Montauban

Thursday 25 July

Montauban

Montauban is a little off the tourist track, but a hidden gem.  We piled into their big car and with Rachel as our tour guide (and a little help from Ken,the GPS guy ) we drove through the pretty streets of Tournefeuille and onto the motorway.  Most of the motorways have tolls, but they are so quick and easy to use that the cost doesn't seem to be an issue.  We were soon out into the countryside, most of it is cultivated and sunflowers are a grown widely to make into oil.  

They are just coming out now and field upon field of yellow sunflowers makes a pretty display.   Not much in the way of cattle or sheep, but it is very hot and fields that are not cultivated look dry and barren, maybe the animals are kept in barns. 

As we headed into Montauban Rachel spotted a car park straight away and drove right in and parked under a tree, perfect.  Apparently this is used for a market at weekends.  It was close to the centre of town too.  

We walked down into a park which had lovely natural flower beds, a mixture of hybrid flowers and wild flowers, just delightful.  Then we stopped at the play area for the children and by the side of the play area was part of the Roman wall which surrounded the city, there are many examples of these old walls.  

We wandered through this lovely old city and along the wall by the side of the river,  looking at the cobbled stone walkways, set in different colours in a diamond pattern.  

Viaducts and bridges, so old and amazing, how lucky we are to have this opportunity.  Then on into the centre of town, the square was getting ready for a jazz concert, so the seats for the restaurants all around the square had to make way for room for a stage with its own seating.  We sat in the shade and had our coffees and cokes.

Refreshed we made for the Cathédrale Notre-Dame-de-l'Assomption de Montauban, which has had a chequered history of build and rebuild.  The current church was started mid 1600's and finished by mid 1700. The statues of the four Evangelists are huge and in a sorry state of repair and now rest inside the church, but they deteriorated because of poor materials, not through war this time.  It is so nice entering a dark and cool church coming out of 30 deg or more heat.  I'm not really a church person, but I do appreciate the stained glass windows, the statues and the peaceful solemnity that they bring. Kind of refreshes the soul.

 

So out onto the street again, so narrow, so charming, traffic so crazy, where are the kids? So it's time for lunch, and back to the square. 

 How to interpret a menu?  All the food in France is delicious, so it doesn't really matter, I fancied a plate of antipasta so that I could taste a bit of everything, cheese, meats, salami, etc, David fancied salmon, Rachel ordered a nice salad and she ordered for the kids, however remembering that they are gluten free she had to be careful, Jasper is quite adventurous in his choices of food, loves all sorts of different meats and cheese (ordered rabbit the other day), so with lots of miming and pointing we waited to see what came!  We were all ok, except for poor Jasper, the waitron brought him a goats cheese salad with pickled red cabbage - non allergic and vegetarian!!  And - to add injury to insult - he had to watch Grandad eat his gluten rich lemon meringue  pie!  He was not a happy boy!