Marseilles to Toulouse: Personal Victory
This is the face of victory. It’s a tired face, too. After spending the day driving from Marseille to Toulouse (with a lunch stop in Nimes) and getting past the anxiety around returning the car, I was much relieved to get into my hotel room in Toulouse. It felt like a personal victory as I completed the last leg of the driving part of my journey.
The day started with some minor stress about whether I could retrieve the car I had parked two days prior in the public garage behind the hotel in Marseille. I hadn’t quite understood some of the signs and was really hoping it would still be there. It was a drizzly and gray day when I finally took to the road back to Toulouse. Fortunately there was only one Toulouse so I wasn’t going to make the same mistake on the way into Marseille.
Initially I opted for the fastest route but after filling up the tank (another small victory) I decided to annoy the nav system gal (boy is she persistent) and chose a country road instead of the highway. I really enjoy driving on these roads and through the countryside. I stumbled upon Montcalm which appeared to be some sort of school for kids interested in horses. There seemed to be some sort of kid birthday party going on and not much to see on the inside but very pretty on the outside.
At this point, the rain had stopped making it much easier to see things from the road. I was debating about where to go for lunch and decided to put Nimes into the nav system and follow the signs on the country roads. At the stop lights I was trying to figure out what to see in Nimes to make it worthwhile to stop and opted to follow the signs for Centre Ville. I found an underground car park and decided to just go for it. It was really really quiet and empty which was a bit eerie. But lovely, too. I took a picture of where I came out of the car park to make sure I could find it again (Next time I am going to bring a Tile or something to more easily find my car).
I looked at Google Maps to see what was close and realized that if I had just looked up, I would have seen the Jardin des Plantes a block or so away (I should have realized that the promenade I was parked under would lead to something).
The gates were closed and people seemed to find it odd. I decided to keep walking and find a restaurant for lunch. As I walked I encountered some beautiful buildings and a lovely square with art sculptures.
This seemed to be the perfect place to have lunch so after rejecting the Italian restaurant, I chose l’Imprevu which seemed to be filled with locals. The food and service were excellent and after having some of the best seared foie gros I’ve ever had and my last cafe gourmand (sigh…I love these) I decided I needed to walk around more before I got back on the road.
The area is multiple levels. I loved the water on the main grounds and was delighted to see the swans in one of the areas. Rather than simply staying at ground level, I opted to go up the crumbling stairs to see what was at the top.
I was huffing and puffing as I got to the top and realized there wasn’t much there and because of the greenery, no real view to see so I followed the road at the top around and ended up on a residential street with some pretty old and beautiful houses. There was this beautiful gate.
And a bit further down when I looked over the stone wall, I saw a private garden with a statue tucked away.
I proceeded down the hill and at one point was really hoping that it would end up at back at the garden because I really didn’t want to retrace my steps and walk back up. Fortunately I ended up on the side of the park with a crumbling structure/ruin of some sort that screamed for some exploration.
I have no idea what it is and at this point realized that I really needed to get back on the road if I had any hope of arriving in Toulouse with some daylight. I was quite nervous about returning the car. The simple instructions for returning after 6 PM as provided by the rental guy when I left Toulouse were concerning me.
The sun was coming out and I couldn’t resist a selfie by the canal. It really was quite picturesque. Once again I was rewarded for getting off the road, stepping outside my comfort zone to take what really is a small risk (in this case it would simply have been disappointment and lost time if the stop ended up being without anything historical and worth seeing). I found a great restaurant, practiced my French, got in a nice walk, and saw pretty things.
I managed to find the car, exit the car park, and after only two failures to follow the nav system gal (she adjusted on one and had me do a u-turn on another) I was back on the road to Toulouse, this time on the main road.
One of the things I noticed in France was that in the car parks, they piped in classical music. It was quite lovely and unexpected.
The other thing I noticed was that as I was driving along or walking around, I would be narrating what was going on, in French. I really do need to work on my verb tenses but I do in fact know a lot of words…it’s just putting them together that is hard and it is also hard for me to understand what other people are saying short of having them write things down for me.
After a while, the week started catching up with me and I really wanted a coffee and to take some pictures of the countryside. The rest stops in France (my mom says that this is true for Europe) are quite nice. They offer gas, food, showers, bathrooms, places to park to walk around, and little shops. Since I now knew how to use the coffee machines, I confidently approached one to get a double espresso and waited for it to be prepared.
