Toulouse

I got into Toulouse (no that's not as in 'my pants are Toulouse' (not yet anyway)), but in southern France. I was here early enough to take a walk after that long train ride, and check out a couple of the churches I had on my list. On the way I found a small parish church that was advertising a Mass in English this morning at 10. So I went there for Mass and even concelebrated. The priest was a student at the Catholic University here from India, plus there was a priest from Taiwan who also concelebrated. Unfortunately, there were only a couple of handfuls of people there.
Then I had 5 churches to visit. Three were on the mappinggothic.org website, and two were listed on a Camino app as sacred places. So I first headed toward the cathedral which is dedicated to St Etienne.
While the choir and apse are certainly Gothic, the rest is a mishmash of various styles and constructions. It looks like there was an old Romanesque church there which they decided to replace, but left it there to use while they started work on the apse and choir. Getting to that point where they would have to raze the old section to continue construction, they stopped work for some reason and just joined the two buildings together. They don't even line up.
There's a beautiful tall arcade, nicely decorated triforium, and not as tall clerestory windows. There is also this huge Renaissance altar piece, which is impressive, but out of place to my taste. Mass there was almost full, so that was great to see, and there were a couple of baptisms afterwards, which the priest sang, with the great organ accompanying, for a really nice ceremony! So I was impressed with that.
The second church was closed, and was obviously not gothic, but had a unique entryway with the coronation of Mary in colorful ceramics.
The third church was famous for a Black Madonna they have, but personally I didn't care for the way she was dressed - way too stiff.
The fourth church was called the Jacobean Convent church. Jacob usually has something to do with St James and the Camino, but I couldn't find any connection though it is old enough. It is an old monastery church, and still has the cloister, and some of the other buildings, refectory, meeting room etc still intact and being restored. The church is also unique, mostly Romanesque with huge walls and buttresses and small windows, but with Gothic arches and vaults, and consisting of only two aisles! In other words a row of big columns going right down the middle of the church. It also seems to hold the reliquary of St Thomas Aquinas, in the altar. But as I can't read or understand French, it's sometimes hard to get the details straight.
Finally the last church was the basilica of St Sernin. This basilica has its roots in the middle ages and has been welcoming Pilgrims on the way of St James ever since. This means those who have started somewhere in Europe, and are headed for Santiago. There were some 220 Pilgrims already this year who stopped by, and 23 since May 1st. Toulouse is still some 250 kilometers from where I'm starting from!
As a pilgrimage churches, it still holds lots of relics, in some pretty impressive reliquaries. (Pilgrims would come to venerate the relics of the Saints.)  It too has been active for more than a millenia, so has continued to evolve and change over the years as time and tastes have dictated. Much of the decoration seems to be from the 18th century.
Lots and lots of people on the streets, strolling, sitting at the sidewalk cafés, and enjoying the sunshine! Yes it was sunny today, a little windy, but I could take off my insulation layer.
So I'm back in my hotel room, getting ready to hit the sack once again