7/12: Alarm at 0545, and schlepping our bags down 3 flights of spiral staircase by 0645. Over the cobblestones with one last look at our favorite Cathedral, and a 0.6 mile walk to the train station. Thankfully it’s NOT raining! We think it would’ve been about $40 for a cab to drive us the short distance, and the walk was nice and easy. The two times we’ve taken cabs we have been amazed at how expensive they are compared to Uber and Lyft (no Lyft in Europe yet, and we didn’t have the luxury of time to check Uber in Paris).
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| Pointing to our apartment in the corner. We may send this photo to Dakine as we all love our bags! |
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| These types of paintings/drawings are on so many windows throughout the town - really cool. |
Given our last time crunch 3 days ago switching trains, we gave ourselves plenty of time and arrived at the station 30 minutes early. The 2 hour ride to Paris was uneventful and Bob was confident that this next train transfer would be smoother than the last, as it looked like the underground subway would take us easily to the different train station. This time we were ready to get off with our bags prior to the train stopping!
We did find the right area to buy subway tickets to transfer to the next train station, and easily got on the one already at the station. Bob and I shared a fist bump at completing this step (much better than our speedy cab at the last transfer!) We are amazed, however, at the lack of lifts/elevators/escalators - we’ve had to lug our bags up/down multiple long flights of steps. And…we should’ve known not to celebrate too early…
We made it to the train station, and had about 45 minutes before our train to Toulouse departed. No problem - we’re here! We arrived into the main terminal and, from the looks of our tickets, we were looking for Hall 3. We saw 1 and 2, but not 3. The signage was incredibly poor given the size of the station. Up and down more stairs with our bags (ugh!) and we finally saw that #3 said it was a 10 minute walk - so we hustled that way. The closer we got to Hall 3, the fewer people we saw. When we arrived, there were only 2 people there - an older man sitting on a bench, and a young man working at the convenience store. (The panic starts to creep in) Bob attempted to talk to the older gentleman (who spoke little English) and I engaged the younger guy, who fortunately started speaking English when I gave him a blank stare after he spoke to me in French!
I told him we were heading to Toulouse, and looking for Hall 3. He said, “no no - it’s Hall 1, Platform 3. Grrrr! So we turn around, yell “merci!” and double hustle it back to where we started. Thankfully Quinn’s ankle is 100%! We’ve got 20 minutes to get where we think we need to be, and it’s a 10 minute walk back. We arrive to Hall 1, head all the way to Platform 3, and find our seats 5 minutes prior to departure. Whoosh! THAT was another workout!
We arrived in Toulouse and rented our car that was *just* big enough for our bags. We set out for our 2ish hour drive to Saint-Lary-Soulon to watch Stage 14 of the Tour de France roll into the town tomorrow - a dream of Bob’s since he was a kid.
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| A beautiful drive! Sunflowers everywhere! |
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| These trees lining the street totally remind Bob and me of watching the Tour. |
We were greeted by our host at our apartment for the next 5 nights. He was super welcoming, and the place was clean and perfect! We went on a short walk to the grocery store and picked up some food for dinner and breakfast, and settled in to get ready for the Tour tomorrow!
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