I wrote about the storm yesterday and it continued today. It rained for about 30 hours straight and not light rain but constant rain. I stayed in most of the day as it was raining so hard I did not think going out was worth it.

During the morning, I was reading and listening to NPR (BBC at the hour in the US) and suddenly the electricity went out. As one would imagine, I was not sure what caused it and how to figure out when/if it would resolved. I did find a website that showed current outages in France and saw that many places in Toulouse did not have power. I shut down my electronic devices as I wanted to conserve their power as I did not know how long I would be without electricity. Also, I am living in what used to be an attic of an apartment building and I am on the top floor. The staircase up to the apartment does not have any natural light and is very narrow. I thought I should save power on my phone if I needed to use the flashlight to be able to get from my apartment to the outside at some point. Luckily after about an hour, the lights came back on. It was an interesting experience but nothing to difficult to deal with.

I had decided to go out for dinner after being cooped up in the apartment all day. I did some research and found a restaurant that seemed nice, good food and good atmosphere, Le Panache (@le_panache-31). I made a reservation as I wanted to ensure that I would get a seat. I made it for 8:15 which I know now is sort of early for Friday night.

I decided to wander a little early to look at the river and see whether there was any flooding due to all the rain. The restaurant was not far from the river so I wandered over before I had dinner. The river was pretty high but not dangerous but definitely higher than an average day and anything I had seen before. There is a nice walkway along the river which I have both walked and run on since I have been here. The walkway in some parts was completely under water. You could also see that the river had been running fast as there was debris on the banks. It is somewhat like the flooding in Alexandria but the difference is the city is above the river banks by 20 to 30 feet with walls along the river. Only the walkway is at river level.

I had dinner at the La Panache and it was a great experience. I, finally, feel that I have a found a place where I am comfortable and could hang out regularly. Once of the nice things is that the restaurant is small but it has a bar/counter that I could eat at so I could interact with the staff. When I walked in with the reservation, which I told them I had in French, the young man hosting and serving was nice said he did not speak English well and I said that was no problem as I did not speak French well but I wanted to practice so we agreed to speak as much French as I could.

I ordered a glass of red wine and then ordered dinner. My choices were Gambas Panko (fried shrimp) and Poulpe (Octopus). I think the food is a French/Spanish fusion.

I saw that the server was drinking white wine and I asked him if I could try it as he was drinking it. He said it was not on the wine list but he had bought it around the corner and it was his wine. Very nicely, he let me have a glass and it was excellent. I asked what it was and he let me take a picture of the bottle.

After dinner, the other server was pouring some white wine and I was definitely looking at the bottle and he offered me a taste of the wine as well. It was very good as well. Both servers were very engaging and fun to talk to. We did mostly French and some English. It was first time I felt comfortable with conversational French when talking to strangers. When I was ready to pay the bill, they asked me if I was coming back and I said yest and I would be there next Friday. I think I have found a place where I can feel comfortable and begin to feel part of Toulouse!

So the day started out weird but ended up being one of the best days I have had so far!