Beneath the Pyrenees

On the weekend of June 27 and 28th we drove about an hour south of Toulouse near the town of Foix, to go on an underground river ride at the river de Labouiche. It was not your typical pontoon ride out on Clear Lake in the Brainerd Lakes Area. You ride around, 10 people per metal boat, no motor, with the guide pulling the boat along from the line permanently rodded into the cave ceiling above you. All and all, a pretty interesting but weird boat ride under the mountain. They didn't allow cameras down there but they had this Johnny Quest like photo on a poster outside.

Then we continued on to a small town that's a big winter skiing destination here called Luchon. We found an awesome old hotel for $50 euros a night...it was a shock how nice it was for that money. Here's a pic showing the view from our room window.

Luchon is known for their natural steam rooms, cut out from under the Pyrenees mountain there (continuing with our 'under the mountain' theme weekend) that they call 'The Vaporarium'. Da Romans discovered it initially..."hey Tony, check dis out...it's frickin hot in der"

Part of the treatment package there we signed up for was the 'Jet Shower' which we thought would have been like one of those new Kohler showers with jets comin at ya from everywhere. We were in a waiting room beforehand and watched a guy go into a room and turn this big hose on. Then he came out and took Randi in there first. I'm sittin there realizing the guy didn't come back out...thinkin...he's not sprayin her down in there is he! She comes out after about 10 minutes with this funny grin on her face, as the guy calls for me to go in there. What it was was basically to go stand up against the wall and have a guy spray a power hose at ya. It was good they start with having you face the wall, as Randi and I both couldn't stop laughing when we realized what it was. It was pretty funny. At least he chain us to the wall and interrogate us in French :)
After the spa 'treatment' we took an 8 minute ride on the Teleporter (gondola) to the ski area above the town...they call it the tiny town at the top Luchon Superbagnere !!


Incredible view up there....that's Spain behind us.

The Toulouse Music Festival

On Sunday June 21st we made sure we were in town for the acclaimed Toulouse Music Festival that we had heard about since arriving here. We invited Randi's co-workers over to our place, for the first time, for some drinks and snacks at 3pm and then hit the streets around 5pm.
We found out we were about an hour too early for the Festival after getting out there. Most of the bands weren't starting until 6pm or 7pm but there were a lot of folks out and plenty of entertainment value there. We really enjoyed seeing a lot of different bands setup on every other street corner. The church band even appeared to be ready with a big screen for later in the evening.


The bands played, we think, until like 2am...we could hear them still from our bedroom. If we ever have a chance to see it again, which I doubt, we would be starting much later and trying to be well rested because it was really a good time.

The Brogdens arrived!

The Brogdens came into town to visit us on June 11th, 12th, 13th and 14th. They are our first visitors! Randi and I were so happy to have our English speaking friends in town. We could talk slang together and nobody would know what the heck we are talkin about here....what goes around, comes around.
They're first night in town we allowed them a short rest in the afternoon but then marched them down to the Garonne River for a picnic. But on our way there we did tell some of the town folk about their arrival and we had em roll out the red carpet...literally. The picnic turned out real nice.



The weather was good and the menu was delicious. It wasn't a high-falutin,
pretentious kinda picnic
...just your basic wine,
cheese, crackers and grapes.

On Saturday day we took a train to the medieval fortified city of Carcasonne. We mounted a small siege, deciding to walk our way through the lower city, up to the fortified walls of the castle there (it was Randi's idea). Then Kim had the idea of catapulting Kathy into the castle...and she made it!...right into a window! It certainly was an impressive display of ingenuity, the use of a medieval mechanical device and the trust between the two of them.

