Back To The Honeymoon: Dreamy Toulouse
Toulouse was too short of a visit. It was just a one-nighter for us and oh, how I so wish we had stayed longer. Toulouse is just … dreamy.
It’s this perfect mixture of old French architecture with this oh, I don’t know - um … vintage charm. It just took my breath away. The city is right on the Garonne River where you can take boat tours day or night and see just how beautiful Toulouse is.
My two favorite parts about our visit were the hotel we stayed in and the restaurant where we ate dinner.
We stayed at the Grand Hotel De L’Opera and let me tell you - it was fancy and by far the nicest hotel we stayed in during our trip. I mean, beside our amazing room and a bathroom that was actually bigger (much bigger) than a closet, the ground floor had super fancy things like a library, reading room, cigar room and a couple of difference bars with these big royal blue super comfy looking chairs that seemed fit for the likes of James Bond. So, it was nice.
We ate dinner at Le Peilharote (23, rue des Blanchers) and as far as I can tell, there isn’t a website for this place. First of all, the interior was vintage French charming to the max. And our waiter was just the best. Traveling with a husband who is allergic to dairy doesn’t make eating in France the easiest task and it was always such a relief when we encountered someone in a restaurant who understood what we meant. A lot of restaurant people we encountered in France look at you like you’re crazy when you say that you can’t have cheese or butter or milk. They kind of don’t believe you. But our waiter at this place was super chill and went out of his way to accommodate Chad’s allergy by having the chef make him something off the menu, which Chad, by the way, said was incredible. I had the cassoulet, which is a regional specialty and I can’t believe I haven’t tried to recreate it yet here back home.
Toulouse is absolutely on my must visit again list. If you’re looking for big cities to visit that aren’t Paris, this place is it.
Oh! I almost forgot. The restaurant had the strangest toilet. The sink was actually on the back part of the toilet - you know where you lift the lid and there’s the floaty thing. Isn’t that just crazy?! It looked something like this.
