Here we go!
Needless to say I got myself extremely excited for the start of this adventure. In the week before I left a few nerves started kicking in, but every now and then I would also literally start shaking and giggling with anticipation. The hardest part was saying my goodbyes. I am a real family man and have never been away from them for anywhere near this long. Saying goodbye and wondering when I might see them again was really tough and was one of those occasions where I just feel like I closed up a bit. I didn't cry or go over the top with my farewells - if anything I probably just said a quick bye with a hug and left it at that. For someone who is sometimes very open with my emotions there are some things I just find hard to express and saying goodbye is one of them. I'm sure my friends and family know me well enough by now and know that I will miss them like crazy and was sobbing like mad on the inside.
I left a cold and rainy England only to arrive a few hours later in a cold and rainy Toulouse just as it was getting dark. This then led to the logical decision of walking straight out of the airport and walking 7 miles to my hotel through a city I didn't know at night. I got soaked but did manage to find the Porte de L'Embouchure which is the very start of the Canal du Midi. 4 miles later and I was at my hotel.
I hardly slept as I was so keen to get going and was delighted the following morning to walk straight into a boulangerie and buy myself a croissant, a pain au chocolate and a baguette. I love french foods, particularly the baked goods; it was one of my main reasons for choosing France for this adventure! I feel a little guilty towards the city of Toulouse as I then found the canal and walked out of town as quickly as I could. Toulouse may well be lovely (the bits I saw were nice enough) but I just had a real hunger for the countryside. I got this gradually, though the suburbs and small surrounding towns meant it was quite some distance before I actually felt out in the wild. Having said that, the weather was perfect, the buildings were interesting and I got to see some of the bits Toulouse is famous for like the many Airbus buildings and the university, complete with some weird cable car thing that I need to look up what it is for! I arrived in Montgiscard that afternoon and felt that I had found exactly the type of place I was dreaming of when I planned this trip. Traditional, old French town with a pleasant feel to it. The canal around here is lovely as it still has some of its famous plane trees planted on both sides of it. Sad that these are being cut down due to a disease that is spreading through them!
Recommendation:
So, I am not going to do this too often, but, should I be able to inspire some of you to do a similar adventure, every now and then I am going to recommend some of my good finds. One of these was a Chambre D'Hote (French version of a bed and breakfast) in Montgiscard. La Casanat is a gorgeous place right by the canal run by a lovely lady called Natalie. The rooms are charming, the decor and style is fun (I stayed in the Tropical Room!), the town is wonderful and the host is kind enough to have a pleasant conversation with me via Google translate as my French is still appalling! Highly recommend if you are coming this way!
After my first day I had a renewed determination to improve my french. I currently have what I would class as survival french - I can get my food and accommodation and ask for directions, but I can't have a conversation yet. Learning french is one of the areas where I feel like my dyslexia really holds me back as I never really remember things until I fully understand them. I am hoping this will mean that when I improve my theory of things like verb conjugations, all of the other bits will start to make sense and stick. Fingers crossed, as I really want to get to know France and some of the lovely people here.
Day 2 was another day of rain. This didn't dampen my spirits though as I really don't mind a good rainy walk, especially as I knew I was staying in a hotel again and not camping. I think I will be doing a mixture of hotels, Chambre D'Hotes and AirBNBs for now as many of the campsites are closed. If the weather improves I may also throw in some wild camping (unless you are French in which case I definitely won't be doing this).
Through the drizzle I got some lovely scenes along the canal and even got to see some wildlife. It was way too far away for my phone camera to pick out but I saw my first eagle of the trip, a short toed eagle (thank you Dad for showing me a picture of these before I left as I may have thought it was a buzzard if not).
One slight gripe about the walk so far has been the highway that runs close to the canal at all times so far. Even when you are out in the country you can just hear it constantly though this is probably louder than usual as the roads were wet. Really looking forward to the next stage of my walk as, 1. I lose the road tomorrow! 2. The weather forecast looks like it is improving and 3. Some of the really cool towns are coming up, including Castelnaudary tomorrow which is famous for Cassoulet; a wonderful dish that I hope I will describe in my next blog.
I also had to stop off for supplies today and learnt something very useful: the hypermakets here are so much cheaper and better than the chain corner shops like Spar. I was a little worried for my budget when I first filled up in Toulouse but learning this has reassured me. Many of them also have huge amounts of local produce, so well worth checking out. I was getting particularly concerned as chocolate, a staple part of my diet, in Toulouse was really expensive. I thought it looked similar in the hyper market when a bar was 2.65 euros, only to discover that it was for 5 decent size bars! Oh well, losing weight can wait a while longer :)
Total distance so far = 37.4 miles over the two days.