Toulouse

I am almost at the end of this year’s summer craft challenge and I can’t believe how quickly it has flown by. We have been so lucky to be able to travel so much and visit such beautiful places this year. Among our destinations have been English & Welsh countryside, the sunny Algarve, Rome, and southern France.

Last year, in order to save my sanity during the long 8 week school holidays I set myself a craft challenge to do something crafty (even just for 5 minutes). I had such fun doing it and recording it last year that I’ve done it again this year. Here’s this summer’s latest installment:

Day 50 : Saturday 19th August

Another week, another flight! Europa the Unicorn and my crochet hook hopped onto another plane on Saturday and we headed up north to France. Toulouse to be precise. She is one jet set Unicorn!

Day 51 : Sunday 20th August

Exactly one week on from posting an almost identical photograph taken in the shade under some trees in a park in Rome, I was doing the same thing in one of Toulouse’s beautiful parks. My word, the French authorities know how to maintain a public park – they are so beautiful.

Day 52 : Monday 21st August

Europa had a trip on a Toulouse tram today to the Airbus museum Aeroscopia. It was loads of fun, we got to go on Concorde and a Super Guppy! (For the uninitiated, Super Guppies were used to transport parts of Airbus airplanes to the assembly point in Toulouse).

Oh and I finished this scarf which was started in Manchester at the beginning of our summer adventures. I now have one happy Little Postcard who’s chuffed with his new scarf.

Day 53 : Tuesday 22nd August

“Oh dear, Mummy’s got her Unicorn out again!” was the cry that went up at the Cité de L’Espace on Tuesday. Not only has Europa been on several flights this summer, she has now also been on a MIR space station. Not many unicorns can say that can they?

We enjoyed a leisurely evening on the bank of the Garonne on the Toulouse Plage (Toulouse beach). It’s a wonderful area with games, yoga, dancing, Paddle tennis, table tennis and all sorts going on. They also serve rather nice beer in plastic cups, which goes excellently with crochet as the water skiers and kayakers go past!

Day 54 : Wednesday 23rd August

Wednesday was a washout as far as craftiness is concerned – a morning tour around the Airbus factory to see where the giant A380 double decker planes are made (for the benefit of a Little Postcard with a fascination for all things transport) and then the highlight of my trip, a drive to the medieval Cité of Carcassonne.

Day 55 : Thursday 24th August

We loved Carcassonne so much that we decided to stay for a few days… how lucky. At last Europa has the fairy tale backdrop to her photograph that she deserves!

Oh and I found time today for a bit of this…

Day 56 : Friday 25th August

Time for a spot of crochet in our holiday home before heading off up to the Cité of Carcassonne for our guided tour.

And a quick row under the gargoyles outside the Basilica of Saint-Nazaire within the city walls. The building in the background is the 5 star Hotel de la Cité, former guests have included the Queen Mother, Michael Jackson and Johnny Depp. We have been so lucky to be able to spend a few days in this very beautiful part of the world.

Thanks for joining me for this weekly craft round up, next week will be my last one this year as school starts again in Gibraltar on Friday. It’s been such fun to have you along.

This is probably going to be my most cosmopolitan Sunday Sevens ever… featuring photos taken in Italy, Spain, Gibraltar and France! Are you ready to join me for a Sunday Sevens European tour?

The Pantheon

Last Sunday, after two days of tours around some of the amazing sights of Rome, we had a quiet day to potter about the city. There were a few more places we really wanted to visit before leaving and the Pantheon was top of the list.

It is such a beautiful building, and just mind blowing to think that the ceiling, the largest unsupported dome in the world, was made using cement by the Ancient Romans!! It’s now used as a church, so we waited until noon before being allowed in so that Sunday morning Mass could be celebrated before the crowds of tourists invaded.

Back home

Monday meant waving goodbye to Rome and catching a flight back to Malaga, then driving home to Gibraltar. It was so warm and sunny as we left Italy, but Gibraltar had Levante winds and the heavy cloud that brings.

You may be fooled for thinking it was cool when we got home but it wasn’t- it was sweltering and incredibly humid.

Sea mist

Another common weather phenomenon at this time of the year is sea mist. We had a couple of days this week when we could hear the boats in the Bay singing to each other with their fog horns.

Autumn already?

A walk into town and through the lovely Commonwealth Park took me by surprise when I spied leaves on the ground. It is one of the few places in Gibraltar with trees which actually lose their leaves. It looked like autumn is on it’s way even if the weather didn’t feel like it!!

Beach life

I am slightly ashamed to admit that we managed to get to mid August without a proper trip to the beach in Gibraltar this year. We have had walks along the sand but this was our first trip with deck chairs, buckets and spades and swims in the sea. Sandy Bay is such a lovely beach to spend time with children, calm and not too deep, and of course it’s great for sandcastles.

We only stayed a couple of hours though as I needed to head home to pack…. again!

Bonjour Toulouse!

We have been so lucky this summer to be able to do a lot of traveling, normally we have a couple of weeks in England visiting family, but this year we’ve been lucky enough to enjoy a mini European tour (while we are still allowed in before Brexit). Yesterday we headed back to Malaga airport and caught a flight up north to southern France.

Toulouse is such a beautiful city and our first visit to this part of France. We had a walk around some of the city centre and the architecture is so beautiful. I can’t wait to go back out again later on today with my camera to get snapping! This shot is the view from where we are staying. Isn’t it amazing?!

In the meantime, here’s a quick picture of a pretty fountain close to where we ate last night. It is dedicated to the victims of a flood many years ago.

Thanks so much for joining me this week for Sunday Sevens! I’m linking with Natalie from Threads & Bobbins who created the Sunday Sevens series of blog posts.