What a great idea. Unfortunately the practice as good as the theory, but it was a great idea.
We bought a 24-hour tram ticket yesterday, and on the way back from Aeroscopia we’d noticed an old Roman amphitheatre. We bought the tickets at 10am, give or take, so if we jump on the tram by 8:30 am, we’ll be at the amphitheater by 9am, look around, take some photos and back on the tram by 10am. Then we don’t need the tram anymore, how frugal is that?
The first hint of an issue was when the ticket validator flashed red. We realised that it wasn’t a 24-hour ticket (like Bordeaux), it was a 1-day ticket, and that day was yesterday.
No worries, what’re the chances of a ticket inspector? Remember Plymouth? Probably high. Anyway we quietly sat there and hoped an inspector wouldn’t show up. I had my excuses sorted, I was going to go down the “he’s from Barcelona” route if questioned. Fortunately, I didn’t have to channel my inner Manuel and all was fine.
The next thing was that the site wasn’t manned. I thought it was just like a park, we’d be able to wander around and enjoy ourselves. No, not only was it not open, it was heavily fenced and the sign said you’d need to make arrangements via the website, or by phoning a number to arrange access. Neither was likely to be very satisfactory, so we settled for wandering the perimeter, wondering about the fall of the Roman Empire, and taking photos through the fence. Shame.
After that excellent start we purchased single tickets for the tram and retreated to whence we’d come.
Now what? Let’s trek over to the old city centre and have a look around, ahead of our booked Tuk Tuk tour at 3pm.
It was only about 2 kms, and we found the main square and settled down for breakfast, about 11am. I decided to have the brunch special, which included a smoked salmon bun, whatever that is. On closer examination of the small print, this is only served on weekends. Our waiter seemed delighted in disappointing me.
I had to make do with the ‘complete’ breakfast. Coffee (half cold), croissant (cold) and jam, bread roll with butter (too cold to spread) and bacon and eggs (also near cold). I’ve noted that you’re unlikely to ever burn your tongue in France, almost everything is served cold. Yesterday Michelle had a chicken Caesar salad. The chicken was cold, as you’d expect in a salad, but it was fried in breadcrumbs. You don’t expect that to be served cold, or to find it in a salad.
The orange juice was quite reasonable, as promised.
Anyway, the rest of the day went fine, apart from the fact there were intermittent showers and a cold wind. We wandered up and down just about every street of the old part of town, then did the Tuk Tuk tour, which went up and down the few streets we hadn’t, and pointed out the various landmarks.
Then we walked home. About 22,000 steps all up. We’ll get about 2,000 steps up tomorrow, as we spend most of it on the train from Toulouse to Brest (I wonder if it’s got a sister city relationship with Tittybong, in Victoria).
Stephen and Michelle
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