26km of 2141 so far…

I woke up and I had a good breakfast waiting for me, with tea croissants and home made marmalade. Packed my bike, said goodbye and thank you and headed for Toulouse.

Rennes and me before I left for Toulouse

Toulouse wasn’t far away at all. A little more than 10 km, so I took it easy and got there at about 11am. I knew it was going to rain today, so I was debating whether I should look for a hostel and be closer to the center. At the tourist office they told me there isn’t any camp site, so that solved my problem. It took me some time and frustration in the rain to find it, because the word hostel doesn’t exist in French. I am a little curious to see how much better, or not, I will sleep on a bed, after spending a month sleeping in my tent. The hostel it self is good enough and very cheap plus free wifi.

After I checked in, I did a massive laundry and I took some time to look after my bike. It’s been a few days now and especially after Pyrenees, that I wanted to swap the front to back tires, as the back one wears off faster because of the weight. After visiting the local outdoors shop to fully pump up the tires and buy a few extra things, I was ready to go around the city.

I randomly wondered around the alleys, I crossed the bridges a couple of times had a snack. The city is big enough and even has a metro system. The most fascinating thing though are the bikes. Toulouse like many other big French cities, have public bikes to go around. With 5euros per week, you can ride a bike for half an hour for free and then each hour is about a euro or something. Very good system I believe and I saw many people using it. Most of the big buildings are made of bricks, apparently because there aren’t any quarries close enough. Bridges, churches, town hall and museums are all red.

Reloading the public bikes

Painting on a store

La Garonne

The river from the other side

After a little bit of walking I ended up in the Modern art Museum. Most of it is being renovated at the moment, so nothing special apart from the big permanent exhibits outiside.

The entrance of the museum

The cafe of the museum

Les Abattoirs

Espace d'Art Moderner Contemporain

Then it started raining again. I got soaked and started making my way back to the hostel, graving for some pizza to eat. Luckily I realized there is a very good and cheap restaurant at the hostel, so with only €9 I had a full mean with salad, desert and drink.

Time for sleep now on a soft bed!