A Tale of Two Hotels: Part One, Toulouse

Last night I stayed in the Premiere Classe Hotel near Toulouse airport. It was a two star affair, which had an ambiance somewhere between a cheep motel and a low security prison.

the check in was facilitated by a machine like a cashpoint. Each room had a double bed and a bunk cramed in, a TV without cable (unthinkable in Europe!) and a bathroom built like on in a caravan, where you shower right over the toilet.

Dinner was at Mc Donalds, and the morning wakeup call was an alarm set on the television.

There was a strip of fluro lighting to iluminate the room, and they're very thoughtfully put metal shutters on the windows to keep out the light and the prying eyes of other guests using the walkway.

And the bedspread was quite ugly.

Good and Bad

As though the route that I had to take from Brussels to get back to the south of France wasn't bad enough - the train that I was on from Lyon to Toulouse was over crowded, so I sat in the large luggage rack. Then, 20 minutes into the journey, our train was involved in an accident, and so we were stuck o the tracks for two hours. Luckily it wasn't a Russian train, so we could still use the toilet while we were stopped.

But after all the drama and mayhem, I have made it back to the same little pocket of France where I was a few weeks ago. It's another anonymous little town, but this one has a better bakery. The weather is quite mild, and the vines that were lovely and green last time are now a riot of reds, browns, yellows, purples and browns.

Also, my parents have been very busy in my absence - they've decided to buy a house in this sleepy little village. A great big old place full of dust and peeling wall paper and lovely furniture. So although I'm only here for a week now, I feel that I'll be spending much more time in this area in the years to come.

Things I Didn't Know About Paris

- The Eiffel Tower is brown, not gray.

- The Mona Lisa is not in a room by itself. In fact, it's in a room full of Venetian painting, which is all a it weird.

- Everything is the same price as in Australia, it's just that the price is in Euro, which is worth about twice as much as the dollar. I stopped converting back, and haven't dared to look at my bank balance since.

- There really is a Patisserie on every corner.

- The Bastille Fortress was demolished a very long time ago. Actually, I may have learned this in French history, but forgot. Sorry Sue...

- They have some Metro lines with trains on rubber wheels, it's endlessly fascinating.

- The Notre Dame cathedral is so well restored that it looks like it was built 8 years ago, not 800 years ago.

- That I would have quite as much fun there as I did (A big thankyou to the Kings and Queens and People of Paris for building such an interesting city, collecting so much art and knocking up Versailles too. Also, big thanks to Benoit for dinner, my parents and Claire for a fun night out (in the red light district, no less) and Alex who took the walking tours around the city and Montmartre).

Paris

I hqve left Claire in the charge of the parents and have headed to Paris for a few nights - alone!

I have already purchased a beret and today I`ve got my best party dress on because I`m visiting the Louvre.

I have to go eat a croissant now - life doesn`t get much better than this...

The Supermarket

One of the perverse fascinations I have on holidays is to spend a lot of time in supermarkets. At home, I hate them and generally try and avoid them as much as possible. When I'm in another country however, I love spending time in the supermarket, wandering along every aisle.

I think it has something to do with the fact it's exactly the same principle in every country - rows of food, pay at the end - but the goods available are such a reflection of the country. Whether it's the aisle of olive oil in Italy, the twenty varieties of pierogi in the freezer section in a Poland or the vodka aisle in Mongolia, I always find it disproportionately interesting.

Products that you take for granted at home surprise you by being labelled in another language, or not appearing at all - while things you thought you never needed are for sale.

Anyway, while on a cheese-buying rampage the other day, I came across this square block of brie, and was so amused by the name that I had to take a photo and share it.



If only I always found supermarkets this entertaining...

A Spot of Baking

The loveliest thing about staying in a house, as opposed to the hostels and low low budged hotels that I usually stay in, is the ready access to a functioning, moderately clean kitchen. So yesterday I got a bit baking happy, with various degrees of success.

