I’ve officially decided the France is my spirit country…like you’re spirit animal, but it’s my country.  I have now been to France 3 times (Paris, Lyon, and now a weekend in Toulouse and Bordeaux), and each time, I leave happy, full [of cheese] and planning my next trip. 

Toulouse and Bordeaux both blew me away, and far exceeded my expectations.  Luis and I bought tickets to go to Toulouse because they were just 20 Euros (!!!) round trip, and after my good friend Meaghan encouraged us to also go to Bordeaux, we added made a quick stop there.  It ended up being perfect, and I would highly recommended visiting BOTH cities.

It all comes down to the food.  I love food and France does food so well.  They appreciate good food.  I appreciate good food.  It makes me happy.

Our flight out of Madrid was at 6:00 am (it was about as miserable as it sounds…but worse for Luis, who went to bed at 3:00 am!!).  As soon as we arrived at the Airbnb, we dropped off our bags (check out the views!)

And then – since Luis was so sleepy – we decided to buy tickets to Bordeaux so he could sleep on the train.  Round trip tickets weren’t expensive (about 25 Euros each, but without realizing, we bought one way train tickets and the return trip was by bus) and I am so glad we went!  The train there took about 2 hours.

After buying a Subway sub, we settled in on the train.  Luis slept the whole way there, and as soon as we arrived, we set out for lunch since it was raining.

We settled on this little restaurant called La Belle Epoque, which looked warm and quaint, and it was!

We ordered their set menu, which included this delightful squash soup, warm goat cheese salad, and then main courses.  We chose beef (me) and duck (Luis).  Luis made the better choice.

From there, we set out to explore!  I love, love, love the quiet streets.  We kept commenting on how empty it was, yet full of beautiful shops and cafes.  There seemed to be a lot of jewelry and home design stores, as well as clothing boutiques and specialty food shops.

It started to rain again, so we stopped for a coffee in this brunchy spot.

And then continued wandering.

This, to me, is France in a photo:

From there, we stopped for another coffee.  I told Luis “get the biggest one they have”.

We ain’t in America.

We continued wandering around, meandering in and out of shops and this petite market.

Stopped for a [mediocre] bagel along the way and then found the best shops ever!  My heart fluttered/ skipped a beat when I saw this:

Trader Joe’s ain’t got NOTHING on artisinal French cheese.  NOTHING.  I bought one to take home, and then the next day, three more.  They’re almost gone.

Remember how I said I love blue cheese now?  I bought three types and THEY’RE SO GOOD.  But if that’s not enough, we also stumbled upon this…

We bought a little chocolate one and saved it for the next day, to eat with a coffee.  Made my day/ life.

From there, we headed to the train station and then found out we (I) had bought bus tickets.  Luckily, we got there with time, so we rode the bus for 3 hours back to Toulouse, headed to the airbnb, and PASSED OUT from exhaustion.  What a full, but perfect day.

The next morning, once we were up, caffeneited and breakfast-ed, we went out for a run!  Running is a great way to see a new city, since you can cover so much ground in so little time.  We ran for about an hour and accidentally got lost, but we found our way home.  Seeing Toulouse on foot was great.  It was charming, and like Bordeaux, surprised me in how quaint it is!

After our cold run, hot showers were in order, followed by a quick lunch at home (and more cheese…) and then we finally got out to the tram stop.  We waited 10 minutes and then, to my horror, I realized I FORGOT THE PASTRY!  Had to run back and retrieve it from the fridge!Close call!!!  

We took the tram into town and found this little Christmas market, where they were selling homemade food, crafts, jewelry, and more.

We walked around for a while, bought some cheese from Xavier Fromagerie (amazing) and then stopped for some wine in a little bar.  We saw the Pont Neuf Bridge, which was beautiful since it was all lit up.  Eventually, we stopped for some dinner at a Korean restaurant called Boli Cafe.  We both agreed it looked better than it tasted, but we left satisfied.

That meal ended our trip to Toulouse and Bordeaux, as we had an early morning flight back to Madrid.  We both agreed it was a great little getaway, so if you’re looking for a quick trip, look into going to Toulouse and Bordeaux in a weekend!