Laura and Lars Travel: Nothing Toulouse

It was 4.30am and we were on our way to the airport. Again. Luton Airport is the most hassle free airport that I have ever had to deal with, many others may have thought that because the Starbucks line was stupidly long! Lars waited for half an hour in the line, it was well worth it when he came back.

Just a hop, skip, and a jump and we were landing in Toulouse. The weather was promising to be temperamental, but give us some sun shine. While we waited to exchange our money, a French man came over and told us that there is an empty one upstairs. Seeing the good in people, we went to go up stairs. It was blocked off. So we came back and were now at the back of the line. After a while, he said that he is picking up some money that he can only do in the downstairs exchange. We trust him again and go upstairs. Luckily, there are still some good people in the world, we went to the front of the line. In non English speaking countries, we always want to show that we are at least trying to communicate in their language. Even asking if they speak English, rather than just talking English at them, comes across well and they appreciate it.

"I have to step into the map" - Joey circa 2002

We caught the tram into town and got off as close to the main train station as possible. Our route took us through the Royal Gardens. Bees buzzing around a symphony of flowers that I have never seen before. At this point, our tummies were grumbling. The closest supermarche had us covered. A packet of unknown flavoured chippies (crisps), my favourite thing to try in a different country. As promised, a shower of rain came overhead, we took shelter under a bridge whilst eating Parmesan flavoured chips. The life. The blanket of rain moved on and we were able to drop our luggage off at the train station. We shed as much of our tourist shell as possible then ventured into the town to find the info centre. We both love being reliant on paper maps when travelling. As it was still their midday sleepy time, we ate a baguette in the town square while we waited for the info centre to open.

When I said that I didn't want to go into another cathedral, Lars told me that I came to the wrong part of the world, Europe is all cathedral! We popped in, I said no to going into the Crypt, and Lars confessed his sins. We went back outside to go and see a very long wall. Seeing as there was no information about said wall, we could only guess at its original form. We thought town gate, by who knows. The wall lead us down to the water. There was a small concert going on at the time. It was a mash up of a lady singing, backing track of babies crying and people screaming. Then on stage came a teenage boy miming some very strange actions, we didn't stick around long. It was 3pm at this point, and just on cue, my tiredness kicks in. Not to worry, a chocolate pastry fixed the issue. We sat and soaked in some sun before heading to the Galeries Lafayette, a famous French department store with all your expensive shopping needs.

Forgive my father, for Lars has sinned.

We went on a search for dinner now. Quite early for dinner in the eyes of the locals, so we pretended it was afternoon tea, like everyone else was eating! Lars found a restaurant that served escargot and frogs legs, but it was not open, we would have to try the snaily treats another day. We found a Creperie nestled amongst the restaurant square. The crepes were filled with meat, cheese, tomato and love, all with a fried egg on top. We knew that we had to eat very slowly and have breaks in between eat bite, not to draw attention to our bad eating etiquette. We sipped on a blonde 1664 beer that hugged our tongues and warmed us on the inside. It felt even better to see it poring with rain and we were sheltered. Even though we were closed in by plastic walls, it was still considered the outside area. Every single person was smoking, my eyes were clouding over and my brain was gasping for air!

Tiredness was truly kicking in, we collected our bags and hopped on the metro. We immediately had a flashback of our trip to Paris when we heard the speaker sound, that sound was then the soundtrack for the rest of our trip! The metro took us the Arenes station, and no public transport could take us further, thank goodness for Uber.

When you get a flight and hotel deal for an excellent price, there is always a worry about what the accommodation will be like. In this case The Apart'City surpassed our expectations. It was clean, the people were friendly, and we felt very safe! By this point we had no energy left. Time to sleep and be ready for our next day's adventure.