August 18, 2026 Toulouse, France

Deb here. We slept pretty well but our 6th floor room was hot. Apparently the limited air conditioning/cooling system isn’t working well, which from what we heard is par for the course in France. Southern France has been heating up every year but the French aren’t equipped with much in the way of cooling, so everywhere’s warm. We enjoyed the great hotel breakfast (15 euros/person but really good) and mainlined coffee and tea before walking to Jake and Nath’s. The plan for the day was a visit to Citi Espace Toulouse, a space center. Nath and the kids had been there but Jacob hadn’t, so we boarded a bus to take us there. The twins are loving public transportation and are pretty familiar with riding the bus, metro and train. Public transportation here is really good.

We toured the space center, first visiting all of the displays on the grounds outside before going into the kids’ area. Toulouse is a hub in France for the space industry, and the Airbus headquarters are here, meaning something on the order of 30,000 jobs locally tied into the space and flight business. Who knew? 

We stopped early on for coffee/tea, then had a great lunch later at one of the cafes on site. Each time we’ve been in Europe I’m struck by the amazing good, local food beautifully prepared. Here we were at a tourist attraction cafe and eating beautiful fresh salads, on real plates and real silverware and people are all enjoying their experience. No pre-made pre-wrapped nuggets and fries here! The American food industry could seriously learn a lot from the French.

The kids fell asleep in their stoller after lunch, so we toured a bit of another building for a while. Jacob’s work schedule allows him to spend mornings/early afternoons with the kids, then work late afternoon and evenings. Not ideal for his sleep, but he’s getting it done. We headed back to their apartment for dinner and then back to our place to crash once again, stopping at the beautiful Carre Four for some groceries along the way. Food prices here are much less than the U.S. and the quality is much better.