Wednesday 30th September - Lunch in Castres We had a sandwich and a Croque Monsieur with salad and shared. It was lovely watching all of the people in the square and particularly a group of 6 teenagers who all smoked and were wrapped up in warm coats sitting in the sun with the cold wind blowing about them and one girl was really going to town at a couple of the others and tears and boy she wasn't holding back. We think it was about a boy? After lunch we ...

Wednesday 30th September - The Venice of France We strolled to one of the three bridges over L'Gout River and were surprised to see the buildings on both sides of the river actually in the river and the bottom storey obviously wasn't lived in as the water flowed in the doors. Very picturesque though but I bet they are as damp as damp! We walked over the bridge and walked past the shops and out into a huge square on the other side of the river. We were headed f...

Wednesday 30th September - Train to Castres We went up to the platform and the train arrived and we got on board and had a 10 minute wait but that was ok and the train didn't have many passengers at this stage. The train pulled out right on time and we flashed along the countryside and stopped at five other stations before it was our turn to get off. Fortunately for us lots of other people also got off and legged it along the road so we followed and then ...

Wednesday 30th September - The Morning Train to Castres Jan woke and had an epiphany during the night. What say we catch the train to Castres and leave the car where it is and that way we still have a park? Parking around here is a real problem as it's a one way street, not very wide, with parking down one side of it. When we arrived Michael was going to show me where to park and someone in a smaller car pulled out from behind us so I backed up and then with...

Tuesday 29th September - Hop On Bus We got along to where the bus was to go from and the bus was there but no one was in site and we were a bit early so we snuck into a pub and had a coffee and a chat to the barman who hailed from Lyon but had been in Toulouse for 14 years. Upon heading out to get on the bus the rain had stopped and the other 8 passengers were already on the bus so we climbed on board and after about 10 minutes we moved off with English t...