The French Road Trip

By Sarah Cross, Sciences Po Toulouse, Toulouse, France.

After almost ten months living in Toulouse, it was finally time to depart for my journey home! I was lucky enough to be able to do this journey by car, despite flying on the way there. Whilst it was a long 3 day trip, I got the opportunity to visit even more little towns in France, and see the beautiful countryside on the way!

Stop 1 – Limoges

Just 3 and a half hours North of Toulouse, we had our first night stopping in Limoges. It is a town known for its Porcelain, which was extremely pretty (but our car was already too full to buy any!) The town looked quite Medieval, and we had dinner in the main square before walking back along the river path to our hotel. The morning consisted of the compulsory breakfast of a Pain au Chocolat and Coffee before our next leg of the journey!

Stop 2 – Tours

Tours was a city much bigger than Limoges, and was much more like Toulouse. It is too a university city, and had the similar hustle and bustle of students. There were loads of pretty squares and shopping streets, which I of course took advantage of! There was a gorgeous old town and small streets with lots of eateries and restaurants. Still didn’t beat Toulouse, but it was definitely up there!

Stop 3 – Boulogne Sur Mer

Our final stop before the ferry home was very different to the previous two. Boulogne Sur Mer was a beautiful seaside town. It was notably a lot colder than the previous two as we neared closer to the UK! It was lovely to be able to have a walk along the beach before the last leg of the journey. Another plus was that it was only 45 minutes from the ferry landing, so our journey the day after was much shorter than the prior few days!

The final day was the journey from Dover – Newcastle (definitely the least enjoyable part of the journey!), but we finally made it back after 4 days of travelling!