While it wasn’t the best cup of coffee and the cup itself was pretty flimsy, it was still quite nice to stand for a few moments in the ‘standing’ area where other people were consuming their beverages and snacks and consume my own espresso.
As I was approaching Carcassone and the sun was setting, I had a choice to make: risk that it would be closed and guarantee my arrival into Toulouse after dark or proceed to Toulouse knowing I would have a few minutes of daylight to figure out how to return the car. I chose the latter as I realized that there is so much to see in the area that we are definitely going to have to come back. Next time, I want to be better prepared to see some of the sights by mapping them out in advance. This was more of a spontaneous trip (AKA I was too lazy to take the time for this trip).
I listened to more episodes of TWIT (this week in tech) to catch up on the latest in technology as I continued the drive oftentimes losing track of the conversations in the podcast as I got caught up in my own thoughts. Being alone on trips/drives like this gives one time to reflect. I realized I will need more time for reflection when I return in order to truly absorb what I gained on this adventure.
I arrived in Toulouse and followed the nav system directions making only one error (which I corrected by cutting someone off at a light) and found what I thought was the right parking garage. It was almost dark at this point and as I drove up to the top floor and did a turn about the top, I didn’t know if I was in the right place so I asked the only person up there for assistance. He pointed out the Hertz parking spots right next to me (doh!) and told me he would show me where to return the key as he was going that direction (and oddly enough he had been in Marseille earlier in the week taking photos of a soccer match and then in another city taking photos of a rugby match). Our conversation was in both English and French as he claimed his English was bad (as every French person does even though most speak very good English considering) and I have trouble understanding when he spoke too quickly.
I was s relieved to return the key and really hope that they figure out where I parked the car. I am pretty sure I locked it. I had hoped to take a picture of the odometer as evidence of the 1430 km driven but was pretty relieved to have the help from the gentleman and didn’t want to make him wait.
There was a bit of excitement as a fight broke out near where we were but was over as quickly as it started. Since we were at the train station, there were quite a few people around.
It was much colder than the previous Saturday when I had first arrived in Toulouse and the walk to the hotel was brisk. It was quite nice to know that I was going to be at a familiar hotel and I was greeted quite well by the staff when I arrived. And they even had the portable charger I had left the previous week.
I dropped my bags and got back out onto the streets of Toulouse, this time by foot, to get back to Les Enfants Terribles for dinner. I was a bit nervous as I had gotten completely lost the week before but decided to use Google Maps to expedite the process. My battery went from 60% to 1% in about 15 minutes causing additional anxiety about getting there and the return. I decided I would have them get me a cab for the return to relieve part of my worry and used the last bit of juice to get me to the restaurant.
Manon, Magda, and Clara greeted me so warmly and with such delight that I knew I had made the right choice in coming back. I wish my phone hadn’t died because I would have gotten a picture of all of us. I had taken this photo the week before.
The food was excellent and the people watching interesting. I had noticed earlier that everyone wears scarves…even the little kids.
After dinner instead of taking a taxi, I decided to brave the streets on foot. I had a map and I talked through the route with Manon. But of course I took a wrong turn and got turned around and without any juice in my phone finally asked this group of three how to get back to my hotel.
It turns out that two of them work for Airbus and the other is working on his PhD in aeronautics and all three are from Spain. We talked aviation as I walked with them back to a spot where I could easily get back to my hotel. One of them was a gal and I expressed how thrilled I was that she was into aeronautics and that we need to get more girls/women into it. Yes, always advocating for women!
I had one last glass of champagne in the hotel bar and met a miserable Brit who works for Airbus, hates Toulouse, and had gotten into a big fight with his girlfriend (they were both around 50). And when she came down and they started to get into it again, I decided it was time for bed. I later heard them come up to my floor and continue their arguing. Eventually it stopped.
And before I knew it, it was 1 AM and I had to get some sleep before the 4 AM alarm. I woke up in a panic at 3 AM realizing I hadn’t checked to make sure there were no changes to my flights. So today I am working on 2 hours of sleep.
I am not quite home yet…still have the last leg from Frankfurt to SFO but the hard part is over. I am pretty damn proud of what I did…my grand adventure. I traveled by myself to France, drove in multiple countries where I had limited language skills, asked for help when I needed it, did things despite being uncomfortable, and connected with some amazing people. I emerge victorious and determined to take on bigger things when I return to my civilization.
