Chris’ Travel Blog

Canal Du Midi

Another early morning. Get up at 6:45. Head over to train station to find the time the trains run in order to decide whether to bike to Castelnaudary and return by train or the other way around. The train to Castelnaudary leaves at 8:00 and the bike rental opens at 8:00 so the won’t work. So we will bike there and catch the 17:01 train that returns to Toulouse.

Go to rent bike near the tourist office for 2 euros each and start cycling along the canal. In total it should be about 60 km which is paved for the first 45 km and gravel for the remaining 15 km. We make it find through Castanet-Tolosam, Montgiscard, Montesquieu-Lauragais, Gardouch, and Renneville. Just past Port-Lauragais the canal must have split to a stream, which we followed. We didn’t see any sign that indicated where the canal continued, but we must of missed it. Although it was much narrower we thought we were going the right way since the road was now gravel which we expected and we appeared to be in the right spot on the map. In the end when we can to a road, we decided to take the road the last 10 km into Castelnaudary. Arrive in town around 13:00, we had stopped for lunch around 11:30 at Port-Lauragais because dad had only eaten the last little bit of a baguette that we had bought previously for breakfast. We cycle through Castelnaudary stopping at a patisserie for a meringue, but since it is really just sugar it’s a bit too sweet for my taste. We find the part of the canal that we missed and cycle back a bit towards Toulouse while we wait for the train. Then catch the 17:01 train back to Toulouse. We find the train car that takes bicycles without any issue and arrive in Toulouse 40 minutes later.

Dinner is Lebanese tonight, we both get assiette de chawarma for 7 euros.

Finally get to sleep in. Catch the 10:34 train to Toulouse. Arrive in Toulouse at 12:45. See a sign in the train station for bike rental, but it turns out it no longer exists. Walk to center town and start looking for hotels. Traveling with pannier bags is nice for cycling, but it would be nice if they had some shoulder straps. With all the luggage and bottles of wine I’m carrying the bags are ripping my arms out of my sockets if I walk for more than 10 minutes. We look at quite of few hotels, and end up at hotel Victor Hugo. The price is 60 euros for Sunday (20% off) and 75 euros for Monday and Tuesday. Drop off luggage and then walk around town.

1) Basilique St-Sernin, which is a huge church in the shape of a cross if seen from above. We also see the bikes available for use at many different stations. Toulouse has various bike stations around town that can be used in order to get around town.

2) Place du Capitole, and the tourist info centre where we luckily find out that the Cite de L’Espace is closed on Monday’s as we were planning on going there. We also find info on renting bikes from the nearby bike rental shop (1 euro for 1/2 day, 2 euros/day).

Capitole de Toulouse

3) Across Pont Neuf to eat a snack in the green area. I got a tarte citron au meringue in order to test the capabilities of the patisserie. They pass with flying colours. Also see a water tower which now is an art gallery, but it is closed today.

4) Along the Gironde river to Dome de la Grave.

5) Back across the river to Eglise Notre Dame de la Dalbade.

6) See Couvent des Jacobins

Couvent Des Jacobins

Dinner at a local pizza place on rue Taur. We order 2 salades vertes, 2 beers, and share a roquefort pizza.

Later we watch Marseilles vs Lyon on Canal+. Marseilles wins 3-1.

Toulouse is the most multicultural city I’ve seen so far this trip. In almost every city I’ve seen a Chinese restaurant. Here there is Chinese, Japanese, Lebanese, and more. The people are also more diverse, but that is relatively speaking.

We also notice that the street signs are written in two languages. The first being French and the second being Languedoc.

Wake up at 7:15, it’s still difficult to get up in the morning even though I got 8 hours of sleep. Go to baker shop to get breakfast and lunch then catch the 8:17 train to Bordeaux. Wait two hours, then catch the 10:38 train to Langon. The train was standing room only. Arrive in Langon 20 minutes later. Carry our luggage to the centre of town and find the tourist info centre. We phone various different hotels and end up at the 3 star hotel Claude Darroze for 75 euros/night. Find local internet café and check e-mail. Then go back to train station to get schedule to Toulouse and book the 10:30 train for the next morning. Go by Europcar and see about renting a car for the afternoon. This time the price is lower at 59 euros but the problem is that it’s currently 14:00 and they close at 17:30 and they don’t have an after hours key drop and they are closed the next day. Clearly this won’t work, so we do the only other option remaining to us and walk the 12 kms to Sauternes. We arrive in a small but pretty town. I go to the Maison du Sauternes which sells local wines and makes money by receiving 1% of the wine from each vineyard and mixing it all together to make their own wine. We taste the mix and it is quite good, but I end up buying a bottle of Cru Claviere which is more aged and has more body to it. It is always a bit embarrassing to be buying just 1 bottle of wine when they ask how many cases you would like, but since I only have my 2 pannier bags as luggage, it’s not like I can carry too much. We go back to Langon by a different route passing by some humongous chateaus including Chateau LaFaurie-Peyraguey. In total we did around 24 kms of walking. Go back to the hotel to shower and have dinner at 20:00, I have lasagna with salmon and dad has pork brochette.

