As an early birthday surprise weekend, David planned a trip to southern France (Nov 19-21). He picked this area because: 1) direct Ryan air flight (hip, hip, hooray!); 2) neither of us have been here before so fun to explore freshly together; 3) we both speak French (and I've been brushing up on my high school French so happy to have an excuse to use it!).
Toulouse is called "the Pink City" due to the pink terracotta bricks used to build most of its buildings and—in spite of me embarrassingly having to look up its location—it's the fourth largest city in France. It lies just north of the Pyrenees mountains and Spain and thus has a heavy Spanish influence (tapas, wines, etc.).
We spent our first day wandering the city, exploring parks (such as Jardin des Plantes and Grand Rond),
checking out the Pont Neuf and walking along the Garonne River (plus a playground!),
cathedrals (Saint-Étienne),
and, of course, eating and drinking!
Our hotel was right on the central Place du Capitole, in which they were constructing a huge Christmas market (sadly not yet open).
One of the things I loved most about Toulouse was that we were actually able to speak French. My recollection of Paris is that if you speak French to a Parisienne, he/she either pretends not to understand you OR responds in English. In Toulouse, however, they actually speak French back to you. They're even incredibly thoughtful because wait staff, for example, would occasionally clarify a point in English, if needed, but then switch back to French (because of course they're all at least bi- or trilingual [with Spain so close]). Being only slightly capable of speaking French and Spanish (certainly language-switching doesn't come naturally like in almost every other person I've ever met from outside of the U.S.), I am so jealous of these people who seemingly effortlessly switch back and forth. Honestly, it makes me feel rather like a half-wit.
On Friday night we had perhaps one of the best and coolest meals I've ever had at the highly rated but understated Les Sales Gosses. Even Sally got into it!! Check out these plates!
On Saturday we took the train to Carcassonne, a medieval walled city about an hour east. It was gorgeous and fun to walk around (and those views of the vineyards stretching beyond!). (Also another UNESCO World Heritage Site!). Back in the "new" city part of it on our way to the train we encountered a march of anti-vaxxers. Note: they sound and look just as stupid in French as they do in English.
On Sunday we took a little tourist train around the other side of Toulouse, saw the canals and University (of course the train engineer spoke like 6 different languages). Then after a lunch of bread bought on the square and local cheese, we explored Basilique Saint-Sernin de Toulouse (yup, another huge cathedral). The cathedrals here are HUGE and there are so many it's a bit overwhelming.
The big excitement of the Sunday was our afternoon at Cité de l'Espace! Toulouse is the center of Europe's aerospace industry, with some 15,000 people working in the aerospace field (Airbus headquarters, for example). We spent the afternoon but honestly you could spend days there...SO much information with indoor and outdoor exhibits (lots of actual rockets etc.) and an IMAX theater and planetarium. It was really incredible. I find space interesting, but David and Sally LOVE space so it was a huge win.
Great surprise weekend!