Our visit with grandma and grandpa

Our visit with grandma and grandpa was definitely a highlight of the trip. They arrived by train in Toulouse. We kept very busy going to the coast, thermal baths, churches, and castles. Grandpa, with his love of swimming suggested that we go swimming in Lac Montbell near our house. The lake looked beautiful from the shore; however it was quite mucky and cold. Yet we all jumped into the frigid water and grandpa was very proud

After Lac Montbell we went home to have some snacks on the terrace back home.

The next day was also a search for water. So we decided that we would go to one of the many thermal baths that were near our house. Today we were going to try out the thermal baths called Rennes des Bains. Before we went there we stopped at the morning market in Lavelanet; this market was supposed to be very French and cultural, but from my opinion and everybody else’s it wasn’t the best. We all won some Arabian sweet because my grandpa starting dancing around the market to the loud music that was playing, (that’s just my grandpa)! After the market experience we headed to the pools. They were nice pools, and warm.

We swam there for a while, but then went back home. On the way home my parents and grandparents stopped at a winery for some wine tasting. They also bought a 5 litre bottle of wine for 5 euros.

            The next day we wanted to show them the city of Carcasonne. They were very excited to see it. Before we went to the ancient city we again stopped at the market. At the market we picked up supplies for our thanksgiving that we were going to have the next night. After that we made our way to the old city. My grandparents loved it. We sat down in a nice square and ate lunch. After lunch we went on a walking tour around the old and beautiful city. It had a lot of history. We also toured the castle in Carcassonne.

It was a very long and interesting tour all in English. We learned so much in such a short time. Grandpa also learned that the castle tour included over 500 steps and he counted every last one!

            Thanksgiving Day was a really fun day. We decided that we would yet again go to another thermal spa. This thermal spa was called Ax Les Thermes. This pool was fantastic. It had so many different sections of soothing pools. After the pool we headed home to start preparing the Thanksgiving dinner. The dinner was amazing! Today we headed down to the Mirepoix morning market. After the market we went to the castle called Renne de Chateau.

Unfortunately it was closed. This castle has a lot of history; apparently this castle was Dan Brown’s inspiration to write his famous book The DaVinci Code. There are lots of stories here about murder and hidden treasures and the bloodline of Christ and Mary Magdelene carrying on in this valley. Makes for some great stories and movies! After the castle we made an attempt to go to another thermal spa but, we soon found out that it had been closed for three years.

            Over the next four days we went to Foix where we ate steak and fries, and drove through a cave, we went to the coast again and ate ice-cream again, we went on more bike rides and had a tour of the abbey in Rivel, and we swam again in Rennes des Bains after we had visited Chateau d’Arque.

Finally came the sad day where grandma and grandpa had to go back to Paris where they were to catch their airplane back home. We all went to the train station in Toulouse. Only to find out that their train was cancelled from the billions of strikes that were going on. We found another train though and they got on, and made their way to Paris to catch their airplane. On our way home we stopped at the apple festival in Mirepoix.