Jeremy and Talia had been eagerly looking forward to this moment ever since we put it on our travel calendar: a family reunion in France with Eden's parents and Eden's sister's family. "How many days until we see our cousin Griffie?" was the kids' common refrain, which grew louder and more frequent as the long-awaited get-together approached.
The party started in Toulouse. We arrived late at night, after a long day of travel across the vast landscapes of central France. Luckily, it was one of our few European destinations where we had a hotel reservation.
Toulouse is France's fourth largest city, but its compact historic quarter - filled with attractive red brick buildings - is ideal for exploring on foot. According to the good folks at Wikipedia, the city was first settled in the 8th century BCE, owing to its favorable location on an easy-to-cross bend of the Garonne River. The city was a focal point for trade between the Pyrenees to the south, the Mediterranean to the east, and the Atlantic to the west. Named "Tolosa," it was one of the most important and wealthiest cities in pre-Roman Gaul. There were many gold and silver mines nearby, and the offerings to the city's shrines and temples resulted in a tremendous accumulation of wealth. In Roman times, Tolosa went from relative independence to full "Romanization" and eventually became one of the major cities of the Roman Empire. After the fall of Rome, the city's history took many twists and turns. It retained its importance under the Visigoths; then fell into decline and anarchy under Frankish rule; then became a critical military stronghold under Charlemagne in the battle against the Muslims in Spain; then grew and prospered as a center of trade, culture and political administration; then was decimated by war, plague, famine, fire and floods. Ah, the vicissitudes of life in the Middle Ages!
Much of the city's current layout was designed over the course of the 18th and 19th centuries, resulting in a stately, orderly urban center, but still littered with remnants from Romanesque, Gothic, and Renaissance times. Today the city is more than just a compelling destination for history seekers and those who enjoy eating various duck parts. It's the dynamic headquarters of Europe's aeronautics industry, home to Airbus and Europe's largest space center.
We walked around and saw the sights of the city, but for the kids (Jeremy, Talia, and Griffin) the real pleasure was just hanging out with each other. We did drag our kids into one museum, the Fondation Bemberg, which houses an impressive and wide-ranging collection of paintings in a restored 16th century palace. We also visited St. Sernin, reportedly the largest Romanesque church in all of Europe. And I snuck off alone to see the Musée d'Augustins, which displays an extensive collection of medieval art in a restored 14th century convent.
Our stay in Toulouse was pretty short, as the main attraction was yet to come - a week in a house in the countryside of the Dordogne.
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