Day 12, 13, 14 Toulouse – Montauban

Apr 3, 20152 min read

Before we left Castanet, Madame Michelle took us to see her new small little B&B that is going to be right on the canal. It is an old pump house and she is going to make it a quaint little place with 2 bedrooms, a tea room and a place to cook and lounge outside. It has a ways to go, but it is going be charming!

Madame dropped us off at the subway for Toulouse and we headed into town. With the wind and the rain, we decided to give ourselves a little break and also to get some much needed rest. Toulouse is a big city with unique architecture made of pinkish bricks, which earned it the nickname la Ville Rose (“the Pink City”.)

The Canal du Midi ends in Toulouse and another canal,The Canal de Garonne, dating from the 19th century, connects Toulouse to Castets-en-Dorthe. The remainder of the route to Bordeaux uses the Garonne River. We are now walking the Canal de Garonne and have stopped at a lovely, lovely town called Montauban. Steeped in history, as all of these places are, Montauban has fabulous architecture and the most precious shops. I am happy (mostly) that I can’t carry anything as I would have so many bags with me after my day of walking around town. Instead I visited the churches, and as it is Maundy Thursday the churches were quiet and the crosses were covered. Maundy Thirsday is a service I would always attend in NYC when the whole church would go black and we would leave in silence and we would come back on Easter Sunday to life, lilies, singing, and gorgeous hats.

Tomorrow we head for Mossaic and I really hope we have some sunshine. Until tomorrow….Here are a few photos. 🙂