Week 1: Toulouse, France Part 1

I woke up on the morning of September 20th, my first full day of this French adventure.  Benjamin, my host, took me to the local farmers market before he left for work, after which I returned to bed to sleep until lunch. When he returned after work, Benjamin let me ride his bicycle, and we went for a ride along the canals.  It was beautiful!!!  The sun was beginning to set and gave a lovely golden glow to the autumn leaves.  We rode for about an hour, and right around the time I started to get sore, we returned 'home'. We had a lovely curry for dinner and then I went to bed, still a bit tired from the transcontinental traveling.

 

The second day I managed to stay awake until lunch, but fell asleep for a few hours after, still recovering from jet-lag.  I practiced my french and unpacked a bit, excited that we would be going to dance class that evening.  I had fallen in love with Zouk, a latin dance from Brazil based on the lambada, while living in Abu Dhabi.  It's considered a sensual dance because you use your senses to communicate with your partner - you hear the music, you see and feel their movements.  It's a wonderful experience, and my friends I'd met in Portugal were the instructors.  I had a lot of fun dancing with them again!

The third day I only took an hour long nap, after studying all morning and before I decided I needed coffee. Benjamin took me to the store to purchase necessities, and then we had a nice quiet evening.   watching an interesting French movie - The Untouchables, about the friendship between a paraplegic and his caretaker.  It was touching and actually quite funny!  I did my best to converse with him about it in my halting French. Then we watched The Fantastic Mr. Fox, also quite funny.

We returned to the farmers market on Saturday morning, my fourth day in France.  We purchased fresh produce and eggs, before exploring what other items the vendors had for sale.  After a simple yet delicious tomato salad for lunch, we set off for the near by city of Carcassonne.  I was SUPER excited about this adventure, because one of my favorite board games is Carcassonne, named for it.  Our first view of the walled city was breath taking - we turned a corner and suddenly there it was in all it's glory.  Awesome.  We parked and hiked up to the entrance, paused at the tourist center, then began to explore.  I found a copy of the board game in one of the souvenir shops and bought it.  I talked Benjamin into playing Carcassonne IN Carcassonne with me!  Then we wandered around a bit more before sitting down to dinner at a restaurant named for Camelot and King Arthur's round table, where I tried one of the local dishes:  Cassoulet - made from duck, white beans, and bacon.  It was delicious - I really enjoy French food.  Julia Child was NOT wrong...

My fifth day started early, becuase we were going hiking in the Pyranese Mountains.  We were a bit worried about the weather, but the forecast predicted it would be a nice day, so we ventured out.  It was lovely!  Quite steep for the first hour, and a much different terrain than I'm used to - lots of loose rocks, but I adapted, and was rewarded with brilliant scenes of sunlight streaming through forest and illuminating green landscapes.  We climbed up and up until we burst onto a meadow, completely surrounded by towering cliffs (which Benjamin called a cirque), with a streaming waterfall drawing us to the center.  We paused in the middle of the field on a huge rock by a stream flowing from the waterfall to enjoy our lunch and the surroundings.  Then we hiked the rest of the way to the falls, taking in all the beauty around us, before heading back down the trail.  I definately want to return!

   

Day six, Monday, was another quiet day for me with lots of studying and another long nap - it takes quite a while to beat jet-lag!  I practiced my French with Benjamin in the evening.  He says it's getting better, which is encouraging, but I still have a long way to go.  I have to ask him to slow down a lot, and many of the words sound exactly the same to my ear and I'm trying to use context clues to determine meaning.  I'm only right about a quarter of the time, but it's a start!

I finally ventured out on my own on Day seven, to explore Romonville, the suburb of Toulouse where Benjamin lives.  I found the local market and bought ingredients to make myself gluten free French Toast.  Ha!  I wonder what it's called here?  Then Benjamin and I rode bikes to the Metro Station, and went into the city to go to a Beat Box Quiz night, where the hosts started laying beats layer by layer until someone in the crowd guessed which song they were performing.  Everything from French songs to Lou Bega, Eminem, and FatBoy Slim.  Very entertaining!!!  

The next week promises to be just as entertaining.  I'll keep writing!!!