Journées du Patrimoine

Things have been rather hectic with work and my personal life, but I did make sure to go out and visit things for the Journées du Patrimoine in September.

Archives Departemental

The archives hold things from the Knights of Malta all the way to the local government's recent documents, but the visit of mostly of the old documents of course. Since the historical reach of Toulouse is larger than the current Midi-Pyrénées, they have some documents relating to Bordeaux or even Montpellier from the time when the courts in Toulouse had a jurisdiction from the Atlantic to the Rhone.

This was a register with I believe court decisions in it. The colorful laminated sheet next to it was the inside of the dust cover and it was only discovered when someone requested the book and checked the inside cover. Almost all of the archives they have at there can be requested by the general public; only a few items are considered too delicate to be regularly manipulated.

Boxes and boxes of archives.... I think there might be books in these and the boxes serve to keep the light out. Why would there be lots of ambient light in an archive building you say? Because in 1958 (or about that year) the architect who designed the building wanted it to look funky and very 1958, so he put in lots of windows that are poorly insulated, as a result the archives building is not at all adapted. There is a project to build a new building in a suburb of Toulouse and an architecture firm one the competition to design the center, but the building costs are too high and while they try to figure out how to reduce the costs, 2014 approaches and a large reform in how municipalities and local and regional governments will be funded and fund common projects. The archivists giving the tour weren't convinced the nice new building would ever see the day...

A lot of these kinds of documents are called "dead" because they don't have anyway to know what information is really included in them and where that information would be anyway. The archives will keep the documents forever, but they aren't considered active like a lot of the other documents which can be indexed and consulted.

The bags of "piéces à conviction". Okay, I'll admit it. I thought it was just a show on France 3. I didn't realize that "piéces à conviction" means evidence or proof, and each bag here holds the various pieces of evidence for a trial. Witness testimony is transcribed on pieces of paper. Incriminating letters or documents would have been included. Even weapons and a dried ear have been found in them! These archives are the dead of the dead, especially since it's rather delicate to retrieve a bag from the bottom of a pile. There is currently a program where Masters students work over the summer to go through some bags indexing what they find and sorting the papers. At the rate they're going, it'll be 50-100 years before the finish all the bags (there were several rows of shelves full like this), but it seems neat that at least some things are being indexed.

Close-up of the label on a bag

Close-up of the writing on one of the sheets.
The archivist did explain that in some respects, it's okay that the bags are just stacked pell-mell because the verdict of every trial is already transcribed nice and neatly in the court registers and those records are known and indexed. Just no dried ears in them.

Centre Hospitalier Gérard Marchant; first time open to the public for the Journées du Patrimoine

The first year I was living in Toulouse I was curious about the various names for streets, metro stops, and neighborhoods. One of the metro stations I looked up was Esquirol, who was a doctor in the 18th century who worked with "alienés", or mental health and disabled patients. This was the period of chaining up crazy people next to the depressed person next to the Downs syndrome person, so clearly not the best environment. Dr Esquirol had the revolutionary idea to treat these patients basically by housing them in a dorm and having them work on a farm. Instead of being chained up inside, they were outside working in gardens and with animals and being active.

When Toulouse wanted to build a hospital according to Dr Esquirol's principals, they bought a bunch of land way outside the down town area (because you can't be too sure) that's now been practically swallowed by the city. In Toulousain tradition, the buildings were made of brick, and they are actually quite nice.

Main entrance with the archway leading in the "Cour d'Honneur". The design was inspired by classical buildings and is very campus like.

Inside the archway, with the chapel on the opposite side of the large courtyard.

One side of the courtyard. This was renovated after the AZF explosion in September 2001 and the administrative staff have only recently returned to this building.

Tomb of Gérard Marchant, who was the first director of the hospital. Funny story about how he died. In 1881 a former military officer was a patient at the hospital. In those days officers were allowed to keep their personal weapon. He decided to use it against the hospital personnel... Dr Marchant had in his will that he wanted to be buried on the hospital grounds, although the current location of the tomb only dates from the renovations post AZF.

Neat wrought iron stair case. The iron was worked by patients in one of the workshops where they worked. For a while the hospital was practically self-sufficient, with crops, animals, various workshops, kitchens, laundries, etc.

Outside of the chapel

Inside of the chapel. It was heavily damaged in the AZF explosion and since it's not an essential building like the administrative offices it hasn't been on the priority list for repairs. It's actually closed to patients and personnel and was opened just for the Journées du Patrimoine.

One of the few stained glass windows which wasn't broken.

These pictures show the former dormitory areas. Covered walkways connected the men and women's wings. On the ground floor they had work and activity areas and the bedrooms were on the second floor. These buildings were heavily damaged in the AZF explosion and need to be renovated before they can be used again. I don't think they were really in use before the explosion because they aren't up to code for modern rules about safety for mental health patients.

This was one of the workshop locations. The patients made signs, tiles, wrought iron and all kinds of other things.

The hospital still functions, but obviously not with many of these old buildings. Most of the current treatments are done in modern buildings that have been built on what was the hospital farm.

At the end of the visit I read some signs they had made tracing the history of mental health treatment in France and the specific treatments at the hospital. The director from about 1910 to 1940 volunteered for the first World War and was sent as a medic to the Alps. When World War II arrived, he was nearing his 70's but participated in the resistance. He was deported by the Germans and died in a camp when he was 73 or 74. Not the story you expect for a hospital director.