Oops

I am allowed to change my mind at least once on the trip and so I use the get out of jail card today.

Toulouse has quiet a bit to like about it particularly on the other side of the La Garonne (the river that runs through the town) as you get more into the city centre.

We used the metro to make the trip late this morning going 3 stops to alight at Jean Jaures.

Coming up from the metro we were greeted by a more open city area with tree lined boulevards running north south.

Walking back towards the area where our hotel is located is Place Wilson (place being square in French) named after the President of USA Woodrow Wilson with the Fontaine de Wilson the feature.

As we continued on another much larger square opened up before us - Place du Capitole covering an area of 2 hectares and surrounded by buildings housing the city hall, the opera and the symphony orchestra.

In this area and along the Rue Saint Rome the more exclusive shops in Toulouse appear to be situated.

Also ran across a couple of street performers who were doing something a little bit different to earn their daily bread.

Returning back to Place du Capitole for an afternoon drink we had our first mishap with the language.

We went to a cafe, incidentally it appears to be owned by Serge Blanco who also appears to have set up a chain of clothing stores, and asked for "a coffee, Americano please".

We were given an expresso (the coffee) and some alcoholic drink made with vermouth (the Americano) rather than an Americano coffee - the waitress gladly took back the alcoholic drink and replaced it with a long black!

We then ventured down to the banks of La Garonne and walked along the river bank which gave good views of Pont Neuf (not bridge nine as in Paris but the New Bridge, built in 1632).

We will return by Metro to the Capitole area later tonight for a meal - restaurants generally don't start serving meals until 7.30 - 8.00pm so it makes it difficult with the sticky heat to stay out all day and have dinner before returning to the hotel.

And it nearly happened today - rain!. We felt 2 or 3 spits and one of the photos shows the darker cloud that hung over Toulouse mid afternoon but came to nothing.