Travelog for: Dottie Grace

Poor Gracie has a broken voice box and had given up on the thought of being picked off the shelf and taken home from her shop until she was offered a chance to be a ToyVoyager. She is looking forward to seeing the world and is willing to go anywhere you might like to take her!






Please update Dottie Grace's forum posts in the ETVT by telling us the date, when you received her and even more importantly the date, when you sent her to her next host. Thank you very much.

I found out my itinerary today for the European ToyVoyager Trail. I am very excited as my first stop is with Mood, the friend of my new good friend Elisabeth!

I have promised to take a kiss to Mood from Elisabeth and tell her how much she is enjoying her travels!

Meanwhile, the lodgers of Dottie's next destination makes enquiries about this new guest coming soon ...

Sebastien is very interested !!!

Hello !!!!

Here I am in France, with Mood and FoxForce ...
Thanks to my confortable travelbox the travel was ok, not as long as I feared... It was quite strange to come from the cold Australia and to wake up here in summer!!! (I'm not sure Becka thought to put my swimsuit in my travelcase?!)
I was I was a bit intimidate, as it was my first time from out of Becka's house, but FoxForce, Alpina, Stripy and Sebastien gave me a warm welcome...
Eventhough Alpina and I just met briefly (she was now leaving us for other adventures in Toulouse with Mistigree) ... maybe we 'll meet us again, because she's going to live in the surrounding for a time...
Other Toyvoyager looks quite good, I think we should become good friends!

See you soon for the pictures !!

At last! here are the first pictures of my arrival :

The envelope with Sydney's arbor and my travelbox


In fact, I was still sleeping when I have been woken up by whisperings ...

Then I saw the daylight, so I stretched myself and ooohhhh??? There were people observing me ... I was arrived!!!!

I was a bit intimidate, but Stripy the one on the right didn't stop watching my fur... he ended up asking me where did I bought my wonderful pyjama ... and we all laughed at once !!!!! It was the first time he met a giraffe like me ...

Before leaving from Sydney, as Elisabeth asked me to wave Mood a kiss, I gave this picture to her

I can tell you that even if she hide it, she was very moved !!!

Today Bertold (the little yellow one) insist on measuring me just to check if his scientific book was right ... 


and it quickly turned into a game with Sebastien and FoxForce

No, Rest assured!!! I'm not a dangerous gangster pursued by motorcycle policemen... !!!


... Yesterday was the Bastille Day...  As Bertold (the human encyclopedia) explained me, this day officially celebrates the 1790 Fête de la Fédération, though it is often associated with the Storming of the Bastille.  (You know what happened then to the king and his head..)

So each year, Military parades, called Défilés du 14 juillet, are held on the morning of 14 July, the largest of which takes place on the Champs-Élysées avenue in Paris in front of the President of the Republic. But yesterday, there was a small one in Toulouse, se we went to see it with Bertold :


But what I prefered was the fireworks  !!! Unfortunately, I have no pictures but it was wonderful !!! We also got to the  dancing parties organised by the firefighters ...

Before going to the firework, we had a party with Alpina (the white cat I met when I arrived the first day). We have tasted champagne and french wine ..

I enjoyed the small bubbles !!!!
Then we ate a french cake called Charlotte with chocolate !!! yum yummmm!!!

Today I wandered in Toulouse with FoxForce... We took the bus

We could have taken the new line of the metro, (of course FoxForce loves everything that look like a burrow) but I prefered to discover the town across the windows of the bus ...

So first, we stopped to the Place du Capitole where is situated the Town Hall (Capitolium)

You can see behind me the different flags of Toulouse (the red one with the Occitane yellow cross), the french one and the European ...

On this map, you can see the Place


I really wanted to bring back a souvenir from Toulouse, so we stopped in front of this strange machine, that delivers the Médaille Souvenir de Toulouse


But I had no french money, well, no euro in fact, so we went to the bank first to change money

There are many old houses and mansions in Toulouse, here is a half-timbered house Rue des Arts


Then we walked across the river Garonne and the Pont Neuf (which in fact, is the oldest bridge of the town!)


I looked at the telescope


I forgot to say that the waether was very sunny  .. (I think about becka who is shivering in Sydney )... BUT ... it was terribly windy !!!



Mood promised me to make a cruise on one of the boats that sail on the Garonne !

But until that we took a break in a charming tea room called the Flower's café... Were I have tasted a very good chocolat viennois

On our way back home, as I was thinking about Becka, and home in Australia, Mood took me to this new shop


As you might know, Toulouse is going to host the next rugby world cup in September, and here rugby is a very popular sport (we even play rugby on the Place du Capitole !!!)

In this shop, we met a charming young seller that allowed us to take special pictures for Becka



On this one you can see the different teams .. I laughed at the name they call it : Poule .. like chicken or goose!!!!
Will you be able to recognize each flag ?


and you know what? as if by chance, it was Australia team that was playing on TV ... Unfortunately we can't see very well, but it was them !!!!


As you can see on this picture, the local rugby team (called Stade toulousain) celebrated its 100 years

so, on this occasion, there is an exhibition and once again, I could touch Australia!!

And look at this map of the world showing the international rugby player who played with the Stade Toulousain ... Maybe, my journey around the world will look like this !!!!