Toulouse to Home

 Wow what a thunder storm last night, so glad we weren't travelling then. Our flight home is at 11:30 so lots of time to get out and moving this morning. We have decided to do public transit, there is a direct bus you can take, but crazy prices, and one more adventure is always fun. A new metro line is being worked on so there is no direct line to the airport, so tram and bus it is for us. We looked at schedules online and even though it is Sunday it looks like trams and buses are frequent. It actually turned out to be very easy, made even easier as there were not work commuters on the tram or bus, I imagine it would be a little crazy on a weekday. There were 5 or 6 people doing the same thing as us, but most of them had very large suitcases, glad that wasn't us.

We ask at the counter if we could check-in our carry-on luggage for free and they said yes. Time to kill at Toulouse airport, Andre picked up 2 bottles of rum that we will leave with the Bowlers in Montreal and hope that one is left next time we come to visit. Uneventful flight to Montreal, we had picked leaving from Toulouse as Air Canada now has a direct flight to Montreal, it was great not to have to go to another airport to connect in Europe somewhere. Bad thing is that we have a 7 hour layover, good thing is we get another visit with the Bowlers and they all made it!

Landed in Montreal and Jill and Robin picked us up to all meet at Craig's for a visit. Jill came through with a shortbread cookie and peanut butter cookie stash for us to bring home, and everyone tried the madeleines. We all went for a walk through Westmount area, the brick reminded us of Toulouse! A visit to the conservatory, saw lots of people out playing pickleball in the park. Finished off with us all going to Moe's for supper, another fun time all being together. These long layovers suck, but when we get this great visit in it is so worth it!

Flight home uneventful again, lots of legroom, I didn't remember getting exit aisle seats, but we did and tons of room. Car is at the airport waiting for us thanks to Marc and Mary-Sue, plus arrived home to a start of groceries, what a nice treat. Now we just need to wait until it warms up a bit and we see some sunshine to get some golf in, in the mean time lots of time to plan next trips!

Total km walked for Nice 347

Total km walked for Avignon 308

Total km walked for Lyon 80

Total km walked for Bordeaux 81

Total km walked for Toulouse 80

Total km walked for France 896

On our 1/2 km walk to the Palais de Justice tram stop.

Love seeing these old building still in good shape

The stop has info on how to get to the airport with the connecting bus

A Sunday market but no time to visit. Looked like mostly clothes and stuff for the home but not sure

We missed the first tram as it said Odyssud, we were looking for the MEETT. Could have taken the first one since it was going past the bus stop for the airport anyway. Oh well lots of time anyway

May 1st is a big holiday, would not want to have to travel

Leaving Toulouse

Airbus is a big employer here.  Craig a transfer here?

Love the AirBus Beluga plane

Countryside shortly after takeoff before we went over the clouds

A long layover in Montreal gave us to see Jill, Robin and the boys. I guess I should not call them boys anymore as the are all bigger than me now.

A short walk around Montreal and stopped in a small greenhouse

The end of a great vacation.

Toulouse Last Day

 Our last full day in Toulouse. On our list today are a few places we haven't visited yet. It is crazy windy out, when the wind blows here it really blows, and it is also cold.

Started of by visiting 2 markets. The one just around the corner from our place, The Carmes Market. Then we walked over to the Victor Hugo market which is more in the center of town.  Andre put the market pictures on a separate blog.

One thing on our list is to visit Toulouse Cathedral, or Saint Etienne Cathedral also known as St Stephen's Cathedral. Depends of you are searching in French or in English for it.  What is a day in Europe without at least one church visit! It is from the 3^rd century and gone through lots of transformations since then.

Next was Andre wanted to see the boats at the canal, we had walked along the canal earlier in the week but there were no boats, today we are off to see boats. Well, that lasted about 1 minute, it was so extremely windy it was nearly scary walking along the canals. Saw a couple of people on bikes, that was borderline dangerous. 

 The parks we wanted to visit were right around the corner, arrived there and all the gates were locked. There are many different entrances but all locked with a sign something about police. Oh well off we go walking some more. Ended up at tourist information square again and I went in to see if it was high alert for terrorism or why the parks were locked, turns out it was the wind. Just not safe with all the trees, yes it was that windy! On our walking tour the first day we heard about James Colomina and 3 red statues he had placed around the city and one of his statues was in a park we wanted to visit, so that didn't happen but we did get a picture from a long distance.

Tourist information told us about a shopping center we could go to the top floor for a good view of the city, something we had totally forgotten about. So we are off to the 6^th floor of the Gallery Lafayette. There is a bar/restaurant up top, we had no problem getting an outdoor seat, it was so windy, cold and a little spit of rain. We each had Pastis, anisette liquor that you add water.

Back home quickly to try to beat the rain. Stop to pick up some Madeleines cakes to bring to Quebec for a treat when we see everyone tomorrow. Make it back to the apartment just in time as the rain really starts. Luckily we have picked up gnocchi and sauce for supper at the little Italian shop around the corner for supper, would not have been nice to head out tonight.

Steps 16,600 or 10.5 km

A mixed bags of pictures from todays walks.

The place where we got pasta to cook at home

The walking street have more people on them, Saturday

One of the many small places to eat 2 or 3 blocks from our place. All types of cuisines

Fancy entrance

Now a museum, used to be someone's house

Did not see many flowers on balconies

They tempted me but I resisted

At the Place Capitole. Old photo exhibit.  This one was of the square as a parking lot.  Now it 25% restaurants plus vendors setup during the day in the rest but still lots of free space

  

A small locale market setup at Chales de Gaulle square

More architecture

We found the other 2 by the same artist

The trees lost lots of the blossoms because of the wind

St Stephen's Cathedral

On the walk to Canal du midi

We did use it

Too windy, we headed to the park instead

All the parks were closed due to high wind

The 3rd statues from a distance

Connecting bridge between parks

On the way home outside a museum

I took their pictures and sent it to them.  Maybe a wedding later?

Where we stop for gourmet pastries

The cups are so small, Wendy made 2 cups of tea at once to have with her pastries

Out for one last vacation walk before supper

Part of the building courtyard

Old wooden staircase that we had to use

The cafe du Matin at the end of our street is busy all day

A lot of other places as well

Always fun, beer must be cheap

Information told us about the bar on the 6th floor at The Gallery Lafayette

The top of the Dungeon Tower that was never a Dungeon

Having Pastis.  Anisette liquor that you add water

The Dungeon Tower

Stopped to get Madeline's to take to Quebec tomorrow

The view from our living room window

The market is on the right of the cafe du Matin that you can see