As my friend had to work on Monday she suggested that I take a half day trip to this city, that is only an hour away by train and also take in some of the other sights in the region. Good advice, but what would have been a tiny bit better is if she had told me that the city, despite its tiny size, has at least 2 train stations and one is too far to walk in just a few minutes. However it could be argued just as easily that I did not ask at the time and she assumed that I would get off at the first one, which is what I did and so no harm done as the saying goes.
My friend and her partner had also very kindly said that they would let me stay at their place for the one night and take me to the airport early tomorrow morning instead of me spending the night at the airport to catch a 6:45am flight tomorrow morning, which I very gratefully accepted. As they were at work I had to risk leaving my bag in the main reception of the hotel that I stayed the previous two nights, but they all assured me that it was perfectly safe and I did notice a few others were doing the same, nevertheless I had butterflies the whole time and I took my mini backpack filled with all the technical stuff and just left the clothes { and laptop as it was too big to fit in the smaller bag! }.
It was a shame that I went at 11.24am and thus arrived just after the tourist information centre closed, as it would have been great to get a few free brochures and pointers on where else to go, so as it was I went inside, took a few photos that sadly didn't come out due to the poor lighting and my digital cameras inability to focus in the dark, and so I have only a few outside shots to post. But I think you will agree that its height is quite impressive and I can tell you that the workmanship that went into its construction both inner and outer is some of the most intricate and detailed that I have seen in any masonry anywhere in the world.
Coming back I couldn't help notice that the heat was getting very strong outside, so much so that I had to take off my jacket and wear sunshades ever in the train, so I am guessing that it must have topped 20 degrees, which coming from the UK I am not used to at the end of September { back in the UK the weather has been grim and rainy for most of the last fortnight }. On the train they also asked me to complete a customer satisfaction survey, not pausing to ask if I could speak or read any French, and so I just took it and surprised myself by being able to complete all of it and only puzzling over one or two answers { though some were guesses and the rest were just marked out of 20 so easy to put a number in that I thought fitted }.
After collecting my suitcase from the hotel I was still had a few hours to kill before I was meeting up with my friends after they finished work, so I walked around the block till something caught my eye, and it was a John Bull pub called Old London Town, where the barman had a hint of a true English accent, and was able to serve me a nice refreshing pint of chilled cider and a packet of my favourite crisps. True it was a bit overpriced, even compared to London prices, but then this was Toulouse, about as far away form England as you can get in France and so I am not complaining.
The insides of the pub seemed authentic, in fact more oldie worldie than a lot of the pubs that are in London, and I personally loved the fact that they had a chessboard, albeit one of the pawns looked out of place as it was a replacement from a larger scale set. It was a pity that I was the only customer at the time, so I just sat back with my drink and watched a game of football { Italian not English, but close enough } till it was time to leave. Anther nice touch was that the landlady was a slim brunette with tattoos and she went about marking up all the blackboards with all the events in October that they were hosting, complete with a bilingual pub quiz, and it reminded me that I might want to do find another English style pub on the 31st October to celebrate Halloween, which I always love to do.
Once I met up with my friends we had a nice meal and watched a bit of French soap opera, I showed them a few simple card tricks and then we chatted before all heading off to bed at a sensible time as we had to be up extra early the next morning.
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