Toulouse - St. Etienne, Jardins, Pont Neuf

June 3 - SUNNY! and Pleasant most of the day, with a little Rain in the late afternoon :-)

We got back very late last night from dinner - testing the waters of the "French dinner hour" meant we went out *looking* for dinner at 9pm, and got back to the hotel at 11pm.  I couldn't sleep for hours afterwards...

This morning, we took it easy, then headed roughly in the direction of the church Saint Etienne.  We meandered through the Place Occitane, which had planters full of different herbs, then we found our way to the St Etienne church.

We kept going, and found this Place

All along the way, we passed through narrow streets and by houses tucked behind high fences and private courtyards

Some of them fronted the Jardin Royale

which had a dedication to the Aerienne space program

One garden led to another, and my batteries died (eyeroll and huff).  We had an *excellent* lunch in the plant garden, surrounded by sculptures and "paintings" done with different types of plants.
After lunch, we found a Tabac and bought some batteries :-) then found another church - Notre Dame de la Dalbade - that was quite different from St. Etienne

(well ok, so not completely different)

From there, we zig-zagged through the narrow streets and found the river Garonne.  Just then, we saw a water-skier setting off (what envy!)

We were actually surprised to find that we had come out right at the Pont Neuf!  Somehow, I thought we were a bit further south and would have to walk a lot to get there.  So, we had a happy accident :-)

We crossed over - it's a bridge! you have to cross! - then we saw a sign for chocolate.  Hmmm - sounds like a good place to take a break...  But it was closed.  By this time, we were getting a little tired, so we decided to skip some of the sites in the area, and head back towards the hotel.  We walked along the edge of "old town"

And took a little rest at the Place du Capitole

Then back through Wilson Place to the hotel.

You can follow our route for "Day 3" on Google map (notice the roads named for intellectuals like Hugo and Fermat):  Julie and Rick in France 2011