Visits and photo plans

End of October and the "gang" arrived, Sally, Alan, Angie and Steve for a long weekend (Thur-Mon).
After the French ATC tried to prevent them arriving and BA having cancelled the midday flight they actually arrived within 15 minutes of the planned arrival.
After the short drive home we arrived at the house and had a midnight snack with beverages (be rude not to!).

Friday was a trip to Albi and the Toulouse Lautrec Museum along with an impressive cathedral, arriving around midday and being out of season both were closed until 14.00 and the end of the French 2 hour lunch. So we wandered the streets and gardens chatting, taking photos and generally being impressed by the architecture and vistas. Stopping for a snack lunch in a small cafe the difficulties of understanding accents presented itself with our Irish waitress!
We then made our way back around to the cathedral square and the museum, spending an hour or so in the museum and marvelling at Toulouse Lautrec's works that were on display - I especially like the doodled in school books!

Then to the cathedral, unfortunately it was "organ tuning" which consisted of one note continuously played for what seemed like an eternity - when it stopped there was an audible sigh from the gathered sightseers only to be replaced by looks of disbelief as the next note up was started - suffice to say we stayed long enough to look around and take some photos but not long enough to contemplate too much...

Returning via a cafe for a hot chocolate, coffee and whatever else was required we made our way back to Levignac. We stopped at "The Bell" on the way back for supper and I had "English Fish and Chips" - actually French fish in and english-ish batter and Frites - delish though, the others had steaks, grills and the same as me.

 Saturday we went to the market at L'isle Jordan in the morning, this has to be the best market I have found here with everything from fruit and veg, beef, lamb, chicken and horse butchers, fresh milk on tap (bring a container) and nuns selling honey (the edible kind!). It was the pumpkin festival so gourds and pumpkins of all varieties were dotted around with guess the weight competitions on many stalls - we started poorly as the ladies found a jewellery stall... but 40 minutes later we got to wander the market proper. Once we had wandered, bought and haggled it was into the car and into Toulouse for Lunch. At Place St George we ate at Wallaces, who do the most excellent food, we were entertained by the waiter in the next restaurant (we sat outside in wonderful Autumn sun) seeing how many wine glasses he could bounce off the floor - answer non out of at least six!

We then wandered back to the place du Capitole and the lads found a suitable cafe to reside in while the ladies went to C&A - apparently an essential part of the French trip! - we were treated to the best of French Waitering where you are a blot on an otherwise nice day for the waiter and if you were not there he would be having such a wonderful day! Having got our drinks about 30 seconds before the ladies returned (having sat for at least 20 minutes, and that is nothing to do with being English, or visitors, we were served in order, it is just the French waiters way) we ordered more for them and sat and enjoyed them in the afternoon sun.

Returning home via the Hypermarket (and ANOTHER C&A) we ate at a restaurant near by - not 100% convinced this was the best plan, but it was okay, although early so we were the only ones in there at the start.
Back at home we played some cards, almost learnt crib and various wood related terms... then a game of Trivial pursuit along with plenty of product from the cellar.



Sunday was going to be wet - so an early foray to the Forest and a walk to the memorial for the resistance members that were tourtured and then shot in the forest in 1944, then a return in the drizzle to get back to cook Sunday roast, along with some Skiing, Ski Jumping, Bobsleigh and a round of Golf along with a lap of Spa in an F1 car courtesy of the Wii.

Monday was similar weather wise and also a French holiday so most places shut, so we relaxed and enjoyed good company, got the gang to the airport for about 3.30 and they had a safe trip back.

Avenue du Bouconne Visitors: The first blog post from a visitor

Avenue du Bouconne Visitors: The first blog post from a visitor: "Having just arrived home, having disussed this blog not four hours ago, I'm super impressed that it's been set up...."

Have set up a seperate blog for visits from friends and family, so hopefully will be able to link in some pictures and any fun that is had there - and just maybe the visitors may post (complementary) blog entries!

Steve

Dad's 80th

The weekend after my visitors were here I was back in the UK for my Dad's 80th birthday.

Lily's photo, hmmm...

Family - I have been on a diet since then!

Don't do what your Uncle tells you!

Maybe it is funny when it's Dad?

Studying the menu...

Happy Families

He had no idea that myself, my Sister and her husband and daughter would be decending on them over the weekend and having - eventually - managed to meet up with my Sister and her family we arrived at the front door and he was literally lost for words, a great moment.

Mum had booked a restaurant for Sunday and we travelled there in a large people carrier I had hired - great car - and we were seated in the most fantastic position in the restaurant looking out over the estuary.

