Jonathan Neufeld Outdoor adventure photography and mountain life

I arrived back home at 8pm on Friday and the very next day kicked down to the Calgary Stampede. Good times, beer gardens, concerts and lots of people everywhere! I’m glad I didn’t miss the whole thing, and one good day should cover my Stampede needs again until next year.

I’m looking forward to a lot of time spent in the mountains and definitely some motorbike trips!

So last weekend I bitched about how Sunday here kinda sucks, well today I’m going to tell you how awesome Saturday is here.I woke up in an awesome mood, don’t really know why, I just did; I had a good breakfast even though I’m definitely getting tired of the breakfasts they have here. The requisite work was followed up by a trip down to the center of Blagnac to go to the Cave, the fancy wine store down there (Cave of course means cellar in French…). Lo and behold! I get to the center of town and there is a huge farmer’s market thing going on. There were stalls with clothing, fruit, baked goods, cheese, shoes, wallets and all th sort of things you’d really expect from a market like that. I made a few laps through with a stupid grin on my face and just generally enjoying the whole atmosphere. I ended up buying a warm-fresh baguette and some peaches and carrots, basically just impulse buying whatever I craved.

I call it Still Life: Fruit and Baguette

I also bought a mini apricot pie, but there is no picture because I ate it right away (c: The Cave was a disappointments, the wines were either stupidly expensive or completely ordinary.

Since I was stymied at the Cave I hit the big store in town and picked up some souvenir bottles to take home and share with everyone (yes, maybe even you) and the crowds and the what-not kinda killed my mood. I figured that was dumb though and went for a drive anyway! The day here today is amazing, blue skies, hint of cloud and a perfect summer temperature, I sure as hell wasn’t going to waste it being grumpy! I have a habit of hopping in the car and going somewhere, getting lost and then looking at the map afterwards to figure out where I ended up and how to get home, and thats what I did today. I headed West out of Toulouse towards Auch figuring to get off the highway at some point and then double back on the side roads. The scene was absolutely pastoral and bucolic, green fields, agriculture and small towns the whole way along; I cant’ tell you how good it felt to get out of the city.

Scene from a road-side stop

After a while I bailed off the highway and started driving semi-randomly around the smaller back streets, I ended up in tiny little towns that felt abandoned after the hustle in Blagnac earlier in the day. Further down the road I came to a sign for the Chateau du Caumont and I’m a sucker for a good Chateau.

Approaching the Chateau

As far as Medieval Chateaus go, I imagine this one is actually fairly small, but it is the first Chateau I’ve seen in France so far which easily elevates it Best Chateau in the World!

Unfortunately for me it was actually closed for the day, there was a wedding happening there later this afternoon/evening. What an amazing ceremony that would be! Anyway, I’m going to try and go back again tomorrow and in my map-looking I also saw another castle that is roughly on the way so maybe I’ll make it a two castle day!

I went into the center of Toulouse today, which we’ve done many times before but it was always at night. I had some spare time this afternoon so I cruised down there to see what was happening in the day time.

It was really nice, all the shops were open, there were people milling about, it really makes me wonder when the work because the streets were full of people! Anyway, i ended up at St. Stephen’s Cathedral, and it was amazing

It was started in 1078, then in 1210 they replaced it with something else, something bigger and grander no doubt. In the late 13th century they started construction on a huge choir that would have meant pulling down the one they started in 1210, but they ran out of money and then one of the architects died which pretty much put the brakes on the whole thing. They put up a “temporary” roof which burned off roughly 400 years later so they put up one of stone instead. In the end there are two different churches sort of spucked together here, which creates a very strange feeling when you look at it from the outside, and inside.

Outside the cathedral was a nice square with a fountain

It was an excellent exploration, with tons of little side streets that were barely big enough to drive an ox-cart down. All in all, very good.