The following day we drove to St. Emilion in the Bordeaux wine region. This may be my favorite spot we've been so far. It was another very interesting ancient fortified medieval town but this one is surrounded by vineyards with some of the best wine in the world. It is one of the principal red wine areas of Bordeaux and I am principally a red wine guy. Since going there we have been in constant search and retrieval of wine from the region. In the town we took a tour through an 11th century church carved out of solid rock. This is Europe’s largest monolithic cathedral! There were whispers about the Templar Knights possibly using this church as their 'keep'. There seemed to be a lot of unanswered questions regarding this church. We also found out about another mystery while we were there...that being a group of 12 men who wore red robes and had some type of ultimate rule over the wine in the area. They are known as...The Jurade! In 1199 a 12 man council was elected into power by the town’s notables. The councilmen had a vast power of rendering justice there. Because winegrowing was such an important part of the local economy, they also regulated the manufacturing process and the sale of wine, and even publicly announced the start and the end of the grape harvests. We found some pictures of them...apparently abusing the priveledges a little and going on a ski trip in the Alps. Still today, we were told that the members of the Jurade parade through the streets of the village, wearing their impressive red robes. From the top of the King’s Tower, the last remains of a castle that represented royal power inside the free town, they solemnly proclaim their will to faithfully defend the reputation of St. Emilion and its wines. With this quest for truth and justice for vin rouge we headed out to the rolling vineyards of St. Emilion. One vinter we caught off-guard (no one expects the Spanish Inquisition or the American Chapter of The Jurade) was Jerome at the Chateau Saint-Espirit vineyards. We called his cell, posted on the door of the tasting room and he explained that he was in bed but will be right down. Jerome was very nice and explained his entire process of making the wine, all the time rubbing his face and messing his hair. We walked away with a few bottles of wine and some great memories. We hope to get to Kim and Kathy's in Iowa next year and have some St. Emilion wine together.

Hanging out in Toulouse

On the weekend of June 6th and 7th Randi and I decided that we could feel good about hangin back at home. We needed to get some laundry done and clean the house!..we were having our first visitors the following weekend.

It's kinda fun to clean like 1200 sg. ft for just 2 people too...maybe not fun but it's fast.

The highlight of the weekend was going to the Musee des Augustins in Toulouse. Also the first Sunday of every month museums are free in France. They had many many interesting life-like sculptures, like the lovers to the left or the very imposing and scary large sculpture of the Cardinal below, appearing to be ready to strike at someone with a giant cross. It's a very impressive museum and only a couple blocks from our appartement (fyi, that's not a typo...that's a little Français)

The Collioure Code

Again taking advantage of the awesome French holiday schedule, this time Ran's work decided to schedule a team building weekend on Sat, Sunday and Monday (May 30, 31st and June 1st). Normally I would happily let Randi go have fun, to allow me to do some things on my own. But I realized I have absolutely nothing to do in Toulouse by myself, so I weaseled my way in on her work trip...and was very glad I did.
On Saturday morning we picked up her co-worker, Tom Hoffman, who is also from MN. We took a beautiful 90 minute ride to Cailla and the foot of the Pyrenees, to do some white water rafting. For Randi and I it was our first time in a big 7-man raft. I was a little concerned with Randi's back being ok with this...and then with all the water around us. But our guide was excellent and very much in control. When he yelled "secure!" we all went inside to the well of the boat very quickly. We did what he said and we all stayed in the boat throughout the ride. It was a nice warm day to be in some really cold water...really fun time.
From there we drove an hour south to a small nameless town, near Perpignan, just off the Mediterranean coast. PTC had us set up in very nice accommodations. It was fairly luxurious and pre-paid :)
That night the Director of PTC in Toulouse and organizer of this event, Patrick, had arranged for all of us to take a bus to a discotheque there in town for drinks and dancing. As we are all boarding he gets on the bus to say that the return ride back to the hotel will be around 3:30am, so take your car if you want to come back earlier...and he was serious!! Needless to say we took our car and ended up getting back around 2:30am anyway. But it was a lot of fun...mostly watching Tom have a few drinks and then randomly push the Korean guys out on the dance floor.
The following morning we had to be ready to go by 8am for a catamaran ride over to the small, artistic town of Collioure.
The ride there was long and rainy but the scavenger hunt game played while in town in Collioure was really fun. Even though it rained there as well, we ran through town with our polaroid camera, searching for clues for our next photo needed and felt like we were characters in Dan Brown's next novel...The Collioure Code. It really was a great way to explore this beautiful Mediterranean coastal town.