Short Summer Vacation

We just came back from Toulouse which is unfortunately, the last vacation we are going to take for the year with our soon to be arriving son. More about that later.

Toulouse is a beautiful city. It is a bit smaller than Lyon but with lots of charm. It is called the Rose city since all the buildings are built in red brick incorporating old and new architecture. In fact it reminds me a lot of Sacramento. There are beautiful canals that flow through the city that add to its charm. To me, it seems a bit more modern than Lyon, but than Lyon is supposed to be one of the most traditional cities in all of France.

The city is the headquarters for Airbus so you can imagine a large percentage of the people living there work for Airbus or one of its affiliates. Everywhere you look there is an Airbus office. In fact our friend works for Airbus and she lives 2 minutes from her office.

When we landed at the airport we even got to see the A380 for the first time (the biggest commercial airline in the world). Actually both Val and I thought it looked small, but apparently it is shorter in length than most long haul airplanes and wider in the body.

Anyway, we didn’t spend all our time in Toulouse. We spent some time in The Lot. This is a region north of Toulouse. We stayed at a bed and breakfast with a pool (a necessity since it was hot) and then we visited a couple of medieval villages in the area, one being Figeac, the birth place of Jean-François Champollion who was the first to decipher Egyptian hieroglyphs as well as a part of the Rosetta Stone.

After our trip in the Lot we traveled by train over to Carcassonne to visit some of Valerie’s family. In Carcassonne we rented a small electric boat and took a trip down the river. What is interesting here is that they have these gates in the river called Ecluses (or Locks). They are sections, usually 2 gates, in the river that raise and lower boats between stretches of water that are at different levels. It is really cool to watch. One stretch of the river maybe 20 feet higher than the other so if the boat is on the lower part they open the gate in front of the boat and the boat enters the gated section. The gate closes behind it and then the gate on the far end opens a slight bit to let the water rise within the gated area. It is similar to filling a bathtub. Once the gated area has risen to the level of the new stretch of river the boat can travel through. I believe this is the way the Panama Canal works.

Overall, the vacation was short as they always seem to be and now we stuck at home for a while. At least it is for a good a reason. The baby is due in 2 months!