http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/France/Midi-Pyr-n-es/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Europe , France , Midi Pyr n es en-us Sun, 12 Oct 2008 19:15:40 BST Sun, 12 Oct 2008 19:15:40 BST Another incident packed weekend. Saturday Fte de la Figue. We went all the way to Mas drsquoAzil for this partly because itrsquos a very pretty journey further west into the Pyrenees and partly because I reckoned that a fig festival might give me some ideas about dealing with the wretched things. Itrsquos hard to admit this to an English audience paying 40p a throw in Sainsburyrsquo http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/France/Midi-Pyr-n-es/Ariege/blog-331181.html Things you wouldnrsquot read about in the Harrogate AdvertiserFront page news in todayrsquos La Dpche du Midi lsquoBeehives attacked by bearsrsquo lsquoVultures attack young lambsrsquoThings we now know that we rather wish we didnrsquotAll those sheep and cattle returning down the mountains in the annual transhumance are now actually transported by lorry and only walk the las http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/France/Midi-Pyr-n-es/Ariege/blog-330175.html What with harvesting at the potager and scavenging for wild produce on country tracks we've hardly shopped at all......... http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/France/Midi-Pyr-n-es/Laroque-d--Olmes/blog-328288.html Well we had such fun in England catching up with friends and family even though there seemed to be far too many friends we never got round to seeing at all I was very iffy indeed about coming back here at all. But return we did. We had the two cars both stuffed to beyond capacity with books kitchen bits and bobs bookcases plant pots paint porridge oats and golden syrup for making fla http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/France/Midi-Pyr-n-es/Laroque-d--Olmes/blog-326062.html Et voil. Pour finir on a d faire un bout de chemin en stop depuis la frontire italienne jusqu' Toulouse.objectif financier dpass. Sans compter le prix du billet on a tourn 13eur par jour chacun. en comptant quelques souvenirsLe stop ... tendre le pouce pendant une heure c'est vraiment gonflant. Marcher 1h12 pour atteindre une entre d'autoroute a arrive. Mais ensuite on est pr http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/France/Midi-Pyr-n-es/Toulouse/blog-324909.html Notre vie est un voyageDans l'hiver et dans la nuitNous cherchons notre passageDans le ciel o rien ne luit. chanson des gardes suisses 1793 Nous commenons par 13 heures de train pour arriver Leiden mais en fait cela passe assez vite. Nous somme rcuprs par Joren la gare et la premire chose que nous voyons en en sortant c'est ce gigantesque garage vlo Puis nous n'avons pas mang http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/France/Midi-Pyr-n-es/Toulouse/blog-322665.html voir la carte pour un aperu de notre voyage Nous souhaitons faire un voyage et pas du tourisme et nous esprons des expriences varies. Ce sera donc super d'tre logs par du monde diffrent que nous connaissons dja ou pas. Joren Jan et Anna Heike puis couchsurfing divers contacts de Paulin etc mais ... qu'estce que le CouchSurfing Et si donc au final il y a quelque http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/France/Midi-Pyr-n-es/Toulouse/blog-322366.html Prague t 2007. Voyage 3 nous 2 avec papa. Paulin et moi devions certainement tre en train de parler voyages d'envies ou de projets pour l't prochain. Et c'est pas possible nous sommes assoiffs car nous sortions dj d'un t bien rempli en mouvement. Nous avec quelques jours Paris et 10 jours en Rpublique Tchque Paulin avec ses 2 semaines en Angleterre et moi avec outre mon p http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/France/Midi-Pyr-n-es/Toulouse/blog-322346.html I am sure you will all be happy because it is now raining and has been pretty much for the last 24 hours on and off. It was torrential during the night and we had to keep getting up to make sure that we didnt have a rerun of last time when the awning collapsed It is very beautiful though and yesterday when the sun was out it was stunning scenery and we went horseriding. We had a great laugh as B http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/France/Midi-Pyr-n-es/Lourdes/blog-315088.html Some photos of the glise des Jacobins and its adjoining cloisters. http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/France/Midi-Pyr-n-es/Toulouse/blog-313181.html As we had to be out of the hotel by 11am but weren't flying out until 8 o'clock in the evening we decided to make the most of our last day. We managed to fit in a boat trip down the Garonne river and the Canal de Brienne a visit to the Couvent des Jacobins and finished up with a final look around Toulouse and some relaxation in the square by the tourist information office before making our way http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/France/Midi-Pyr-n-es/Toulouse/blog-313170.html Some photos. http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/France/Midi-Pyr-n-es/Toulouse/blog-313154.html Today we went for another stroll down the tiny shopping side streets in Toulouse and as has been the case throughout stumbled upon something interesting in this case the glise NotreDame du Taur de Toulouse reputedly built on the site of the martyring of St Sernin. But before that while Steph looked in a clothes shop I was standing out in the sun opposite a Casino shop which is the equival http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/France/Midi-Pyr-n-es/Toulouse/blog-313150.html The glise NotreDame de la Daurade is a grand building erected on the site of a pagan temple. While a beautiful place in general most interesting of all was seeing our first Black Madonna. The Black Madonna cult is particularly strong in the South of France and is often connected with sites related to the Knights Templar. Exactly where the Black Madonnas originally came from is shrouded in mys http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/France/Midi-Pyr-n-es/Toulouse/blog-313122.html Back in Toulouse today for more relaxed looking around taking in the sights and popping into shops and finishing up with a visit to the glise NotreDame de la Daurade which is a feast of grand