed with a
ridiculous number of little shops like these. |
|
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| another shot of the basilica
of saint-sermin. |
|
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| while walking around in
the rain, i started to get a bit hungry, so i decided to try my
luck in this pastry shop. the girl working there spoke no english
whatsoever so it was a bit of a challenge. |
|
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| they had all sorts of goodies
here. |
|
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| which can do amazing things
for one's blood sugar level. |
|
 |
| so i decided to go ahead and
try some. |
|
 |
| distinctly french buildings including
the église du taur, the golden church built back in the 6th century.
on it, one can find small fragments of glass over a base of goldleaf. |
|
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| with most of the french safely at work,
i calmly took another shot of this. this bar is located near a bridge
that crosses the garonne river. |
|
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| some buildings near the river. |
|
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| gusting wind and rain have no
effect on me. here's a shot of the garonne river on one side. |
|
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| and the other. |
|
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| wandering down yet another street
while searching for my hotel. my maps have failed me. |
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