Day 18 – Toulouse to Caen, France

Today was primarily a travel day to Caen, France. After a quick breakfast and last check through the flat, we headed out the door for the 20-minute walk to the train station.

Our first leg was from Toulouse to Paris, where we dropped Priscilla off for a Parisian adventure. We quickly realized that our next train was departing from a different station, so we hopped on the metro.

Once there, we had gelato to tide us over while we waited. Then we found Starbucks, so we got some iced drinks. And then Evan spotted Burger King, so we got food for the next leg.

The ride to Caen was gorgeous. We saw the Eiffel Tower as we sped out of Paris, and after we left the city limits, we were surrounded by quaint towns and rolling fields. It was magical – everything you’d expect of a train ride through the European countryside.

The kids kept themselves entertained with card games and reading books. Evan finished the first book of his series in three days, so now he’s on book two. He gets up at 6am to read for two hours before the rest of us wake up.

Once we arrived in Caen, we hopped a tram to our Airbnb, quickly settled in, and headed out for dinner.  We stumbled upon a Mexican restaurant called Mazorca. The owners are a lovely married couple – the wife is from Mexico and is the chef, and her French husband runs the front. The food was incredible. I had vegetarian tacos on freshly made blue corn tortillas stuffed with peppers, corn, pickled red onions, and nopales topped with fresh lime, crema, and salsa. The housemade tortilla chips and guacamole were equally delicious.

After dinner, Addison, Kate, and I explored a bit of our neighborhood. The architecture is stunning. The sun stays out much later here – we were wandering around at 10pm, and the sun was just beginning to set!

I am looking forward to exploring Normandy tomorrow!!