Toulouse ~ La Vie En Rose (The Pink City)

Our last stop in the South of France did not disappoint. Although, Toulouse is famous for being the home of Airbus there is a wealth of culture and history, and most importantly a local population that is friendly and welcoming. Toulouse is a city that feels like a village. Although it is a large city in France, the downtown core has been well preserved and not urban like other large cities. Climate and weather are super nice (the city is the 13th sunniest in the country), more importantly for us you can get around easily on foot or by bicycle.
One of the highlights was visiting with a former coop student Rob worked with at Honeywell Aerospace. He was in his early 20’s and just beginning his career with Airbus when they first met in the early 2000’s. Luc and his wife Sophie invited us to a traditional Toulouse dinner at their lovely home. We spent the evening catching up and getting to know their two beautiful boys. Tom and Arthur melted my heart and helped me to improve my French by asking me to read them a bed time story. The evening from start to finish was truly a gift, seeing Luc and his family again made the trip to Toulouse even sweeter!
The place we called home for five days was a wonderful villa right in the heart of the city. Our hosts Eric and Jose at Le Clos des Salins were the kindest people, always checking in on us and spoiling us with home made desserts. To explore Toulouse, one day we did a bike tour, visited the monuments classified as World Heritage by UNESCO, enjoyed its pink-hued houses that change with the light of day and its watersides bordered by tons of greenery.
We really felt like locals during our stay. For a truly authentic experience, we headed to the Carmes and Victor Hugo markets to do our own shopping to prepare homemade meals for a few of our nights. It was great to be able to shop side by side with the locals and select fresh produce from local farmers. Toulouse is very well known for its rich culinary culture. This is a city to eat French country cuisine, especially the classic French cassoulet, duck confit and the Toulouse sausage. We also made sure to indulge in crepes and the for our final meal we decided to go with a croque monsieur, which is a hot sandwich made with ham and cheese. It was all so yummy!
Although we wanted this last stop to be relaxing we did venture out on a day trip to one of France’s preserved medieval villages. Carcassonne is impressive and a journey back in time. The Medieval City dominates the hill top and modern city around it, and is said to be one of the best preserved medieval walled cities in the world. It has a quaint town, towers you can climb and take in beautiful views, a castle, a picturesque bridge, and lovely cafes and restaurants! To think, they decreed to tear it all down in 1849, and the mayor was able to save it.
Throughout our 2 weeks in the South of France the one word Rob and I keep repeating is “lovely”. Everything was lovely…the food, the people, the wine and the views. Au revoir France, it truly has been lovely and we can’t wait to come back and explore more of this lovely countryside. We have 16 more days left of this adventure and we are excited to see what we can add to our story.

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