A mammoth undertaking

When my sister and brother-in-law came to stay a few months ago, they brought with them the card game Carcassonne which they thought I’d enjoy playing. They were right – it was fairly easy to get the hang of, but with subtleties that made it very interesting. I had some beginner’s luck too, which is always a bonus! And, as a completely unexpected side-effect, it reminded me that the town of Carcassonne was on my list of places I wanted to visit, so I started looking into holidays there.

The town is in the far south-west of France, in the foot-hills of the Pyrenees, and is rather difficult to get to, particularly if (like me) one refuses to drive on the “wrong” side of the road. So visiting there as a do-it-myself fly-drive was completely out of the question. A coach tour was the obvious answer, but the first few that I looked at really stung single travellers with a steep supplement. I’m getting rather fed up with being effectively fined for travelling on my own! Then I came across a company called “Just You” which runs coach tours exclusively for singletons. That sounded promising, so I investigated further.

It turns out that they are a new-ish venture for the company that used to be called Page & Moy, who had a solid reputation for mid-price, mid-range, somewhat staid coach tours. I reckoned that they would be unlikely to have metamorphosed into Club 18-30 style hi-jinks, and guessed (correctly) that the clientele would most likely be retired widows and widowers. I didn’t really relish the thought of swapping stories with a whole coach-load of widows, but it had to be said that the itinerary looked interesting and the price was very attractive, with absolutely no single supplement. So with some trepidation I booked the holiday for immediately after my latest bid was due to be submitted, when I knew I’d be badly in need of a holiday.

I’ve just got back today from spending five nights near Toulouse. Photos and a more detailed account will follow in due course. My immediate thoughts are that, as a holiday it was very interesting, but I’m really not sure that I would travel with that company again. I was right to be wary of a coach full of single people of a certain age! I was one of the youngest; most of my fellow passengers retired years ago, and there was at least one great-grandmother. The tour guide was very personable and knowledgeable, and many of the other guests (there were 23 of us in total) were pleasant enough company. But there were a couple of really ghastly, strident women who loved the sound of their own voices and broadcast every tiny thought they had at the top of their voices. I tried very hard to keep away from them, and spent hours on the coach wishing I was better at tongue-binding curses, to shut them up!

Fortunately, the holiday was structured with lots of free time, which suited me well. We met each morning after breakfast for an excursion by coach to somewhere of interest, and then were free to do our own thing once we got there, provided that we met up at the coach at the departure time. So most meals and all visits were independent, and I was able to escape the group for much of the time.