The food was amazing! It was a real struggle to choose one thing to have and I could have returned every day for a week to have sampled all the things on there that took my fancy!

It was a great weekend and a very enjoyable family reunion.

Les Filles du Palais en tournée and Jeux Sans Frontiers

So the first non-family visitors arrived in early July for a long weekend, and I think we all had a jolly nice time - and having three women in the house proved to be not as difficult as I thought it might have been...

Louise, Anna and Becca in Gaillac

Easy jet did their utmost to move the arrival from late Thursday night to early Friday morning, but the girls arrived before midnight and once we had made our introductions - only knowing Louise and meeting Becca and Anna for the first time - it was off to chez moi. The temperature even at 11.00pm was well into the mid to high 30's so once we got to the house, it was time for a late supper, some bubbly and a look around the house.

The girls seemed suitably impressed with the accommodation, and I realised I could probably have squeezed them into one room judging by the surprise that they each had one... know better next time...
There was some trepidation at investigating the Fritzel suite, but once down there and realising you couldn't be locked in - and if you were you had access to the Cave a Vin - they seemed happy enough!

After a good nights sleep and a French breakfast we decided that as it was a little overcast there wasn't going to be the Tan Topping activity available that morning - so the decision was taken to venture out in search of Wine.

Gaillac

A little aside here - Toulouse itself doesn't really produce wine - the nearest real wine production is towards Carcassone in the South, Bordeaux in the West and Gaillac to the North East. Gaillac is the nearest at about 50-60 mins drive.
So after the girls had re-showered and replaced tanning products for tanning products that allowed them to go out we made a start on driving to Gaillac.

Although I should probably apologise for the less than impressive iPod selection in the car, I have now (bit late I know) found a couple of good radio stations that play some good, 80's, 90's and 00's music.

How big?

We made it to Gaillac and after driving up and down the same road in a number of directions - I thought of it more as sight seeing rather than not knowing where we were going - and then struggling with the French road sign habit of pointing you in a direction and then at the next two junctions refusing to give you any clues!!! We made it to a wine producers outlet - again in a slight aside I have found some vineyards that you can visit and get a slightly better experience I think - anyway we had a sample of some red and white locally produced wines and after looking around at all that was on display - including the biggest wine glass you are ever likely to see - a case of RED wine was purchased and packed into the car, to be split up later.
We then made our way back into Gaillac and the "House of Wine" some more tasting and the girls very kindly bought me some wine as a thank you - we made our way around Gaillac to see what it had to offer... not a huge amount as it turns out, but we found a café for a café and wine for those not driving, and then continued to explore. Time being a driver we decided to head back towards home and visit the Hypermarche on the way to get some BBQ bits and pieces.

Action shot... but no names...

An uneventful trip back, and a BBQ in the rain! - Well half in the rain and then a few games on the Wii to wrap up the evening

A future Champion looks on...

Next day proved to be fantastically sunny so with only one shower and one application of Tanning product for sitting around in (as opposed to travelling in) it was decided a day by the pool would be the height of the activities. Although Louise had been harbouring a need to build an in pool obstacle course from the week before arriving! So armed with floating spaghettis, diving weights and inflatables a course that could challenge even Flipper was put together - I would say what it was but is far to complicated to remember!!

Is this how dolphin feels...

Suffice to say that after Becca, Myself and Louise had completed our laps (against the clock) Anna, having been a floating obstacle herself stepped up and wiped the floor with us! Obviously having studied our mistakes although pretending to read at the time...

"Your not taking pictures are you...!"

So Jeux Sans Frontiers Champion 2010 to Anna.


 There were then a number of "flotation assisted (or not)" races between the girls of which I have no idea who came out on top but have a suspicion it was Anna the eel - maybe with the use of hidden gadgets, who knows.

Les Filles du Palais

Saturday evening we went into Toulouse, and had a great meal in the Place du Capitole right in the centre of town, girls treat which was really nice.

Meal in Toulouse

It was a shame the weekend had to end on the Sunday, as I think there was a few more days of fun to be had, maybe next time, and a big thank you to the girls for making it all so enjoyable and easy, hopefully there will be a chance to repeat it at some point. Oh almost forgot! When we got the wine back from Gaillac it was WHITE!!! A huge disappointment all round but something to rectify next time, and the Cave is now well stocked after my Châteaux visits now.

Oh dear, four months past...

Well I really am going to have to try and get back in the habit here! Have just set up the "Visitors blog" to collate shared weekends, photos and experiences out here - so will post to there for the people who have been over here.

So I guess I need to sit down now and do July - October, will try and do a post for each month - although not 100% how the memory will serve me to get it all in the right order.

So first up will be July... and the three B's...