When I was leaving Toulouse last fall, the Aeroport bus went by what looked like an outdoor farmers market. I have never seen the market before that day. Last week, I had intended to go and search for the market. I got involved in other things and did not look for the market. Today, I decided to go and find the market. I knew it was on Tuesday as that was the day I left Toulouse in the autumn so I knew it would be taking place today. I wandered to the street where I thought the market was. After a couple of wrong turns, I found the road and wandered until I found the market. It mostly fruits and vegetables; it does not have the arts and crafts that the St. Aubin’s farmers market has. I was glad to find it as the fruits and vegetables are significantly cheaper than those at Victor Hugo so it gives me another option for buying fruit and vegetables.

It is definitely strawberry season in France. There were tons of beautiful strawberries at lots of the stalls. They were either from France or Italy. I have bought strawberries a couple of times and they are very delicious.

I tried a new restaurant for lunch. As those of you who read this know, I go out to lunch on Tuesdays and Thursdays so I do not have to cook after the running group. I have usually gone to two restaurant, Restaurant Gascon and Le Petit Quai. I decided that I needed to break out of my routine and had seen a restaurant on my walk from the apartment to the Place de Capitole that had a garden. Since it was a beautiful day and sitting outside was definitely an option, I went to Chez Lilly. The garden was quite lovely.

Many times we I wondered how the French stay thin when I see the options and size of the meals. They do not really have the massive sizes of the American restaurants but most French eat multiple courses. The standard lunch offers an appetizer, entree and dessert. I usually cannot do all three so I opt for two of the three. This was my lunch today – appetizer and dessert.

I was glad that I had done a lot of walking and was going to the run group after finishing lunch. I skipped dessert. The meal was Salade Lyonais, Grillade of porc avec pommes roti Romain, and a glass of local Froton wine. It was all delicious.

The evening was going to the running group. Unfortunately, just joking, it was the hill workout run. There is one long hill that starts out gradually and then ramps up to being very steep. After all the walking and running I have done (much more than January and February in cold Washington), my legs were tired but I made it. As usual, the course was not the same as previous runs. Elliot and I tried the French/English trade off. I did ok but definitely need to keep practicing and getting better.

Europe moved to European Summer Time (Daylight Savings Time) this past weekend. I was confused as I thought they had already changed but was wrong on that one. So the sun now sets almost 8:30 pm now. It is great to have so much light and the run group is now in full day light. The sun does rise slightly later here than in DC so the time of daylight is probably similar but just shifts an hour. It is really nice to have so much sunlight in the evening. It makes for a pleasant run and then watch the sunset.

The feature picture shows the Pyrenees in the distance. They are beautiful.