First, I am continually reminded how few green spaces there are in the old Mediterranean cities other than trees which somehow manage to extract water that slips through paving stones. Young children simply must be accompanied by an adult in major cities, which was certainly not the life I knew growing up in a small town in Ohio. When I was their age, we thought nothing of my walking by myself through a large treed cemetery when going to school.
Carriage entries are still useful and often elegant passageways to inner courtyards. Of course graffiti crops up everywhere.
Brick was important to the Romans and continues to be used throughout Toulouse.
Too many young people still take up smoking in France. Fortunately, smoking is now absolutely banned inside all French restaurants and pubs.
Some of the ancient passageways seem even too narrow for a medieval horse-drawn cart, but they do provide shortcuts through some of the city's oldest sections.
Artists abound throughout France, though I had to wonder how this shop makes a living.
