And the vacation begins: ten days running around France to discover new varieties of wine, cheese, bread and carefully crafted pastries, as well as exploring new cities.

First stop, Lyon. Seemed like a nice place... at first kind of dead, but after awhile we realized that Lyon is full of cool squares and old looking buildings and nice views with water. TONS of churches. Kathryn and I found an amazing salon de thé with an amazing pastry called the tropézienne... basically whipped cream and raspberries and then the cake. Incredible. We visited the cathedral and just walked around. We stayed in a hostel which happened to be on top of a hill (funny because we had no idea and had one hell of a time trying to find it), but in the end it worked out.

After Lyon we took a train to Carcassonne, the small medieval city Konrad and I spent a week in two years ago with my friend Emilie and her family. The time here was great, just like last time, and Kathryn and I were treated to amazing meals, wine, cheese, and hospitality. What can be better!?

I am writing this post from Toulouse, which is known as the pink city because of the color of the bricks on buildings. Emilie lives here because her university is here, so it was nice to stay with her and see the city. Konrad and I were only here for an afternoon on our last visit. Toulouse was nice, but not my favorite French city. Nonetheless, Kathryn and I had an amazing meal called cassoulet, an incredible meat saucey bean casserole dish. This in my opinion made up for the crappy rainy weather.

Tomorrow we are heading over to Montpellier to visit my friend Camille, who is studying there. I am really excited for that, and after Montpellier comes Paris (arriving Wednesday night), so as you can tell, the vacation is just getting started. Tomorrow we will be taking an 8.12am train and arriving at about 10. We are going to make goat cheese sandwiches with honey and confiture. Now that is something to look forward to.