placeholder! I am falling behind on this.
(TOULOUSE
We arrived in Toulouse after spending one night in a campground in Montech, just north of the city. It was very ghetto, prostitute on the corner of the street by the large grocery store (families with kids going in and out), a large population of gypsys living in a couple acres of abandoned trashed land right next door to the campground. That night the Russian workers in the campground celebrated their Saturday night all night long. Half the campground appears to be permanent residents, polite if not friendly.
We spent two nights in Toulouse (the pink city) at an inexpensive hotel, the polar bear hotel, in historic downtown toulouse washing ourselves and our clothes and drying all our crap. The tent was beginning to smell a little sour from about 10 days of damp humid days.
Also our shopping bag smelled a lot like cheese!
We got a new soft seat for Doug as his fancy vintage Brooks seat was very uncomfortable. And then we jettisoned his failing shopping bag style panniers and upgraded to a bright fluorescent yellow/green pair from the ubiquitous French outdoor sport chain store Decathlon.
our sightseeing was minimal, coffees and croissants, biking around small narrow old streets to the lavarie for laundry, discovering a neighborhood wine bar and having a carafe of delicious haute médoc, finding a good falafel place on the busy Strasbourg rue and having sushi nearby the hotel. We spent time hanging out in Wilson square, capitole square, the marché victor hugo (plus being lost at various times).
(Details to be put here)
we are in Trèbes which has municipal camping (read inexpensive, about 11 euros as opposed to 30 or 50). We will be biking back north a couple of miles to see Carcassonne.