Last night was lovely we ended up till nearly 1am chatting to our camping neighbours, thankfully given our kids are still going to bed super late we weren't woken early by them. Liliya got to give her loom band bracelet gift and Al walked to the local bakery to get fresh pain au chocolat for him and Robert for breakfast.

It's only a short drive into Carcassonne and Al has found us a place to park in a nearby vineyard which is walking distance to the old walled city.

I've heard a lot about this town firstly because of the game and also I know a few people who have also visited. Ideally it would be better to be here on a day that wasn't so hot as we found ourselves constantly searching for shade in the little streets.

Of course one of the first things we had to do was buy ice cream to try cool our tummies.

It was nice to mooch around the little shops and it reminded me of St Malo. We found a sticker for the van and although we're not really needing any baubles from France as we have a few already we did go to a lovely craft shop and found a nice glass heart that we think will make a lovely addition to the tree.

Down a small street there was a little reenactment village which the kids found interesting and they were even allowed to pose with the swords.

Our plan had been to go back to the van to have our lovely fresh loaf from the bakery this morning with meat and cheese but instead decided to feed the kids crepes / waffles since its just too much of a faff in this heat.

There's several museums / shows within the old walls so we decided to visit the tourist office to find out more. It looks like the night time light show projected onto the castle walls would be amazing but sadly we're moving on before nightfall. The kids see some craft activities that include making a shield, I tried to book them into the workshop but apparently they would need to understand french to take part and as much as I can make myself understood enough my comprehension is not what it was 25 years ago. The lady instead offers us a sort of treasure hunt though with a series of clues we need to solve that takes us on a walk all around the town so we decided to give that a go to make things a bit more interesting.

We're rather stumped just at the first clue! We think it's likely it's a case of poor translations but have an educated guess at the answer.

The second clue needed some damn good eyesight since the answer was outside the castle walls and doesn't help when people sit right in front of the window you're supposed to use to find the animal. Clue 3 was impossible and so far we're feeling this kids quiz isn't really that suitable for anyone let alone kids.

Finally the next few clues start to get a little better but it's hard work in the heat.

We take a quick break in the basilica after completing the puzzle involving the gargoyles by the entrance after which we treat ourselves to some luxury nougat.

A few more stops and we're back at the tourist office for our 'prize'. We've of course got some answers wrong and the chap behind the counter agrees that the English and Spanish versions may not be that great 🙄 (didn't mention that of course when taking our €15).

Liliya was most unimpressed that the prize was a certificate and started kicking off, we don't usually reward bad behaviour but the heat is extremely oppressive and so they have a slushy drink whilst we head back to the van.

Air con on and within a few minutes we're all feeling a little less stressed. I'm starting to worry that two days doing touristy stuff in Toulouse isn't going to be that much fun. Al comes out on top finding us a different campsite in a village called Revel that is right next door to the municipal outdoor pool which you get free access to!

The drive there takes us past some beautiful sites but also some very narrow roads to navigate.

Access to said site proves to be somewhat tricky, first you have to purchase a rechargeable card from a vending machine next to the barrier, register that card with your details and registration number, load an amount of money to the value of at least the price of one night then use said card to scan the reader at the barrier which should debit your card and let you enter. A bit of a faff but all manageable until the barrier is supposed open and doesn't. The message on the scanner says we need to drive further forward but any further and we will drive into the thing! A lady who's already inside comes over to try help but she's none the wiser either. Thankfully there's a 24 hr helpline and eventually with a few reversing movements the barrier lets us in. As soon as we've chosen a spot we're straight into our swimwear and it's just a 2 minute walk to the pool.

It's 5.30 when we arrive and still roasting, we stay until it closes at 7pm then dry off by sunbathing outside our van. At least when the sun goes behind the tree it's now a manageable temperature even at 8.30pm.

My original plan had us exploring Toulouse for the next two days but instead we're going to have a chilled morning here, wait until the pool reopens at 12pm then head over towards Toulouse just before dinner. That still gives us one full day in the city and I've booked us into the hall of machines so a lot of our time should be indoors.