Light and shade

Today was our Big Adventure in Toulouse.  A bit too big.  But I'll get to that.

We parked in the centre of town, as Mr B had to get to the airport at the end of the day for a flight to London.  A bit of a stroll to examine the various lunch options, then lunch in a shady side street (duck restaurant) and more wandering in the vague (really very vague) direction of the Natural History Museum.  Which was excellent.  They had lots of folk giving impromptu talks on things for the kids (as it's still the Easter holidays here), CarbBoy was sucked into one and ended up being the class swot (I guess all those nature shows sunk in despite him playing Minecraft at the same time).  When I went to persuade him to leave, the lady leading the session had started ignoring him and trying to get someone else to answer.  I think she was a little glad to see the know-it-all pulled away...

The Museum has botanic gardens attached, which were very interesting - but needed a lot of weeding.  Still, some very interesting plants nonetheless.  The park next door was one of those fabulous French parks with wide avenues for strolling, pony rides, roller-blading, ice cream vans and (for me) lots of great plants to admire.  Including this tree above (anyone able to identify it?)

More wandering up and down streets and in and out of churches (oh, so cool in there) and eventually - after the longest search for a WC which we eventually found (thanks to a website) in our carpark - for the kids' first kebab.  Actually, they didn't partake: TallGirl had a very classy looking brochette type thing, and CarbBoy obviously just had chips.  But our kebabs were very fine, though Mr B was slightly disappointed that they weren't as greasy as the ones he remembers from late night kebab vans at College.

So, in all a grand day out.  We had no agenda or list of must-do things.  We just wandered wherever we fancied, with the iPhone there to help if we wanted to head more specifically somewhere.  And so our rambling saw us crossing all the bridges, wandering through the university, trying the doors on all the churches we passed (some very avant garde organ music going on in one church I don't think we were supposed to be in).  We didn't really achieve much, but we walked our legs off in the beautiful spring sunshine.

And so back to the car to drive to the airport.

Yes, you've guessed it.  The car started, drove 2 metres and then stopped.  A woman a few cars down was having an awful job trying to get a huge 4x4 out - by just crashing into cars until they moved out of the way - so we pushed ours back into its space to avoid further catastrophe.  With Mr B due at the airport, options were limited.  So, we went to the carpark office and asked for advice.  To cut a very long story short, the car was pronounced unfixable by the carpark chaps and calling out a mechanic at that hour would have required a mortgage and the sacrifice of our first born.  So, leaving our car in the stupidly expensive carpark, the super lovely carpark chap drove us to the airport where Mr B, looking about as guilt-ridden as you could imagine a man looking as he abandoned his wife and children at nightfall in a strange city, got on his plane, and we headed off to figure out whether to hire a car or get a hotel.  Car hire won.  

I'm now at home wondering whether sticking my head in a bucket and saying 'lalalalalalalalala' until it's all over is an option.

Tomorrow I will be mostly driving and handing over my credit card.