A Palmy fix - catch up with the Jones family

Today we were up early to get ready for our train to Toulouse and for a Palmy fix.

We were going to catch up with Charlotte, Leo and Emily.  They used to live in Palmerston North  and Leo and Lachlan used to go to daycare together - so we have known them for some time.  Last September they moved, along with their dad Chris, to Ethiopia, as Chris got a job over there. Charlotte is French and so they returned to France for the summer school holiday period and we organised to catch up.    Karl was unable to join us as he had to be in Sweden for work and Chris was in Columbia for his work - so it was a girls and kid catch up!

 We left the house for the nice walk to Vieux Port metro and arrived at St Charles,  We located our platform and decided we had enough time to grab some food and board our train.  Turns out we didn't have enough time (and my watch was a few minutes slower than the station one) - and as we ran to the platform, minus the food we had ordered our train was pulling out - bugger!  Argh!

After a little freaking out and standing in long cues we managed to get a later train at 3pm! There were earlier trains, however due to it being the end of a long weekend, they were all full.  If we had to fully buy new tickets they would have cost us over 200 euros, thankfully the ticket man took pity on us and just did a change in ticket costing us only 40 euros!  This was the best of a bad situation.  Now we had to get home again and try to contact Charlotte who we were meeting at the Toulouse train station at 1pm today as they too were coming from four hours away!

We headed home to a very surprised Karl who was very gracious about my stupidity - I felt sick - and could not wait to get hold of Charlotte.  We rang the number I had for Charlotte and got her mum.  Advised her of the situation and she said she would call Charlotte. Phew! I got the address of accommodation and would go directly there when we arrived at 7pm.

The whole family then returned to the train station later; Karl to get the bus to the airport and us to catch our train.  This time, as soon as we had a boarding platform, we were on the train!  Train trip was great and we only had one stop in Montpellier and then four hours later we were in Toulouse.  And not too long after that we were at the house and relaxing with a well deserved beer!

The house that Charlotte had booked was fab - it was three bedroomed, three story house with a great courtyard - we were straight into catch up mode - both the adults and kids sharing experiences of living in foreign countries - I must say - Ethiopia is much more foreign and we certainly appreciate being in France! Anyway, before we knew it, it was 9pm and time to go out for dinner.  There was a cool little restaurant down the road where you chose your food, then weighed your plate and payed accordingly - bit weird but okay - we were hungry, tired and it was close!

The following day we had more chill, catch up time and then headed off to explore the parks surrounding the house.  Toulouse weather is similar to Marseille and was in the mid-30s on the days we were there - only problem was - there was no beach!

But there was a park - for kiwi kids to be kiwi kids.................

 We had a fun day, hanging out and spending time together.  Later in the day we tried to go swimming, but the area we went to was closed.  We were all hot and disappointed and so we ended up going and having a drink!  The kids quickly changed tact - squished their cans and were playing can soccer!!! They had great fun and Charlotte and I had more beers and then we headed out for a great dinner which was recommended by the locals before heading home.

On Tuesday we decided to go to the pool - however by the time we got organised it was already 2pm.  Off we went, on the metro and the tram and to the great big pool which was glorious!

We had a lovely time there, however left in a bit of a panic at 3.15pm as we had to get back to our place to get our bags and then to the train station for the Jones' train at 4pm!  Needless to say we did not make it and it was a second missed train during our catch up!  Luckily for us, our train back to Marseille was not until 5pm and we were there in time to catch that one - there were quick goodbyes and we were off.