10/29/22 Toulouse France

Basilique Saint Sernin

Greetings from beautiful Toulouse France!

As you see, we have moved to France from Italy! Long, long day on Thursday with the move. GPS told us a 9 hour drive, but an accident in one of the hundreds of tunnels we drove through caused a one hour delay. Record €90 in tolls 😳

Wonderful patio life at our VRBO in Toulouse.

Easy check in with our VRBO hosts. We’re staying on the first floor of their home. Nice, nice couple and the home is centrally located.

Ok, let’s get started in Toulouse.

Toulouse is a large city, with over 1.5 million inhabitants. It’s the base for aviation and space technology for Europe. (Airbus is headquartered here.) Toulouse is one of a few cities in France growing. It’s a major destination because of the aviation industry.

Pont Neuf bridge over River Garonne

Toulouse is again very, very old, 300 BC. The Roman’s were here early, 200 BC, and made the city a trading outpost.

Boulangerie

That’s right! Your in France! Let’s go to one of the many, many neighborhood boulangeries (bakery). The French are fantastic bakers! Ok, croissant✔️ pain au chocolat✔️ crusty Flute ✔️ Okay, time for a walking tour.

Le Metro

We’re only 1/4 mile from the Metro station so, after a quick reminder that we’re in a big city, so watch out for pickpockets and here we go!

First stop Marche Victor Hugo

Patisserie

Tour guide Cindy and I have visited a lot of markets across the world and Marche Victor Hugo is the best for fresh food.

Fresh poultry, yes that’s the head on each bird!

This is duck fat, attached to a thigh bone of duck. French love the duck fat🤔

Canal Du Midi

In the 1800’s the French built a system of canals across France. This is Canal Du Midi, very famous.

The canals are controlled by a system of locks, that are manually operated

Today, the canals are used by barges and “party boats” to cruise across France (mainly English folks)

Beautiful homes line the canal in the city

Street markets line the streets as we walk through neighborhoods. Must be Saturday in France.

Ok, Tour Guide Cindy is warming up now!

Basilica Basilique Saint Sermin, inside beautiful!

Tour guide Cindy is pounding me now, walking the neighborhoods

Le Capitole, city governments home with a fantastic square. Built in the 17th century and still in use.

Panoramic views

Convent Des Jacobins

Bricks were used in Toulouse from 1400 on as the city had several fires and city’s government decided bricks wouldn’t burn as easily 🤔

Notice the lights on the columns from the stained glass

Famous Pont Neuf bridge

Built in the 1500’s, this famous landmark serviced as the center of the city for years as washing ships used to anchor to the bridge and do Toulouses laundry here

Cassoulet, sausage and Duck

Ok, I don’t know about you but I could use a later French lunch. The local specialty is cassoulet. Basically a bean dish with tons of veggies, butter and duck fat slow cooked in a large pot and dished up per serving. Our waiter was fantastic, he spoke very little English, we spoke very little French, so somehow we ended up getting with our beer, a bottle of wine with lunch😎 mistakes can happen 😜

Ok that’s enough for today!

Back to the VRBO to plan tomorrows trip to Logrono, Spain, a six hour drive.

We had a wonderful time In Toulouse. We had no expectations when we arrived and were very pleasantly surprised at the city’s beauty. P.S. tour guide Cindy pounded out 27,000 steps today. Thank goodness for my new knee!👍

Ok, talk with you from Spain. Au Revoir 😎

One response to “10/29/22 Toulouse France”

Brigitte et Pierre-Gilles DURAND

October 31, 2022 at 7:15 am

Thank you for this beautiful presentation of our city, you could be an honorary citizen. Thank you also for all the photos sent of your trip. Good end of stay in Europe.
Brigitte and Pierre-Gilles

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Trafton’s European Tour 2022/2023