Last week in Toulouse!

Our last week in Toulouse went by entirely too fast. On Tuesday we crammed into a car and drove to Roquefort, France. Here we learned about all the specialized processes that go into producing Roquefort cheese. Cheese is something I am very interested in so I had been looking forward to this trip most of all. The place we went to was called Societe cheese. Here they produce three different kinds of Roquefort cheese along with several further processed products. Along the tour we learned the legend and history behind the cheese. Deep in the cave where the cheese grows for three weeks it was cold and you could see the mold growing on the rock walls. When we finally got to the growth room it was breath taking to be able to see all the cheese lined up wall to wall. We were allowed to go inside the growth room and talk to one for the cheese masters of Societe. He showed us how he digs into the core of the cheese wheel to make sure there is adequate growth throughout the cheese. At the end of the tour we got to sample the Roquefort cheese and purchase some freshly wrapped. This was definitely an experience I will be crossing off my

bucket list.

This week we also toured several other caves including one with cave paintings from over 12000 years ago. We took a boat tour along an underground river that had different types of stalagmites and stalactites. And we viewed two water plants that purify and recycle the water supply for Toulouse. For our last week here in Toulouse we made sure to sample as much food as we could, we even had a delicious fondue with mushrooms floating right in the cheese.

We got to Paris yesterday and have already seen so many sites. In one day we walked around the city and viewed the outside of several famous landmarks. We have seen the Louvre, Arc de Triumph, the French embassy, and of course the Eiffel tower just to name a few. Later this week we are going to see parts of the Louvre but it will be too big to see it all even in the short week we have. I also tried escargot for the first time and loved it. Time to immerse myself in Paris’s history, this last week is gonna go out with a bang!