Toulouse, Toulouse
I went to Toulouse in the end of January with a couple other EAP students. The first night we stayed in an apartment, and for the next two nights we stayed at Hotel des Ambassadors. A relatively cheap hotel for great accommodations. I would definitely recommend the place to anyone who plans on going to Toulouse. The person who worked behind the desk was very nice and friendly. He actually gave us a map and circled every place that we should go to (and highlighted bus routes to get to said place), gave great food recommendations, and even blacked out areas to NOT go to at night.
This is me in front of the Gare Saint Jean, the main train station of Bordeaux. Yeah, I have my glasses on (for once).
R. and I in front of a giant rooster sculpture.
Landscape shots of Toulouse. I'm not sure if you can tell, but Toulouse is actually more "French" than Bordeaux in terms of architecture. The buildings use a lot of red brick (so sometimes I think it's called the Red City?). Bordeaux was actually under English rule for a bit, so much of its architecture and the styling of the city has a British-French mixed feel to it. To be quite honest, although I liked how Toulouse did feel a bit more "French-y", the buildings at Bordeaux are much nicer looking (and cleaner feeling). <3 This is really a long way of saying that while I had fun at Toulouse, I most definitely prefer Bordeaux.
A group shot of us in front of our hotel. :)
We went to the Musée des Beaux Arts at Toulouse (much better than the one at Bordeaux, haha). There was a Greco-Roman section that was pretty interesting. There were also a lot of paintings hung Salon style, that ranged from Baroque to Neoclassicism. The Musée was actually formed from a convent, so there's a small church inside of the museum.
A hallway of the museum.
A fountain!
The architecture inside the museum was so beautiful. Here's just a shot of the staircase on one of the levels of the museum.
A small exhibit on Roman columns. Me and R. being silly.
A tablet. I love the typography on this! I don't know what language this is, it doesn't look French.
Self explanatory.
Do we copy the pose correctly??
An example of the inside of the museum (with the Salon style paintings!)
This is the Capitole du Toulouse, in the main square of the city. Right across from this building is a cafe shop that was recommended by the hotel desk manager. :)
There, I got a café viennois, which looked like this:
Yeah, it tasted as good as it looked.
Group picture at the café.
On the ceiling of the awning in front of the café were these amazing modern art pieces.
Nighttime shot of the Capitole.
We actually went inside the Capitole (though you're only allowed into a part of it).
A staircase inside. :)
One of the hallways.
Out in the plaza was a fire dancer.
In Toulouse we also went to Les Abattoirs, the modern art museum that was recommended by one of my French art student friends and my art professor. They were doing a special exhibition on Vladimir Velickovic. His stuff is pretty disturbing, but I absolutely loved it. He paint strokes have so much movement in them. It's great how he can capture so much with so little lines. Everything just flows and looks fluid when he paints.
Here are a couple of my favorite pieces by him.
These are all the "tame" pictures that he's done.
One of my favorites, it's very Francis Bacon-y, which is weird because I hate Francis Bacon.
My favorite piece, it gave me the chills.
This is actually a huge Picasso, La dépouille de Minotaure en costume d'Arlequin.
Landscape shots of Toulouse:
Too bad it's so dark, but another group shot.
The photography gallery that we went into.
The French really like their carousels.
In action!!
That's it for Toulouse! I actually also went to their Museum d'Histoire Naturelle (I don't know why they call it Museum instead of Musée), but I don't have any pictures of it. It's very interesting though, filled with many animal bones and dead animal specimens. There were also a couple peacocks in their garden!
These are all my small edited photos, I actually have a lot more which you can find on my facebook here
This entry was originally posted at http://yuji.dreamwidth.org/114426.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
This is me in front of the Gare Saint Jean, the main train station of Bordeaux. Yeah, I have my glasses on (for once).
R. and I in front of a giant rooster sculpture.
Landscape shots of Toulouse. I'm not sure if you can tell, but Toulouse is actually more "French" than Bordeaux in terms of architecture. The buildings use a lot of red brick (so sometimes I think it's called the Red City?). Bordeaux was actually under English rule for a bit, so much of its architecture and the styling of the city has a British-French mixed feel to it. To be quite honest, although I liked how Toulouse did feel a bit more "French-y", the buildings at Bordeaux are much nicer looking (and cleaner feeling). <3 This is really a long way of saying that while I had fun at Toulouse, I most definitely prefer Bordeaux.
A group shot of us in front of our hotel. :)
We went to the Musée des Beaux Arts at Toulouse (much better than the one at Bordeaux, haha). There was a Greco-Roman section that was pretty interesting. There were also a lot of paintings hung Salon style, that ranged from Baroque to Neoclassicism. The Musée was actually formed from a convent, so there's a small church inside of the museum.
A hallway of the museum.
A fountain!
The architecture inside the museum was so beautiful. Here's just a shot of the staircase on one of the levels of the museum.
A small exhibit on Roman columns. Me and R. being silly.
A tablet. I love the typography on this! I don't know what language this is, it doesn't look French.
Self explanatory.
Do we copy the pose correctly??
An example of the inside of the museum (with the Salon style paintings!)
This is the Capitole du Toulouse, in the main square of the city. Right across from this building is a cafe shop that was recommended by the hotel desk manager. :)
There, I got a café viennois, which looked like this:
Yeah, it tasted as good as it looked.
Group picture at the café.
On the ceiling of the awning in front of the café were these amazing modern art pieces.
Nighttime shot of the Capitole.
We actually went inside the Capitole (though you're only allowed into a part of it).
A staircase inside. :)
One of the hallways.
Out in the plaza was a fire dancer.
In Toulouse we also went to Les Abattoirs, the modern art museum that was recommended by one of my French art student friends and my art professor. They were doing a special exhibition on Vladimir Velickovic. His stuff is pretty disturbing, but I absolutely loved it. He paint strokes have so much movement in them. It's great how he can capture so much with so little lines. Everything just flows and looks fluid when he paints.
Here are a couple of my favorite pieces by him.
These are all the "tame" pictures that he's done.
One of my favorites, it's very Francis Bacon-y, which is weird because I hate Francis Bacon.
My favorite piece, it gave me the chills.
This is actually a huge Picasso, La dépouille de Minotaure en costume d'Arlequin.
Landscape shots of Toulouse:
Too bad it's so dark, but another group shot.
The photography gallery that we went into.
The French really like their carousels.
In action!!
That's it for Toulouse! I actually also went to their Museum d'Histoire Naturelle (I don't know why they call it Museum instead of Musée), but I don't have any pictures of it. It's very interesting though, filled with many animal bones and dead animal specimens. There were also a couple peacocks in their garden!
These are all my small edited photos, I actually have a lot more which you can find on my facebook here
This entry was originally posted at http://yuji.dreamwidth.org/114426.html. Please comment there using OpenID.