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21 - Toulouse 1Even the downspouts are fancy. 21 - Toulouse 2A ladybug house. Because it is Monday, our plan for today began with finding the Banque de France.  I had looked up the location, to see if there were any branches, but it turns out it's like the treasury department for the country.  We arrived at a large, formidable looking building, which looked like a government facility.  We had to press a buzzer to ask for admittance, but first we had to get out our passports and scan them into a reader.  Finally we were granted admittance.

The interior of the building was huge.  There were about three tellers working, and a line of chairs for sitting.  We worked it out among us with those already sitting about who would go first, next, and last.  There was no line to get into.  

Finally, it was my turn, and I discovered when I asked to change my money into smaller bills, that I needed to go to the cashier's window across the room, which was not manned.  After sitting in its lone seat for about 10 minutes, I finally found a buzzer to press, and a man came out.  He asked again for my passport, and he scanned it, looked up the numbers on the computer, and checked each and every stamp I have entered into it.  I don't know if he was looking to see if I was involved in any sort of international counterfeiting scheme.  I did not ask.  Finally, he broke all my 50's into 20's and 10's.  I told him I was very happy, and got out of there as fast as I could.  I could only imagine that if we had a similar law in the U.S. about changing money, one would have to go to the treasury building in Washington to get smaller bills, like I did today.

21 - Toulouse 3A waterfall at the gardens. 21 - Toulouse 4Chickens and ducks and pigeons at the gardens. Our plan for the rest of the day was to visit the botanical gardens and the natural history museum.  The gardens were open, but the museum was not.  As far as botanical gardens go, they were just open green spaces with some labeled trees, some ponds with ducks, and lots of benches for sitting and enjoying the afternoon.  We had been expecting the kinds of botanical gardens we see in the U.S., so we were quite disappointed.

We walked back to the capitol square to find lunch -- by this time it was 3:00.  Along the way there was a store selling boiled wool slippers that were featured in the front windows.  I stopped in and bought a pair, since I need to replace my slippers at home.  We also found a four story department store where we admired the kitchen wares, the linens, the paper products, and the light fixtures.

21 - Toulouse 5Little resin bulldog at the department store. 21 - Toulouse 7My new slippers We ate lunch at the square and then bought more pastries to enjoy for a late evening snack.  Tomorrow our friend Terry arrives, and we'll be glad to show her the sights, then set off for week two of our trip.  I think we're about citied out.