Hotel Cantepau - Logis De France Albi

... we had a major hail storm (the worst I have ever seen in my life) and their "beautiful" dam had been severely damaged. So back at the Viaur, the girls on the shore chatting and relaxing, and the boys in the cold water their focus and energy entirely devoted to building a dam that won't be there next year when we come back. Boys will always be boys.
We spent a nice Monday hanging out with the cousins who were still around and headed back to Lyon.

Distance (14 miles)

Hungover we found ourselves in a poor part of Toulouse where people were selling random items (like a single roller blade!?) on tarpauling. People kept trying to sell us cigerettes on the street. Then a load of Police came running round the corner and busted one of them by stealing the offenders cigarettes and stamping all 200 of them into the ground ...

... out of bags, too many tourists etc. so we decided to head for the hills (or Alps to be more precise), and visit some of the Italian lakes. We found a great little campsite just outside Bellagio on Lake Como. The weather was great and all was well with the world. We took a boat trip around the lake and visited Varenna, the most beautiful town on the lake. On our way back we called into an internet café to look at a weather forecast - not good.. 4 ...

... brain was broken up into pieces and sautéed in butter and herbs. It looked like chicken nuggets and actually tasted pretty good- yes, I tried a bite of it too. John liked the stuff and ate the whole portion. Anyway, we are staying here a couple of nights and exploring the area on foot and by car. The roads continue to be a challenge, but now we have the added fun of dealing with antiquated tunnels through some of the mountains. The tunnels are very long, only one lane wide ...

The drive towards Albi from the Dordogne was very chilled, the weather had picked up considerably and the rain seemed to be behind us, the route was very picturesque, long windy roads, worn away little towns and lonely houses in the middle of nowhere, the terrain was getting generally dryer and barren, it felt like Spain wasn't far away. We stopped for dinner in St Antonin Noble Val, it didn't look particularly special at first and we only stopped as we saw a point ...

... either buys at a huge market like this one; at small shops that usually feature one type of goods or another; at large open-air marketplaces; or at tiny neighborhood stores that have a few staples, but always have fresh produce on display. Most foods have few preservatives and so don't keep for very long, so marketing is done often if not daily. Combined with the tiny mini-bar refrigerators at the hotel and the fact that, in France ...

We landed in Toulouse on Saturday night to spend the week with Emma's parents. This would give us the chance to acclimatise to being unemployed and also give us a chance to practise with the new Canon..... and after reading the manual for a good hour, we definitely need it. On Sunday, the plan was to have an English lunch in the traditional French ...

... the pieces. Some of them were downright ugly though. The museum itself was much smaller than I expected. But it is in a beautiful building, the Palais de la Berbie which was built as a bishop's residence in 1265. The author lists the entrance fee as 4 euros, but it is now 5 euros.

... her family picked me up. The drive to their countryside home was approximately an hour from the train station. Throughout my stay in France I have experienced many incidences of car sickness because of the curvy roads and the roundabouts that are scattered throughout their road system. Needless, to say the drive to Laura's house was extremely beautiful, but also made me feel a little ill. When we arrived at their ...

... idyllic life. I was pleased with the result of my final painting and was able to see all of my learning captured on a single sheet of paper. Friday morning was the last day of the course, which consisted of us all bringing our work together to share and critique. As the course is structured in such a way as to allow students freedom to work how they choose, I had not seen a lot of the work since students had been painting in ...