Le Ruble
Trip Start
Jun 24, 2008
1
22
41
Trip End
Aug 28, 2008
Toulouse,
France
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
I hade been full of plans to get up early and take some sunrise flowers. But no such luck, people slowly started to get up. After the cool evening we woke up to a beautiful day. Aase's family with the little kids were up first. They went to get some bread but couldn't find the bakery and got some from the supermarket. I made some toast from yesterdays bread, which was O.K. Marianne was not happy with that so we went off with Søren to see if we could do better. We did find the bakery and bought lots of baguettes. So by the time we had helped ourselves to the different bits, I certainly didn't need lunch. We spent some time exploring the place, it's full of nocks and crannies, a wonderful place for the children to play hide-and seek
It was time to check out the pool, The boys were having a lovely noisy time, we discovered later that late afternoon is the best time for the pool, by that time they have tired a little.
Time to go and photograph some sun flowers just in case the weather packs up or they die. The season last only for a couple of weeks
Le Ruble
. We only walked down the drive and photographed the one adjacent to the Château. Got lots of lovely photos. My brother Peter drove further down the road, where he said they were even better.It was now time to have a few drinks and start grilling for dinner. Søren is in charge of the grilling and the girls make salads. Much warmer tonight and we sat outside talking till all hours.
Saturday July 19
Market day, so Peter, Marianne, Gerda, Jan-Erik and myself head for the market in Beaumont-les-Lomange, not a big market, but full of life. First we sort out a place for coffee, as in so many places like that they only serve drinks, so off to the bakery first for some croissants. Weather perfect again. It's a pretty rushed market trip as we need to get back home and then leave for Montauban around midday to get Anne-Marie and the kids off the train. Very pleased we have found out that she can get off the train there rather than Toulouse, ½ an hours drive versus 1 hour and easier to find.
Well it would have been easy if I had put the right destination into the GPS. My excuse is that my French is non existing. As it turned out you couldn't actually put Gare (station) into the GPS, but needed the name of the station, which we didn't know. Well we managed to find the station on the GPS map and then select it as our destination. Luckily we had had a SMS telling us that the train was late so we didn't have to panic.
They had a big parking area by the station, very messy and I would not leave my car there for too long, there was a lot of glass on the ground where cars obviously had been broken into
market
. As we had time to spare we bought a sandwich and a coke at the station café. Again very messy, there was broken glass and butts around one of the tables from a broken ashtray that nobody bothered to clean up.It was great seeing Anne-Marie and the kids again. The kids were certainly happy to see us. Francesca hung onto be on the whole way back to Le Ruble.
They were impressed with the place. The have rented 'the Stables'. Have to say they are nicer than the Château. Have been renovated more recent. I gave the kids a quick tour of the Château and then we headed for the pool. Anne-Marie joined us once she had unpacked.
We were having all kinds of grilled fish for dinner. Peter and I had to leave early to get Martin from the airport in Toulouse about 9pm. An hours drive there and an other back, we took the fastest route, which was also supposed to be the best, according both to our host and the GPS. Our GPS started having trouble when we got close to the airport, but at least then there were signs. Same problem leaving the airport, so we ended up initially just following the signs for the green roads (not motorways). Turned out to be easier than the motorway and if it took longer it would have been 5 minutes at the most. Not very nice driving in the twilight. Everybody was still up when we got back about 10.30pm. even the kids who were very happy to see their dad. I didn't stay up long.
21.45 Sunday July 20th
It's still very light outside, but I'm ready for bed. I has been a couple of exciting days but also very tiring. Both my girls are now here, just waiting for Kate, but I'm so tired, I can't even get excited at the moment. So much driving. When we picked Lisa up today we decided to take the shortest route, turned out it wasn't bad at all, very pretty, good roads and only 45 minutes. Know which way we will take next time.
Before picking up Lisa I went with Gerda and Jan-Erik to Cahors, they had heard so many great things about it, sadly it was a disappointment to all of us. A pretty enough town but not worth the 200km trip. One good thing about it was that we stopped in Montauban on the way back and got the rail tickets for them. Charlotte with a lot of vomiting. Hopefully they will both recover quickly.
