Oh, Toulouse!

Out with the old....

In with the new....

Toulouse.  "La Ville Rose," legendary rugby town, birthplace of Claude Nougaro and Carlos Gardel (maybe).  Zebda, Bigflo & Oli, The Fabulous Trobadors....

Toulouse.  Known for its vibrant hip-hop and graffiti scenes.  I just grokked a (Space) Invader piece earlier today, glued to the wall of the Café des Artistes, hehe.  Ate lunch at my son's flat, haha -- we called my 1st apartment the "flat sun" -- on a narrow street (rue Gramat) with facades covered from cobblestones to eaves with big works of graffiti.  Local rap collective La Dalle (The Hunger) filmed their video for their song Insatiable at the lad's "trap."  

"Get the hip-hop vinyls, Scarface and Halloween posters in the background...." 

"I got Scarface on RE-peat!"  Hey maig'n, I cain't hep it if'n I'm frum Tampa...."

If you look close enough you'll see one of those Dalle blighters wearing my HS class ring

Toulouse.  On the rue Gramat, elderly couples walk by with cameras, digging what's fresh.  Classes of lycéens sit and take notes as teachers explain the "graf."  The dealers sit perched at either end to sell off-the-truck smokes or "shit"--and it is shit--what they call hash here in France....all of it seems to work.

Untranslated articles, but the quantity alone indicates the little street's fame:

Rue Gramat (Wikipedia.fr)

La rue Gramat : des fresques vivantes et pleines d’histoire (Le 24 Heures) (Lively Frescos full of History)

Pourquoi la rue Gramat est-elle recouverte de graffs ? (Le Journal Toulousain) (Why is the rue Gramat covered in graffiti?)

Toulouse. Graff : la rue Gramat prend les couleurs de la paix (La Depêche) (Rue Gramat takes on the colors of Peace)

Toulouse.  A student town:  tolerant, diverse, bustling, working-class.  My home for 20+ years (most importantly, natch.  Croix-Daurade (The Gilded Cross), La Daurade (Eldorado), Côte Pavé (The Paved Slope....?)....Tolerant of gypsies, Cathars, soothtsayers, Jews, the homeless and the itinerant back in the Middle Ages, and still pretty tolerant today.  Early memory:  Hanging out in a speakeasy in the basement of a "hairdresser's."  We're watching the owner negotiate for a rack of off-the-truck shirts.  Me, 5 Ghanaian dudes, and a transvestite prostitute, .  A comely lass; 'tis a pity she was a whore, but she was cool.  No Bowiesque punch-ups...."like a dude...."

So, according to Kaye's 5 rules of vexillology, which Toulouse flag is better, the old (top) or the new (bottom)?  There actually is a right answer.

In your opinion, which one is better?

I'll say this:  remove the out-of-place kow-tow -- the obsequious curtsey -- to the fleur-de-lis weighing down the old city flag and you'd already improve it by a factor of appx. 92.2733 %.  Unless the market is depressed that year.