Toulouse/Carcassonne: July 18-19th

We got into Toulouse around 10am and dropped our stuff off at the hotel and then headed back to the train station to go to Carcassonne.

Carcassonne is an old Roman fortification that is about 2,500 years old. We walked around the old walls, toured the castle and enjoyed exploring the little city. We found out that the castle was the location for the movie Robin Hood Prince of Thieves.

As we were heading back to the train station we walked by a lock and some boats using it. It was pretty neat to see.

Once again, our train was delayed. When we finally got back to Toulouse we were pretty hungry so we got our bags, put them in our rooms and went on the hunt for a restaurant. We found a really yummy vegetarian place that had different all-you-can eat options. The first option starts at 11 euros and then you can add an option for 1 euro more.

After dinner we went for a walk and came upon some guys playing some jazz music in the park so we sat and listened to that for a bit. We then headed back to the hotel and played cards in the lobby while drinking some champagne from the Champagne region to celebrate the end to an awesome trip!

Arles: July 16-18th

It was another long travel day for us. One of our trains was delayed by about a couple of hours because of an accident on the tracks but we made it into Arles just in time for dinner. We went to La Cuisine de Comptoir. They served these delicious "tartine sandwiches". As far as I could tell, 'tartine' was some sort of special bread to the region. More or less it was a cross between an open faced sandwich and a pizza, depending on the kind of sandwhich you got. The food was so good we went back the next night.

After dinner, we tried to do the Van Gogh walk but it got too dark and the mosquitoes were out in full force so we called it a night and headed back to the hotel.

Once again, we were lucky with the markets. Arles has a market day on Sundays and Wednesdays so Wednesday morning we got up to find the market. It ended up being right around the corner from our hotel.

After wandering around in the market we finished the Van Gogh walk. Later that day we went to see the arena and the theater. We also visited the cryptoporticos. You get to go under ground and see the old street level. We went in the heat of the day on purpose so that we would get some relief from it! It was so nice and cool underground. Next we went to St. Trophime church.

After the church we headed to the grocery store to get some food for breakfast because we had to catch a 7am train to Toulouse.