One of the reasons for the trip was determine if Toulouse was a good place to start my next chapter, I decided not do visit tourist attractions but just to wander around and see if I could visualize my living in Toulouse for a month or so. My first evening I was somewhat overwhelmed by the city and was not sure. But after today’s wandering, I think it is a nice place to live for a period of time. It has many hidden streets and areas to explore. I have been really interested in wandering and then finding streets (alleys really) that hold bars, cafes, shops and other daily life activity.

My first stop on my wander was the food market, as most know food is very important to me. I found the central food market and was impressed by all the options. There was a boulangerie (bakery), a cheese monger, several meat and poultry stalls where you can get duck, quail, chicken, rabbit as well as regular beef, pork, lamb and veal. There were several seafood stalls that had great options.

I did do one tourist attraction, the cathedral.

After wandering, I decided to go for a run. I had found the Canal de Midi in my wandering and saw that it had a nice running path along it. It was about a half mile from my Airbnb so I ran down to the Canal and ran along the path and then connected with the city where it meets the Garone river and ran the river front and then back down the main shopping street (which is a pedestrian and bike street) back to the Airbnb. It was five miles. The path is a combination of the Mount Vernon bike trail and the C&O canal. I saw a number of bicyclists and runners. Toulouse seems to be a very athletic city.

The first picture is a lock on the Canal. It drops about sixty feet in water level but the most interesting part is that the canal goes under a road just prior to the lock. So if you are a boat traversing the canal, you would be below the road as you enter the lock and at road level after exiting the lock.

After that I head out for a pre-dinner glass of wine and then dinner. Dinner was a Le Bibent. One of the restaurants recommended by Natalie. It is a very old restaurant in the city. The food was very good. I had Pate En Croute and then Cod Bouillabaisse style. Both were excellent. I had a local white wine Saint Mont with it. It was definitely a good pairing.

It was a fun day and I am glad I am beginning to appreciate Toulouse. Only disappointment is I did not see any canal boats that were occupied and lived on.

Tomorrow, I am off to Carcassonne, a walled hill town about an hour train ride from Toulouse.