Today's adventures

I went out in the rain and wind today (the hail was before I left) to visit some new places I'd learned about.

Last week I found out about Accueil des Villes Françaises and the Centre Toulousain de Volontariat while chatting with someone about how I was having a hard time with my job search and not having local friends.

AVF (Accueil des Villes Françaises) is for people who have lived 3 years or less in their town/city and want to meet people and get to know the city better. There are AVF clubs all over France. The center in Toulouse has a whole bunch of classes: sewing, painting, bridge, book club, etc. Thursday I'm going to check out the "Groupe Jeunes" and later on this month there's a Tea Time for foreigners. I'll report back.

My second visit was to the Volunteer Center where I made an appointment to go back tomorrow afternoon and discuss what sorts of things I want to do and learn which associations need people to do those things. It's interesting how developed the volunteering world is in France, with an association that's only job is to point people to other associations. I'll report back as well as to whether or not I finally find a group that needs volunteers like me.

After that visit, I decided to stroll a bit since I was in a part of Toulouse I don't go to often. I saw a sign indicating the direction of the Catholic University, so I decided to go ask who I should send a resumé to to teach English there. The first building I went into was dedicated only to theological studies (and I saw three young men walk in with their white and black robes and rosaries attached at the waist; a bit strange to see young people so religious) so I was sent down the street to an adjacent building that is the full university. The buildings were all old on the street and I passed a number of informational plaques, including one saying it was the original Roman site of Toulouse. I wandered down and poked into the courtyards of several buildings that had their doors open. What serendipity! The neighborhood was only old buildings with beautiful inner courtyards and large windows. In the corners, there was often a rounded tower of sorts with smaller windows and gargoyles watched over it all. Dark little twisted staircases led to the other floors and I think many of the buildings had gardens behind. I even stumbled across the original Order of Malta abbey, which was the Business School (Ecole Supérieur de Commerce) for a number of years before becoming the offices of the Ministre de Culture et Communication! What a sweet job that would be to work there!

Behind the street with all the great old "hôtels particuliers", I found a cute little street that had had a kind of walkway added recently. There was a little man-made stream that flowed over white cobblestones and had little bridges, and grassy areas and benches. I think the water comes from the higher part of the canal/dike and it flows back into the Garonne. From this promenade, I could see the backs of a number of old buildings and the little garden huts that were in ruins. Many of the buildings were in "picturesque decay" (as my dad says) and a few were being renovated.

I walked home after that, reading a sign about the floods that ravaged the left bank of the Garonne for centuries until they built dikes in the late 1800's and 1950. I also learned recently that Toulouse was the site of a battle between Napoleon and Wellington. I would feel ashamed at my ignorance, except that I blame my inept high school history teachers (who limited our study of Napoleon to how he was a megalomaniac).

I'll leave you with another history-behind-the-street-name:

Etienne Billières: Mayor of Toulouse from 1925 to his death in 1935, he worked to help the "défavorisé" and created public baths, the municipal library, and a private school (he wasn't mayor when he created the school). He apparently helped Toulouse to become one of the best lit cities in France (I'm assuming the installation of street lamps).