Arrive at car rental at 8:00 and retrieve camera that I had left in the car the previous day. Then off to the boulangerie to pick up a ham and cheese sandwich and a croissant. Then to the bike shop Velo et Oxygen to pick up the rental bicycles. We arrive in St-Emilion 40 minutes later. 1 euro to go up the bell tower for a wonderful view of the town and country side, we are lucky to have such a sunny day. We also take a guided tour of the catacombs and the monolithic church at 11:30 for 6.50 euros. Talk with a young couple from Australia who are on an around the world trip. So far they had done Vancouver, Banff, Alaska, Montreal, Mexico, Peru, Brazil, Chile, Venezuela, Europe, and are planning to do South Africa, and then home. We forget that the tourist office closes at lunch and we had left our panniers in the tourist office while on the tour. So we have a relaxing lunch at an outdoor café. Leave St-Emilion around 14:00 and cycle to St-Sulpice de Faleyrens, the monolith, Pomerol and then back to Libourne at 17:00. In the evening we go see a soccer game at the local stadium. Libourne versus Lyon, the home tean wins 2-0 although Lyon had an excellent opportunity in the 1st minute of play. We got the cheap seats in the south end of the field behind the goal which were standing room only for 2 euros.

7:34 leave Bordeaux.

8:00 arrive in Libourne.

Use map of nearby tourist office to locate a hotel, as the tourist office does not open till 9:30. Check into hotel Decazes (2 stars, 2 beds 51 euros/night), it’s a clean comfortable hotel. Take a nap for 1.5 hours (my body must still be on North American time as it is very easy to sleep during the day.

Around 10:00 am go to tourist office to get info on Libourne. It turns out there is not much of interest and they don’t offer wine tours, but they had info on where to rent a bike. WE walk the 2 blocks to the bike shop and arrange to rent a bike for the next day. 15 euros plus there is normally a 500 euro deposit, but the shop owner seems to like us so he waves the deposit. Discuss with dad what to do next and decide to rent a car and drive around St. Emilion region. Get to the rental car location at 11:50 (they close at 12:00 for lunch for 2 hours) and rent a Renault Espace from Europcar for 80.20 euros (rather expensive and big for just 2 people, but we weren’t in a good position to negotiate). I complained a bit and got 10 euros knocked off. We drove a circuit of LaLande de Pomerol, Pomerol, Néac, searched and found the famous Pétrus winery, had lunch, then Lussac, Puisseguin, St. Christophe Des Bardes to buy 2 bottles of Chateau Rose Blanche, then St-Hippolyte, and St. Emilion. In St. Emilion we walk around the town which is located on the top of a hill. Up a narrow stoneway past the famous macaron shops to the top of the hill. Then head back to Libourne and return the rental car just before they close at 18:00. In the hurry to get everything out of the car I forget my camera in between the 2 front seats, but we come back the next morning and retrieve it with no problems. Dinner around 20:00 at nearby brasserie, I get carbonara pasta and dad gets a salad with duck.

Early start this morning. Left the hotel at 6:30 to make sure we were at Gare St-Jean in time for the 7:24 train. Arrived in Pauillac around 8:30, and rented some bikes at a Avia gas station. Went south on the D2 to see all the various chateaus. Saw the very famous Chateau Pichon Longueville (pictures to come later), and many others. Went as far south as Macau en Medoc, ate our usual ham and cheese on half baguette and then came back. In all we did about 53 kms over 4 hours, which is a snails pace, but we did stop a lot. Took the train back to Bordeaux. On the way back to the hotel we stopped at the lovely river front area and saw the Bourses de Vin where wine used to be traded.