It was a lovely late fall day today. I decided to go to the Jardin des Plantes today. The garden is botanical garden with different trees from all over the world. It is not huge but a nice size to wander and spend time. It has different areas with seating, places for children to play and statuary to see.

Before I went to the garden, a sat by a fountain in another park to read. I was really pleasant to listen to the sounds of the fountain and sit in the sun. It was a nice way to spend an hour in the morning.

In the garden there was a waterfall created a canal running around the waterfall. The canal had various ducks and geese swimming around. At one point, four of the geese came out of the canal and waddled under the fence and started walking across the area screeching. There was a little girl and her mother watching and the little girl started bending over and screeching back at the geese. I am not sure what got the geese excited in the first place but it was pretty amusing to watch.

After the walk in the garden, I went back to the main plaza and walked around the athlete village for the Toulouse marathon and other races. I even looked up whether I could sign up for the 10k but is was sold out so I will have to settle for watching the races. I do not think I am in shape to run a marathon but there were still entries for it. I am guessing the race is pretty small but will see tomorrow.

I wanted to add a picture of my neighbors in my aerie. As I have described I live in the attic of an old building in the old part of Toulouse. These are my nearest neighbors.

I had dinner at Le Panache last night as is my usual Friday night activity. They staff told me that I was their favorite customer tonight. It might be caused by tipping well – something the French do not really do. One of the staff even told me he thought about me today and had the chef prepare a special main dish for me. It was incredible. Risotto with scallops and porcini mushrooms. I got a number of free glasses of wine, a shot of something that I do not know what it was (I was shown how to drink a shot in France, Sante, bang the glass on the bar and then drink). As usual the whole evening was fun and the food was fantastic.

Another day that makes me happy that I decided to come to Toulouse.