architecture and Catholic kitsch. http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/France/Midi-Pyr-n-es/Toulouse/blog-313112.html Today we walked down a beautiful tree lined road past the war memorial and on to the Jardin des Plantes a 7 hectare botanical garden home to 1300 species and a large collection of statues in the ancient Greek style. Given to the people of Toulouse by Napoleon on July 27 1808 the Jardin des Plantes is immaculately kept and has numerous art works a river filled with ducks large fish and a tu http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/France/Midi-Pyr-n-es/Toulouse/blog-313098.html Some photos from our visit. A good unofficial website can be found here. http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/France/Midi-Pyr-n-es/Toulouse/blog-313092.html Some pictures from our visit. The official cathedral website can be found here. http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/France/Midi-Pyr-n-es/Toulouse/blog-313086.html For our first full day in France we decided to look around Toulouse and immediately stumbled upon a grand memorial to the fallen of the First World War. Moving on we visited both the Cathdrale Sainttienne de Toulouse and the Basilique StSernin the first of a number of churches we were to look around throughout the week. I'm a huge fan of Catholic art and wasn't disappointed.Walking around http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/France/Midi-Pyr-n-es/Toulouse/blog-312900.html We flew in from Gatwick arriving at ToulouseBlagnac Airport in the early evening. A bus ride and a fairly short walk later and we were at our hotel for the week the Appart' Valley La Halle aux Grains situated within quick walking distance of the city centre 5 minutes from the Cathdrale Sainttienne de Toulouse and right opposite a newsagent and a baker. From our 9th floor balcony we had a http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/France/Midi-Pyr-n-es/Toulouse/blog-312893.html While exploring Toulouse and Carcassonne I found that both the farleft and farright of the French political spectrum enthusiastically engage in the spreading of sticker propaganda.If you wish to find out more about the groups in question here are some links inclusion does not imply advocacyPartit OccitanLes Jeunesses IdentitairesForce OuvrireConfdration Nationale du TravailParti Communist http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/France/Midi-Pyr-n-es/blog-312858.html httpmadammayo.blogspot.com200807guestbloggerlpeatoneil5linkson.htmlhttpwww.powerwalk.ning.com http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/France/Midi-Pyr-n-es/blog-310944.html day 3 and 4 of petite pilgrimageso after the abba evening i was pretty tired and didnt get out on the town until about 10am the next day.and you know the problem with having a town centered around a religious site is that theres not much else to see or do. except go up one of the pyrenee mountains in a gondola.holy crap it was insane. i have some cute pics of the town. what made it worse though http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/France/Midi-Pyr-n-es/Lourdes/blog-309337.html ok this may be the longest possible blog entry in history so im going to break it into two seperate entriesall regaling my impromptu pilgrimage to the third most religious site thats visited on earth...Lourdes Franceday 1and2so i decide on thursday night around midnight that i would like to take a vacation cause i have a week off school. but wherever shall i go everyone was going to paris but i http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/France/Midi-Pyr-n-es/Lourdes/blog-308377.html I'm just bragging really. This blog is more a souvenir for me as I harvest my first year's crops. Eating them is even better. http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/France/Midi-Pyr-n-es/Laroque-d--Olmes/blog-307948.html Wersquove just spent the evening with the hunting association of Dun a village near here. No hunting pink in sight. French hunters have an informal motto lsquoIf it moves you could eat itrsquo and we werenrsquot very sure about being associated with them. But it wasnrsquot quite like that. This group demonstrated real interest in and knowledge of the ecology of the area and one http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/France/Midi-Pyr-n-es/Ariege/blog-306769.html Sundayrsquos often our walking day with the Rando delrsquoAubo. Not this week not for Malcolm hersquos still nursing a poorly back. But I went the excuse was that if it was a good walk I could learn all about it to do it again later with him.It took a long time to get there. Itrsquos well on the way to Andorra and up a long mountain road usually single track that hurtles back http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/France/Midi-Pyr-n-es/Ariege/blog-305674.html Voici une partie du texte que je suis en train d'crire... en fait que j'tais en train d'crire avant de partir l'autre bout de la France Je vous conte tout a ds que j'ai un accs plus long internet car ici je ne l'ai que pour quelques minutes Dsol de ne pas pouvoir vous donner des nouvelles plus souvent mais j'arrange tout a samedi Je suis actuellement Fontenay le Comte prs de http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/France/Midi-Pyr-n-es/Toulouse/blog-305474.html Mutterings have been heard that your correspondent and husband do nothing but involve themselves in worthy pursuits such as taking healthgiving walks festival reconnoitring and doityourself projects.We wish to refute this with evidence that this week at least we have done absolutely nothing but enjoy ourselves. This is partly because of the scorching weather wersquove been having and pa http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/France/Midi-Pyr-n-es/Laroque-d--Olmes/blog-303821.html Wow enfin nous sommes sortis de notre univers de poussire et de sueur En effet suite un tumultueux priple sur le second terrain de notre richissime employeur moi et mon comparse nous sommes enfin dcids nous devions sortir tenter lrsquoaventure nous jeter dans les bras de la nature. Ainsi crsquoest mis germer et fleurir dans lrsquoespace drsquoun aprsmidi lrsquoide http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/France/Midi-Pyr-n-es/Toulouse/blog-303162.html