Leaving Toulouse...getting lost again...

My goodness, the streets in Toulouse are nightmarishly skinny, especially whilst we are getting used to the new car.  It is an Opel Meriva, manual and larger than we expected.

We made it out of town and headed for Le Cite de l'Espace, which is a museum about space, weather, satellites and related things.  It was exceptionally well done.  Everything was interactive so you could moon walk, you could set the frequencies to get clear satellite pictures and there were lots of games to teach you how things work.  You could also be a weather presenter using the blue screen technology so you were waving your hands around trying to look like you are pointing at a particular place - neither of us indulged in that!  I guess it was aimed at kids but we both thought it was brilliant.  Masses of people but the crowds flowed through quite well so there was no queuing.

From there we headed off to our accommodation for the night which was just 5 kms out of Carcassonne.  Nearing our destination, we were again driving in very narrow streets, relying on the GPS for directions.  We struggled to find it despite loading the name, and later the latitude and longitude into the GPS and I was starting to despair as we went around and around these country lanes.  In the end Allan asked someone and it turned out that we were parked up right outside the place -d'oh!

Shortly after we checked in, we headed into Carcassonne to check out the medieval city.  Turns out we didn't find that, but we walked around the old town.  So quaint, with tiny, tiny little streets but so much charm.  Just before we got back to the car, there was a massive electrical storm, with huge hailstones, so we got quite wet.

Navigating the narrow streets in the pouring rain was just horrendous and we got lost again, just by not being able to get into the right lane at the right time.  Suffice to say that by the time we got out of town, communication between the driver and the navigator was getting a little fraught!

I am not inspired to have a go at driving in the cities, or on the motorways where the speed limit is 130 kph, even though we paid extra to register me as an additional driver.

Our accommodation itself deserves a separate post so will stop here.

En France

Okaaaay - so we are in France.  This is going to be fun!

Having landed in Toulouse and negotiated immigration and picked up our rental car, we were ready to set off.  Gulp.  Left hand drive.  Manual gears.  Rush hour traffic.  I don't know who was more stressed - Allan as driver, or me as navigator!  We thought that it would be quiet on the roads because of Good Friday, but it is not observed as a public holiday here today.  Monday is a holiday though.

It took us 45 minutes to travel the 10 kms from the airport.  The GPS put us a bit wrong by taking us to Boulevard Matabiau instead of Rue Matabiau.  The former was a bit seedy and did not have a hotel where we expected it.

All sorted now though.  We checked in and were offered a welcome drink.  The receptionist had enough English to help us, and was able to recommend a delightful restaurant just around the corner for dinner. 

We had an exquisite three course set menu, and although in some instances we were not entirely sure what we were eating, we had a lovely time, and were able to practice our schoolroom French.  I am sure we will get more confident as we go along.