Toulouse!

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We had caught the train from Bordeaux further South to Toulouse. For 70 euro we were there in just under 3 hours, pretty good we thought, especially considering there were more than 3.5 million people nationwide protesting about the government changing the retirement age from 60 to 62 - trains were scarce! It was an early start from bordeaux, we've done earlier since but it was all worth it when you didn't end up missing a train! Hasn't happened yet, fingers crossed. We had a fantastic time in Bordeaux, we only wished we were more cashed up so we could enjoy all it had to offer food and drink wise. One thing is for sure though, you certainly don't need a lot of money to stay in a decent hotel as we found with the hotel regina.

We were to spend only one night in Toulouse before venturing on to Spain - a further 7 hour bus ride through the Pyrenees. We weren't about to take on that all in one day, so decided a night in Toulouse would suit us best. We had a lot of trouble researching ways to get from Bordeaux to Barcelona. Most websites had an English option for reading about services and costs etc but when through to a certain stage these sites would just reload back to Spanish or French - not helpful at midnight before you are to leave for Toulouse!

I had wanted to come to Toulouse since 2007, when I was traveling with some friends around Europe. I remember asking at my hotel in Paris, where Toulouse was exactly on the Parisian Metro map. Only to be told it was an 8 hour train ride from Paris. You live and learn though.

I had an interest in the place namely because it was home to one of my favourite street artists, Fafi. She is a really influential female graffiti artist that has created a series of fem-fatale type cartoon characters, each with their own personality. Fafi has inspired an entire movement among female street artists especially in places like South America. Recently her work has taken a turn for the fashion industry teaming up with Adidas to create a series of female sports wear with her characters on. She's awesome and I wanted to either see if she had a gallery or just try and find some of her work on the streets of toulouse. more on that later. This a Fafi creation for lilly Allen and Mark Ronson. The film clip is set in one of Londons better blues/jazz bars, ronnie scotts:

I have to admit arriving at Toulouse train station, I wasn't overly impressed. Immediate surroundings were industrial and gritty. It was the small french town I had thought. Giving it a chance we hit the metro two stops upon instruction at the train station. little did we know later, that we could have walked the distance. Oh well, 3 more euro for French rail. As we reached 'Capitole', the central tube stop in toulouse, I began to understand that as always in big cities their major train stations don't ever really give the best first impressions and in fact this city was quite an attractive one. It's the 3rd biggest city in France, although i think having a Metro is a bit of a stretch you could probably walk it in a few hours I suspected but hey, it's these types of luxuries that make a big city. Leaving me with all the luggage in the park, Blake ran into the tourist info centre to grab a few hotel names and prices before venturing on to the streets of Toulouse looking for our place for the night - within the right price range.

Returning a little disappointed, we were still in no luck for the night, a few hotels he had seen were pretty awful for the price they were pushing, 60 euros and up. Way over our limit. So we ventured off together in search of another. Stumbling upon one that seemed relatively good location wise and boasting 50 a night I decided to check it just to see what you were getting for your 50. We entered two big gates after buzzing in. Up 3 maybe 4 flights of stairs, each wall seeming to get dirtier. I was leading as if its not clean I don't stay. I entered the hall and with one look turned away, "we're not staying here" and with that we were out. the smell was pretty bad, usually these little hotel/motels smell of bleach, a good sign in my books, this one however did not. The carpet leading to the check in desk was filthy and vintage - not in a cool way. I was worried, if this was what Toulouse had to offer for 50 euros a night we were in trouble. Getting out of there, I decided to leave Blake with the bags this time. I figured, I may as well go and check these places out if I was so picky! Picky is an overstatement, it was CLEAN I cared about it.

I rounded a corner and there was Hotel Bourvesoir. I buzzed, 'Parlez-vous anglais?' 'Yes' a mans voice answered. English speaking was the first bonus. It's not always that important but it certainly does help - my rubbish French hinders rather than helps in most situations. I entered the small reception area and immediately thought, well at least this has a reception area - this was bonus wonton number two. Secondly it smelt good and clean and the mans demeanor was friendly a trait that can be missed at times with the French. I asked the price, '47 but you can have it for 40' special price. It was special enough for me. I looked at the room and it was gigantic with shower and toilet. A toilet related story later.

With that I took the room the ran back to report my good deeds to Blake. ten minutes later we were back with our gear freshened up and off for an afternoon in Toulouse.

