The first night in Toulouse we played two perfectly themed board games - Carcassonne, which was our next destination, and Ticket to Ride (Les Aventuriers du Rail), because we're hoping to see a bit of the rest of Europe too :-)
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| Finn's victory photo |
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| La ville rose - the pink city |
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Wall climbing!
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| Now I'm sure I knew what this sculpture was about when I took the photo... If you know, send me a message! |
Our most amusing experience so far was definitely the ducks of Toulouse.
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| First, Finn made friends with a duck |
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| Monsieur le Canard |
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| So I decided to take photos of the ducks in the pond |
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| And then, I noticed people with nets. Chasing the ducks. They worked for the local council. |
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| I asked why they were trying to catch them, and they explained to take them to the other garden (on the other side of the road). |
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| So we watched, and almost cried with laughter as, after some serious splashing about in the pond to catch only four ducks, one of the ducks escaped. |
The roundabout
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| This bridge connects the garden we were in to the one in the middle of the roundabout, and there are similar bridges connecting to the garden on the other side of the road (the ducks' destination). |
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| It really is a garden in its own right - lamps, footpath, park benches... |
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| A fountain... |
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| And a band rotunda, all in the middle of the massive roundabout. |
The Other Garden
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| The bag in her hand... Filled with red wine |
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| And we found the ducks! They do look happy here, but I don't know if they think it was worth the indignity of the trip |
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| Monsieur le Coq |
Other Toulouse things
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| The view across the river from the bridge. The thing we liked most about Toulouse was its clean river. |
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| Socialist metro - rich people, please don't use strapons |
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| Super quick automated metro came every 2 mins, incredibly efficient. The first one was full, but by the time it disappeared there was another one arriving. Much cleaner, brighter, and more modern than the Paris metro! |
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| Everything is automated and designed for safety and efficiency. The metro stops in exactly the right place so there's no risk of people falling onto the tracks. There are only two lines, but they cover most of the city. |
We also went to a one-woman farmer's market - everyone has a weekly subscription for a vege basket, and she produces all the vegetables organically.
We really liked Toulouse, it had just started to get cold, with frosty mornings. and it was an awesome experience!
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