I cant believe that a flight of just 1 ½ hours can transport you from the grim grey skies of Manchester to the sun drenched oasis that is Toulouse. From pouring rain and 15c to cloudless sky and temperatures in the mid 30c’s. Manuel was kind enough not only to let us stay at his beautiful country home but also was kind enough to collect us from the airport- and his generosity didn’t stop there. I was purchasing my euros for this trip off Manuel to save myself being shafted by the banks, it wasn’t until i was half way across the English channel that i realised that i forgotten one small thing..........mainly my English pounds to buy the French euro!  So not only as he put us up, collected us from the airport hes now also given us our spending money!!!! What a nice fella!!!!! The late afternoon was spent relaxing by his newly installed pool while his wonderful wife Emilie laid on a traditional French lunch and a drink or three!  This was followed by a few more drinks in the village with a couple of Manuel’s friends followed by..........................a kebab! Now that may not seem such a big deal but please remember we are in the cooking capital of the world , not only that the part of France we are in is in the middle of nowhere with a population of less than 4,000 yet here in the middle of nowhere is a Frenchman in a van selling kebabs – and dam good kebabs at that!!!!!! A few more beers back at his house to round of a great start to the French adventure! There’s no poker today either as we are off for the local village fair this afternoon (and a few more beers no doubt) but its back to work to Monday.