Questions I'd like to answer #2: What do you recommend to visit around Toulouse?

Okay, I'm lying a bit because people rarely ask me this, but it's a question I'm happy to answer.

So first off, in Toulouse the downtown is nice to wander around in. The Jardin des Plantes is nice, as are the banks of the Garonne. I'm partial to the Fondation Bemberg, which is a private museum in a Renaissance building, and the Musée de Vieux Toulouse, which is a neat little place tucked in a side street and only open part of the year.

Close to Toulouse, it's really nice to bike along the Canal du Midi, especially towards the south. There's a cute café right on the canal in Castanet you can bike to in 30-40 minutes from the Quai St Sauveur. It's not really a tourist destination, but the Forêt de Bouconne is nice for walking with kids or having an outdoorsy event. When I was preparing to walk across England I went on a really nice walk around Clermont-le-Fort, which is about 15 km south of Toulouse.

Going a little further away, Albi is really nice, although I'm guilty of always visiting in a rush and I've never gone in the Toulouse-Lautrec museum! In the general area of Albi is Cordes-Sur-Ciel, which is a beautiful village that was named the most beautiful village of France a few years ago. If you go, make sure it's between Easter and Toussaint, because in the winter everything shuts up, and early and late in the season shops will be open only on weekends. For a few years Cordes was an artists colony, but it seems to suffer a bit from "normal" people and shops being priced out since it was named most beautiful village. Bring your checkbook too, since most shops (and even restaurants!) don't have carte bleue machines.

For anyone looking to taste some wine, there are a number of vineyards in the Gaillac region, which is about 3/4 of the way to Albi from Toulouse. One of the nice things about Gaillac is that they produce just about every variety you could be interested in: red, white, rosé, perlé (slightly bubbly white), dessert white wines. We've found really nice wine at affordable prices at a number of places.

I went canoeing with students on the Averyon river from St Antonin Noble Val one time, and it was a really beautiful experience that I would highly recommend.

Going even further away, back to Ariège where we lived before, I would recommend a day trip of visiting Foix and it's castle and then the Grotte de Niaux. The Niaux cave has prehistoric paintings, and in order to preserve them the number of visitors is limited each day. Unless you're visiting in February, call a few days to a week ahead of when you want to visit to reserve spots. It's a good hour drive to Foix from Toulouse, and another 45 minutes to Niaux, so you'll have a full day if you visit these sights from Toulouse.

Those are my major recommendations for visiting around Toulouse. Just wish it was a topic I could work into more conversations about me being an American in France!