Item the first: Banana Cake

We had some bananas that were going brown and some almond meal that the last people had left, so we made a flourless banana cake and ate it warm with creme fraiche.

If you noticed on the last post, I currently have access to a digital camera, a computer and snap happy parents. Mum got a photo of the cake so I'll post it later. It looked ugly but tasted delicious.

Item the second: Parma Veggo Style

Again, a product of the dregs of our larder. i fried up thin slices of eggplant, then put cheese and pesto on them and popped the lot in the oven. Super tasty, if I say so myself. We were totally on a roll for the day.

Item the third: Roasted Chestnuts

Mum and I waited for darkness to fall so we could steal some figs from our neighbours tree, seems they were just letting them rot and fall. While out we also picked up a whole heap of chestnuts from the read and thought we'd have a crack at roasting them.

We popped a tray of them in the oven and went back to sitting around. About 20 minutes later there was an Almighty bang, as one of them exploded like a rifle shot in the oven. we opened the oven and another two exploded - disintegrating into shell fragments and white chestnut powder - both to be now found scattered around out lounge area.

We placed the tray of volatile nuts outside and went back to try them later. The best explanation I can give of their taste is that they taste like the odour to be found in large metropolitan subway systems, but a bit more buttery.

So, on the whole that's about a 2/3 success rate for a day of cooking. Today we're off for an excursion to Spain.

Scarf: Complete

After traversing half a dozen countries over 7 time zones, my green scarf that I started in Siberia is now complete!



I knitted the whole thing out on my chopsticks which turned out to be ok knitting needles once I got into the swing of it. It was 30 stitches wide, which isn't too big, but quite hard as the needles taper quickly so I was only working with a very small space. I also have knitted a scarf in an off white natural wool I purchased from a spinner in Finland, that one was only 15 stitches, so it was a quicker job, and I ribbed the ends of it.

The funny thing is, having completed the two projects, the weather here in France is amazing and completely inappropriate for scarves. We're about two hours east of Toulouse, right near the Mediteranian. Every day has been clear blue skys and mid twenties. The evenings are cooler, but seems I don't like red wine when the weather's too hot this is really a perfect arrangement.

Being Frank

This trip is a wonderful mix of the new (China, vising Poland without a visa, expensive shopping adventures, etc.) and the familiar (Sophie in Stockholm, paprika pringles, ol' blighty etc.) - but no part of the adventure has been such a delightful blend of the two than meeting my parents, grandmother, aunt, uncle and cousins in the south of France.

We've taken up residence in a massive, old, lovely house for a week or so, and there's been lots of catching up, chatting, photo sharing and more chatting over breakfast this morning.

It's almost lunchtime, and time for Claire and I to take a walk to get acquainted with le neighbourhood. We're off with the parentals to visit some family friends who moved over here years ago.

Nutrition

I did promise a couple of posts ago that I would let you in on the secrect of how I am maintaining my vitamin intake while travelling. Here's the secret: Coke Light, Plus Vitamins... (ie. Diet Coke to the Aussies)

This perverse piece of marketing tastes the same as the non-vitamin-laden variety of low-calorie Coke, but in a half litre bottle contains 75% of one's daily B12 and Niacin intake. Heaven's knows why these two vitamins have been selected as important, anyone apart from vegans can get enough B12 through their daily intake of meat and/or eggs and dairy. I first saw (and purchased it in Finland, but its also in Sweden, with it's sister product that claims to contain antioxidants).

Still, I had to by a bottle. Looking at the weird and wacky products that global corporations market to different corners of the world is a particular travel fetish of mine. I'd have to say that this is right up there with some of the weirder and wackier ones I've seen.

Anyway, I've had no need for extra nutrition while at Sophie's. Today Claire and I are leaving for a day long train journey to Southern France, where our parents are spending some time. I've resolved, after the last 5 days of eating, to put myself on a bit of a diet. Only fruit, veggies, low fat yogurt, good bread, nice cheeses, quality red wine, premium chocolate, plenty of croissants... dang it, this is going to be harder than I thought...