The Tour de France

So, we decided we needed a wee break from Germany and thought we would drive south to see our friend Jerome who lives in Toulouse. A car was rented, water and sunscreen were bought. We set off- late as usual.

Though we had signed up for a Smart we got a new Beetle. A car that is as wide as it is long.

We are pretty out of practice with car travel and it seemed to take us for ever to get to Jerome's home. i had no idea how accustom we had become to train travel. We spent the first night in Lyon, in a hotel not worth naming or documenting.
Late the next day we made it to Toulouse. From Potsdam to Toulouse it is nearly 1,700 km (around 1,050 miles) and it occurred to us that it would have taken less time to drive to Rome. i don't think i have ever had the occasion to think of Rome being close before.

Once there and rested up a bit we went out too see UNESCO site Carcassonne.
Which as you can see was pretty impressive.

Due to it's specific placement this city has be inhabitied since pre-Roman times. The hill that the city sits on is between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic and also between two heafty mountain ranges and is at the source of the Aude River. This medieval city and it's fortifed walls comes complete with Gothic cathedral and castle plus lots of delightful winding streets to walk down and sample wine in.

Outside the outer walls. Baking hot. (Hot enough that I was actually willing to walk around in a Marcel (the French term for an A-shirt).

Carcassonne steet, pigeon view. (For all who wish to know, I actually took the photo because of how flat the cobbles have been worn. This is hundreds of years of continuous foot-fall in action, anthropo-erosion!)

It was really sunny and extremely hot that day, but well worth the trip.
Here is Kevin attempting to document the whole thing while both of us stay in the shade as much as possible.

We also went into Toulouse, a really charming city, that the french call the ville rose due to the pink colored brick many of the buildings were built from. It is an externally romantic place, with lovely parks and interesting architecture. Also French wine, cheese and bread- can't forget that!

Typical Toulouse style street.
Delightful iron work- the buildings look like they are from a picture book.

Here Jerome (and it was 102 this day) gives into the heat and begins to dance in front of the city hall. i look more like i am going to faint.
Sadly, we had to go to Switzerland to look for an apartment (on the bright side, we did find one), so our french fun was cut short, but it was great to see Jerome again and witness his heat-overload boogie!