This morning I got up and went to the Anglican Church in Toulouse. I had done research on it and found where it was located and when the service was held.

To get to the church I had to take the Metro. This was a new experience and challenge for me. The internet makes travel and getting round in unknown locations much easier than when you had to use guidebooks and rely on just figuring things out. Jeanne D’Arc metro station is very near the apartment where I am staying. I walked over and headed down to the ticket machines. After the research, I knew I could buy a metro card for 10 rides. The metro ticket machines have directions in English so it was very easy to buy the ticket. You can even use your phone to pay for the ticket. Toulouse only has two lines for the metro so it is pretty easy to figure out what train you need to take. The trains come every 7 minutes. The entry gates are very similar to the old (maybe current) gates for DC’s metro. They are starting to use cards similar to our SmartTrip card but the 10 rides is a paper ticket that you put in the gate and the gate opens. The ride to the stop that I needed was about 10 minutes.

I walked through the neighborhood with the church and it was very different from the neighborhood where I am staying. It is much more suburban and much less active at least on Sunday. There were a few shops open (in France, shops are open until 1:30 pm on Sunday). There was even a Midas shop on the corner where I came out of the metro.

The church generally only has services twice a month with communion once a month. They have a rotating clergy for the five Anglican churches in this area of France so cannot have a service every week. This morning was their Harvest Festival where they were taking in canned food, hygiene items and other contributions for the people in need in the area. So most of the service revolved around the harvest theme. The service was led by Samantha (a layperson) and it was very casual but nice. Samantha played a keyboard and there were two parishioners who played the clarinet and violin for music. The congregation was very small – about 15 people. Most were older but there were a couple of families in attendance. I stayed for coffee hour after and talked to Stephanie, a young lady who works for a non-profit that encourages community composting. It was a nice morning and nice to actually have a full conversation. I will go back on October 20th for the next service. In the meantime, I will attend one of the services at the churches around my neighborhood.

After church, I went to the open air market that I found the last time I was here. It was packed with shoppers and people sitting around eating the street food that is on offer at the market. The market has produce, cheese, meat, wine and bread vendors. It includes many street food stalls with lots of crepes and ethnic food. There are different crafts and clothes as well. I bought some fruit, cheese, olives and bread.

I came back to the apartment and had lunch with some of the food I had bought at the open air market.

I had seen that they were having a SuperTri competition on the river waterfront this afternoon so I walked over to the Port du Daurade where the competition was being held and watched the men’s competition. It consists of four teams that do two circuits of the course – two swim legs, two biking legs and two running legs. I am not sure the distance of course but they used the wide walkway on the river and then up to streets along the waterfront and backdown again. It seems like for the biking it would be a hard course as there are many sharp turns, cobblestones and steep ups and downs. The day was really pretty and the crowd was reasonable size.

The SuperTri has races in different locations as I saw that they had done them in Boston and Chicago this year. I do not know much about this competition but it is touted as the future of Tris.

Finished the day with fixing dinner and enjoying a nice dinner of fresh ingredients and good wine.

As always, I am amazed at how many people are out enjoying what Toulouse has to offer. The cafes are always filled. Lots of families wandering around and just a general level of activity. I have learned one thing through all this wandering, I walk much faster than the average person in Toulouse. I am going to have to learn to stroll and not power walk if I am going to fit in.