After watching the results come in the election, which was a surprise for me. I did my usual ramble around Toulouse. I had not seen the Convent de Jacobins and wanted to visit it. It is the first Dominican Priory in the world.

It is truly stunning. The original building was built in the 12th century after the Dominican order was established in Toulouse in reaction to the Cahors heresy. The current building was completed in the 13th century. It has gone through many uses and permutations since it was built. During and after the French Revolution when the church was officially disbanded, it was used as a military barracks and stable. They built a floor to make it two stories instead of the soaring one story it is. During WWI, it was used to store art from the national museums in Paris. Finally, in the 1960s and early 1970s, the value of the building was perceived and work was begun on restoring it to its original condition. It was deconsecrated as a church in 1974 and now is used for religious services.

As with most Catholic Churches of this age in Europe, it holds a reliquary. One of the Pope’s in the Middle Ages decided that because of its importance it should hold the body of St. Thomas Aquinas so a reliquary was created to hold the body. Once the church was reconsecrated, the reliquary was put under the main alter. The new reliquary was created and was more private so that the actual bones do not show as had been the case in previous reliquaries. The have the previous ones on display which have glass sides.

An art restorer was working on one of the large paintings in the church and was doing it in one of the alcoves so visitors could watch the work. I think it would be somewhat unnerving to have people watch as you were doing that type of delicate work.

The building is just spectacular and has modern fluorescent lighting between the pillars. I gather the lights change based on sound and music.

After the visit to the priory, I had a nice chocolat chaud (hot chocolate) at Mow, a fun cafe near Carmes.

In the evening, I met Kristi for dinner. We had found a nice vegetarian restaurant (Saveur Bio) – and had a lovely dinner. The conversation was fun. We discussed our various travels and where we enjoyed visiting. We discussed some of the French habits and peculiarities that we both have found. We are not critical of the French just find some things interesting and a few annoying. The most annoying is when you try to speak French and the French won’t let you.

I had what I thought was a funny experience along those lines the other day. I was walking and Medicine without Borders had people out soliciting for donations. As I did not want to interact with the person, I said I do not speak French in French to the young man. As I walked away, he yelled after me “Too bad, nobody is perfect”. I just laughed.