I wasn't sure what there was really to do in Toulouse. Other than Fafi I didn't know a lot about the region, what sites there were to see, what they produced or were famous for. When I left it was a different story. I found out Toulouse was an important cultural city. Famous foods are the Toulouse spicy sausage and Cassoulet - neither of which we were able to try. For 17 euro each we could have but figured that was probably 3 nights accommodation in south america so didn't. Most restaurants were like this, all fairly expensive.

We stuck to supermarket food and easy to find sandwiches. Gotta love baguettes! Of course we had to sample some of the cheaper options, these just happened to be sweets from the many patisseries there were dotted around the city. We limited ourselves to two things each. Blakes - a chocolate eclair and pan au chocolate (croissant filed with chocolate) Mine was a proper quiche or 'bacon and egg pie' as they are known as in Australia, as well as a fromboise tartlet. I have to admit I have never tasted a tartlet so good. Blake's eclair was pretty spot on too and all for about 6 euro for all four. That was lunch on the first day - that was also the only sweets allowed until Barcelona! The pounds were catching up, so now all foods are limited to one night of traditional tasting, the other nights are salads, fruits or cereals. Summer in Australia is going to be a cruel one, otherwise. Especially with our English tans on.

The first afternoon was spent wandering around admiring the city's 18th century architecture. It reminds me of a small, much slower paris a mix of new but mostly old. I thought perhaps that the famous bourgeois artist Toulouse Letrec may have been from Toulouse. I even thought that I had read this in a Lonely Planet book somewhere, saying that his childhood house was near the information centre. Turns out he wasn't born in Toulouse or live there, I guess that child hood house was in some other village. again our solid research did us well. Whilst there wasn't a lot of incredible sights to see, we were enjoying a little down time just taking it all in. And seeing as it was one night we weren't about to go kill ourselves to do the tourist route.

We made sure we were booked and ready to go to Barcelona. this was made easy by being so close to the central bus terminal. We booked our tickets, another 70 odd euro and hoped for the best.

We had an early night that night. We wandered for a while trying to find an affordable cassoulet, Unfortunately none could be found for under 15 euro. For beans and sausage we thought that was a bit rich so settled for felafel in stead. Not French, but still filling. The hotel room was comfy, like a said big with a double and an extra single, we were told though that if we used the single bed too we would be charged 7 euros for it. Wasn't about to, not sure why I would need to bed hop to a single in the middle of the night. Never the less we took his advice and made sure it was in pristine condition the next morning as to avoid a 7 euro charge. Blake took great delight in the toilet for some reason. It was a tight squeeze in there, so much so I found myself sitting on it sideways when the door was shut and by door I mean rolling folder door made of vinyl. It was classy. Blake found it hilarious to actually stand outside the toilet and pee into the toilet from the room. This wasn't an usual feat in a regular room, but in this place peeing with the door closed, would have been very difficult for any guy. It was a short lived novelty which was funny the first time. Enough toilet humour for now.

Early that morning we decided to take a wander around Toulouse for the last time, I had kept my eye out the previous day for some Fafi's after realising that she works mostly out of Paris now a days and therefore doesn't really have any gallery's in Toulouse. We turned a corner, on to a random, quiet street and there on the side of a shop wall, were three giant Fafi characters. All as awesome as the next. And next to them her signature. I was elated to have seen a real life Fafi and from then on cared little of what else I saw in Toulouse.

We checked out of Hotel Hotel Bourvesoir and hiked to the train station, not far from us by now though our packs were beginning to weigh down with all of the gifts we had begun to collect on the way. We arrived to a chaotic scene. A Million French and/or Spanish passengers pushing to the front of a que, that they weren't sure was even correct for their journeys. Europe in a general sense is funny like this, its chaos, no order when it comes to lining up, meaning if you want to fit in just accept it. Accept it we did, we had a ticket and were definitely getting on board this bus.

With that the bus arrived on time (unusually) we boarded and left Toulouse. A seven hour bus journey to Barcelona sounds crazy but it was actually really nice to just sit back an relax. The same goes for Toulouse whilst not a lot going on it was great to just wander about and chill for a change. Our euro leg has been busy so this came as a nice break if you will. Besides with sunny afternoon ride through the Pyrenees, half the fun was getting there.

next Stop: Barrrrttthhheellona! Tapas, Cervecerias, Gaudi and those African guys that seem to sell crappy ripped off handbags every where we go. What's with that?

Adios!

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Comments

[michelle]

love the fafi art work.xxx