Advertisement
Published: November 2nd 2012
Edit Blog Post
Point Nau
I presume that this is what the Beach in Spain used to be like. Spain
15
th October - 16
th October
It's our last day in Spain and we decide to take a drive north of Calpe to Moraira, a beautiful little town on the water with a lovely harbor. Thankfully, the town has ordinances in place to stop high rises being built. We really like this town! And immediately we find a restaurant for our prix-fixe lunch. We're waited on by a young English lad whose parents had moved to Spain when he was nine, and I think that if I were to move to Spain, then Moraira might be the place. The food was tasty, well presented and of course our mantra “if two is good, then three must be better” made us have entree, plat and dessert. We also explore Point Nau which appears to be a little more up-market, and the views are amazing, even though being on a point it tends to be a little more windy. As it's our last evening we have dinner with Heinz and Inge our hosts, at surprise, surprise, a German Restaurant in Calpe, and again it's good food at very reasonable prices.
Adios, Heinz and Inge, Adios, Calpe and we head north
trying to avoid the Spanish version of the Paege. Unfortunately, we stop in some out of the way place for lunch and have the daily special. I'm expecting this to cost around eight euro per head, but it comes in at a whopping fourteen euros per head. Personally, I think our “Manuel” waiter just doubled the bill because we were stupid “Anglais”. We arrive at Jane & Mike's house in the afternoon and as always it's a laugh-fest. Jane made a shepherds pie and believe me this was a welcome, home cooked meal. Adios, Jane and Mike we're heading for the border and back to France. Along the way, we pick up an older French woman who is hitch-hiking to Italy, having attended some hippie retreat near Barcelona. We drop her in Beziers and we're on the peage to Toulouse. We stop in the same lay-by we stopped with “Steve and Sue Western in 2010” and take a picture of Carcassonne....
Toulouse - 17
th October - 23
rd October
The GPS on Caroline's IPAD takes us around the block three times before we make a run at our next house swap. It's a building which fronts onto the Canal
Carcassonne
Taken from the same spot we took the picture in 2010 Midi. Lots of history; it used to be an orphanage and also a building that was used by the Communist French resistance in WWII. Jacky and Hans, our hosts, welcome us with wine and a meal of Maigret de Canard. The next day, Jacky leaves for New York and Atlanta and Hans takes off for Spain to visit an old friend. This house has a Chat and he/she just seems to turn up at meal times and then disappear for the day. We park our car in the garage and walk around Toulouse for the next week.
Weather is a real issue for our stay in Toulouse, it's not particularly good, we have strong winds for a couple of days, followed by a couple of days of rain. The winds are warm and we later hear that it's the remnants of a hurricane, however I don't know whether this is fact. Gusts of upwards of 70km manage to push Caroline backwards on one outing. Autumn is here, the tree's are turning and we've both started layering up when we dress. But we're walking around 9km per day and if nothing else we're managing to stay warm and fit!
Caroline and Madame Nicole
At Toulouse Lautrec's boyhood home. Madame Nicole is a distant relative and show's visitors around the Chateau. The Chateau is still in the family.. A couple of highlights are our daily visit to the covered market for meat, fish or fresh produce. The place is open six days a week (closed on Monday) and has restaurants above where you can have a lunch-time meal. We do this one day and I must say that the quality and atmosphere is particularly good.
The Toulouse Capitole Building is adorned by paintings on the walls and ceilings and the seat of local government for the city. The building dates from around 1750 and surrounds an inner courtyard. It turns out that a popular French Nobleman, Duc de Montorency (Another Duck of Death), godson of Henry IV of France is beheaded in the courtyard for rebelling against Cardinal Richelieu (Three Musketeers fame)
This city of 390,000 people is the fourth largest city in France and has at least three amazing churches/cathedrals which we visit over a number of days. Too many in one city and I must say. if I visit more than one per day, then I'm all churched out. Religious centers of note are:
Basilica St Sernin and is an important stop on the pilgrimage route, de Santiago de Compostella. An interesting factoid
is the stone that killed the evil, evil Simon de Montfort in 1218 whilst he was besieging Toulouse, was thrown from the roof of this Cathedral.
St Etienne de Toulouse, was built in two sections. The first half dates to the early 13
th century and the second half, built on different axis was added in 1272.
Notre Dame du Taur built in the 14
th century leads me to believe that the population of Toulouse must have been heavy duty sinners as Toulouse already had three other major churches/cathedrals and a smattering of other churches elsewhere in the city.
Foundation Bemberg is a museum worth a visit. This was bequeathed to the city complete with it's art collection which is extensive and includes, Lautrec, Monet, etc.
One memorable walk takes in the Resistance Museum and then on continuing down to the river Garonne where we discover large canvases (6m * 4m) of a photographer's journey (Reza) through war-torn regions of the world. Each of the photos is accompanied by a particularly poignant story. We both stop and review the photo and read the accompanying story. I personally find this very moving.
The day before leaving Toulouse
we have an added HomeExchanger from Mexico who moves into the apartment above the main apartment of our Toulouse swap. He's a travel writer who researches countries for a magazine aimed at retirees that want to take-up residence and buy property in a foreign country. He has been researching Portugal and is now on vacation for himself.
Sometime during the week Caroline has contracted a nasty bronchitis type bug and of course I end up getting it as well.
Au revoir Toulouse!!
23
rd October -24
th October
Bonjour Najac!
We're on our way to Najac, not too far from Albi and one of Plus Beaux Villages de France. Supposedly there are 157 in all of France and I'm sure that we must have visited them all. Unfortunately, our colds are in full swing and hopefully, we didn't leave them with our hosts, Glen and Sue. Because we are only in this beautiful area for 1 ½ days we try and make the most of it. We do quite a bit of driving, but manage to see where Toulouse Lautrec was brought up as a boy, Chateau du Bosc We actually meet a delightful lady, a distant
relative of the painter, who must be at least ninety years old, Madame Nicole. Caroline is thrilled and wished she'd studied French harder for this lost moment!!!
We visit another “beautiful village”, Belcastel, crowned by a chateau and thankfully there are few tourists about; it must be hell in the summer season. After arriving “home” we head out to a local restaurant with Glen and Sue and manage to do another three course meal, justice, accompanied as usual by a large pichet of red wine.
Next the Dordogne......
Advertisement
Tot: 0.079s; Tpl: 0.017s; cc: 8; qc: 24; dbt: 0.0382s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Ed
non-member comment
Lookin' good
Nice reporting Big Kev. Hope your colds are gone. Shoulda told you, we went to the most amazing chicken restaurant in Toulouse when we were transiting. Damn!