One more market, one last ride

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Geo: 43.3988, 1.71558

It's our last day in Toulouse and Janet wanted to take in one last public market before we left France. We decided to head to the town of Villefranche, just 40km away. We arrived in centre ville to find another bustling square filled with all the usual vendors, plus a lot more clothing merchants. Janet picked up a few last minute gifts while I found some interesting pastries to have with our coffee at a table nearby.
We headed back to Toulouse after a few hours, taking the “D” route instead of the freeway for one last pass thru the French countryside. Although the weather was still overcast, the scenery was enjoyable.
Outside of town we stopped at a car wash to clean three weeks of road dirt and bugs off the BMW. The bike performed well in spite of my discomfort with the handle bars and our earlier electrical problems. We probably logged somewhere around 6,000 km during our journey.
Returning to home base, we cleaned up around the house and packed up all our gear and clothes. We somehow managed to find room for all the goodies acquired during our many market explorations.
Because of the language barrier and the road construction in front, we decided to take a cab that evening to an airport hotel for the night rather than risk trying to get a cab to show up at 5:00 am on a Saturday.
We checked into the hotel with our pile of luggage and a box of stuff for Debbie and Guenther (that couldn't fit on their bike) and spent the evening relaxing. We enjoyed the last of our wonderful French bread, cheese and fruit for dinner, along with our last bottle of wine from the region. We had a gorgeous crimson and purple sunset to end the day and our great adventure in the south of France.

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Photos

Typical market day
Mirepois market day: olive vendor

Our last ride in the country outside Toulouse
Our last ride in the country outside Toulouse

Comments

[Steve]

What a wonderful trip. Thanks for sharing it.