April 25, 2023 to April 27, 2023
Two days in Toulouse
Getting to Toulouse
When it works, international travel truly is a marvel of the modern world. The entire trip went exactly according to plan: In Montreal we walk 8 minutes to the local bus station, ride the airport shuttle that zooms in its bus lane past all the rush-hour traffic, check in at a machine that trusts we have only the allowed hand luggage (a tent is a permitted 3rd personal item, right?), convince security that tent pegs are not dangerous, eat, watch a movie and sleep on the plane arriving in Paris the next morning, hop on the RER downtown, stroll past the Montparnasse cemetery to the Gare TGV, pick up our first delicious French baguette sandwich of the trip, buy a French SIM card for the phone, find our seats and fall asleep on the train, change in Bordeaux, arrive in Toulouse, 4 stops on the metro to our hotel where our room is waiting for us, freshen up and find a bistrot for a light dinner. Twenty-one hours later, we are in a very different place! Bienvenue en France!
Wednesday started cold and wet so we headed to les halles to buy food for the next two days; artichokes are in season as well as peas, squash and lettuce at a stand featuring local biologique produce, then a truite des Pyrénées and of course a few cheeses and pain artisanale, all from friendly, even chatty people who defied our expectation of surly French clerks. After a healthy, home-made lunch the sky was brightening and we made our way out to the HomeBox where we paid our bill, pumped up the tires, put the panniers on the bikes and let Rides with GPS find us a series of bike paths back to the hotel.
Thursday we adjusted the bikes, rode through and around and out of the city, making sure everything worked and toughening up our bums while admiring the scene. On a warm spring day the old centre was busy with tourists and the sidewalk cafes were filling up but the outer streets and paths were quiet. We marvelled at the network of bike lanes, relaxed along the the canal-side paths, admired the imposing architecture of various eras, the tiny delivery vehicles, the fashionable people, the number of people who smoke?? We ate a delicious lunch at Cafe Triplette, beside the massive Basilique St Serin, which we had read about but couldn't get a table when we were here last October.
Tomorrow, we somehow will get all this stuff into panniers and onto the bikes for a short ride to campground chosen only for its location, where we will discover if we remember how to set up the camping gear and if we are still not too old to sleep in a tent!
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1 year ago
It might have been a 2m box, I can’t recall exactly but I do know that we paid about 40Euros per month in both Toulouse and Lisbon and both times we had to take off the front wheels to get everything in. In Barcelona we paid 78Euro per month but the facility was downtown and it must have been 3m as we had ample space to wheel the bikes in. None of the smaller boxes were available there.
The free month promotion was only for a year or more lease.
Be prepared to sign a lease and for much paperwork. At all 3 they wanted to set up a monthly payment plan with a European bank. We don’t have a European bank so, after much discussion i was able to prepay the entire amount by credit card, except for the last month that was covered mostly by the security deposit. Getting the deposit back is tricky as they are accustomed to refunding to a European bank so we learned to say we were coming back a month sooner.
It pays to shop around as there is a big range of prices.
This time we are bringing the bikes home as we don’t know when we will be back in Europe or where we want to start. Also we want our bikes in Canada for the summer.
1 year ago
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1 year ago
Today's ride: 40 km (25 miles)
Total: 40 km (25 miles)
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