Oh France! One of my friends here in Amsterdam invited several of us to visit her in her home town of Montauban, France which is about 45 minutes outside of Toulouse. It was a great weekend of friends, food, and wine!
Day .5 and 1:
We got in late Wednesday night, but don’t worry we got straight to the French food even early Thursday morning. My friend’s parents didn’t speak any English, but were so sweet with a full spread of cheese, wine, bread, and more when we arrived. They even put these cute local chocolates on our pillows. They had several mattresses next to each over on my friend’s childhood bedroom so it really felt like a big sleepover!
The next day started pool side at my friend’s backyard pool! It was so relaxing to start the day off at the pool. Next, we had home cooked duck and veggies for lunch. I had never had duck before, but was so tasty and this type kind of tastied like a good steak. Duck and a lot of meats is very common in the region. Always fun to try the local food- especially when it is home cooked!
Next up, we headed to Montauban and Toulouse to walk around the city! It was very picturesque with the fun colored houses, carousel, and hanging umbrellas. Below are some of my favorite pictures of us walking around the city.
Of course, I’m sure you are curious what else we ate! For an afternoon dessert, we split this delicious ice cream and then I had duck ( magret de canard) again for dinner and crème brûlée for dessert! Don’t worry, we drank red wine throughout as well. I have to say this ended up being a food and drink centered trip and I am not mad about it!
Day 2:
On our second day we started off by driving to Castle Bruiquel to walk around. Then, we headed to a quaint French village called Saint Antonin Noble Val. This is actually where my friend’s grandmother lives so it was the real small town French experience!
Below are some pictures of the quaint village. My favorite part was stopping by a local painters shop (and getting prints for my apartment) and trying so many different pastries at the local bakery.
We finished off day two with a delicious dinner of a veal stew. I forgot the specific name… but rest assured it is very French 🙂 for dessert we had cheese a more tasty reds from the area
Day 3:
On Saturday, we decided to take the train to Bordeaux which is very famous for their wine (similar to the rest of the region)
We spent the afternoon walking around to the various sights in the city center and of course taking lots of pictures. We also did some shopping and I was able to bring wine back to Amsterdam.
We checked out the wine museum, but I don’t think it was the best fit. We were more interested in drinking the wine then hearing about all of the history haha. They did a small tasting on the roof and had a cool building which was fun to see though. I got a Nutella crepe (did you go to france if you don’t get a crepe?) before we headed back to Montauban for the evening.
❤️ Melanie
Smiles from Miles Away 