It’s hard to believe it’s down to my last month of this Europe trip. This month I’ll be based in Toulouse in southwestern France. It’s the first major stop on this trip that isn’t on the coast, not that this is a major consideration for me.

I was in Toulouse for part of two days back in 2019. I have cousins outside the city, and they showed me a couple of things when I visited them as a side trip during my month in Bordeaux. I didn’t write about the city at all, so as far as The Royal Tour is concerned, everything within Toulouse itself is new. The side trips are a different story, but we will get into those in a bit.

Anyway, the basic itinerary for the month is below. Shockingly, I’m not entirely certain of what day I will arrive in the city, as I’m debating splitting the journey from Nice into two with a night stopover in Marseille to break up the trip (it’s about 7.5 hours by train) and return to one of my favorite cities in Europe. (Read about Marseille here.) So things might be off by a day as far as the counting goes, not that you’d have any idea either way. So it’s just something that might end up bothering me.

Day One – Nice to Toulouse

As I said, this might be Marseille to Toulouse on what we will call Day One-B, but let’s just go with the original plan as far as this itinerary goes. The evening will consist of checking into my flat in the city center’s district of Saint-Etienne and finding dinner.

Days Two through Seventeen – Toulouse

This will be the largest stretch in the city, so the hope is to see a good percentage of the highlights of France’s Pink City. On the docket are touring Airbus, exploring the city’s palaces, and doing a tour of some rather impressive religious buildings. I also intend to take a day trip to Albi to talk about the painter Toulouse-Lautrec.

In addition, I will spend time with my family in the city, and try to get into what makes the star of Occitan cooking: the cassoulet.

There was supposed to be a trip to Andorra in here, but that has now canceled due to a rock sliding taking out the France-side road. So maybe another day trip. We will see.

Day Eighteen – Toulouse to Barcelona

Friends from California are spending the year in Barcelona, and while it’s several hours to get there, it would be a shame not to. So it’s off into Spain for a few days, and a return to the place I was when COVID first hit.

Days Nineteen through Twenty-One – Barcelona

Part of the plan will depend on what friends want to do. Part of it is going to be based on my writing a couple articles for the tourism agency in the city, who have been gracious enough to offer a press pass. So it’s an expose on Sagrada Familia for sure, eating calcotes (spring onions) for likely, and possibly a trip up Mount Tibidabo. And tapas. Lots of tapas.

Day Twenty-Two – Barcelona to Toulouse

A long day back to France and our home in Toulouse.

Days Twenty-Three through Twenty-Six – Toulouse

What is left to do? A walk along the Canal du Midi, which connects Toulouse (and the Garonne River, and from here to the Atlantic) with the Mediterranean is in order. And a day trip to meet a friend from Bordeaux in Agen is happening. And anything else I didn’t get to earlier.

Day Twenty-Seven – Toulouse to Los Angeles

I will be both sad to leave Europe and excited to see family and friends back home, and to finish writing anything I didn’t get to during this packed month.

As always, things can change. Things probably will to a point. Weather is unpredictable; life is even more so. But that’s the basic idea. Articles will come out in early summer or so, I’m guessing, depending on how many I wrote from Nice and scheduling, so if you want to follow along in a more timely manner, there is always my Bluesky account.

For those of you who like maps, the flags are Toulouse in the north and Barcelona in the south.