Train to Toulouse

Monday 19 August

Train to Toulouse

We had treated ourselves to a first class ticket on the train back to Toulouse.  It was a 6and a half hour journey so decided we needed the extra comfort.  We got up quite late and had a lazy breakfast, then checked out of the hotel leaving our bags there - the station was only 10 mins walk away.  

We walked back into town and took time out to see the nice little gardens in the squares which were used by all the people in the apartment buildings.  The one we went to first had a beautiful bougainvillea tree in full bloom, there were a few people sitting on benches in there reading their morning paper, but generally the gardens were not in great shape, but still a nice place to sit in the lovely morning sunshine.  

We walked further on and came across a powered meter where electric cars could plug in and recharge their batteries.  What a city of contrasts!

There was a lovely Anglican Church on our way down, so we popped on to have a closer look.  It was more modern than some Churches, built around the 1850's,

 

the stained glass windows were also quite modern, depicting the standard scenes but without the lead inbetween the colours and more colour blending in the actual glass.

We went as far as the Promenade des Anglais and had a last look at the lovely promenade, and then walked back through the shopping centre and bought a few souvenirs.  

Back to the hotel, said goodbye to the cat, picked up our bags and walked up to the station. Found our train without too much fuss, climbed on board and settled ourselves into our allotted seats. We had about 20 mins to wait and the carriage was fairly empty.  However, as the train stopped at several stations on the way many more people got on and the seats were taken, and it was very hot and stuffy.  Then it emptied out again and it was good for the last couple of hours of our trip.

The best part of our trip came early as we went along the Cote D'Azure , many k's of beautiful coastline and we were close enough to see the holiday makers enjoying their day.  

Apart from that, the trip was in fact disappointingly boring, the countryside was flat, vast and mostly dry,  the occasional vineyard whizzed by - the train goes very quickly, not as fast as the bullet trains which passed us going the other way, or at least I think they did, they were past in the blink of an eye.  

The occasional village came into view looking very French, and of course always with a church and a steeple.  A few 'chateaus' in the distance, but difficult to see clearly.  Lots of graffiti and the untidy backs of factories, as with any city in any country.   The first class experience was also disappointing, the seats although large and relatively comfortable, were ingrained dirty, the floor had litter and strange things under foot, the room between seats was minimal, and the whole train was dirty and in need of renovation.  The buffet trolley came around which was good and had plenty of choice and helpful service, we had a nice lunch and a glass of wine, which relieved us of quite a few euros!

Thankfully I was able to catch up on a couple of blogs ready for posting when we reached home.  It felt quite good to be back 'home', James met us at the station and Rachel had a lovely meal ready for us.