Comme d’habitude means as usual in French and that was what I thought my day was going to be. It was going to be the usual Thursday, I would get up, eat breakfast, read, then head out to lunch, wander the city, join the run group and then quick dinner and bed. Much of it did turn out as usual but there was a pleasant surprise in the day.

I did get up and have breakfast. I did my short work out which I have adopted here to make sure I get in good shape. Not sure why I have gotten more concerned about it but it might be doing the calisthenics after the running group.

I went out to lunch and went to my usual Thursday lunch spot, Le Petit Quai. It was much busier than usual. They had a group of 8 which takes up about half the restaurant. The poor waiter (they only have one) was harried but still got me my lunch in reasonable time. I had a nice fish in sauce.

After than, which was not usual, I decided I wanted some chocolate. I love chocolate but has not been indulging it in here which is stupid as there are many chocolatiers and fantastic chocolate (at least from looking in the windows). I had walked passed the L’atelier du Chocolat which is a chocolatier from Bayonne but make the chocolates here in Toulouse. I bought two packages of chocolates. One was eggs which I will save for Easter but the other was small shaped dark chocolates which I will ration but eat.

Since it was a lovely day, I sat by the river and read for some time. While sitting there, a young man sat down not far from me. After a while, I realized he was doing an on the fly painting of the river and the Hotel de Grave across the river with people sitting on the river. I did not want to be overly nosy but he seemed to be quite talent. The painting was with watercolors. After he finished the painting, he took out another notebook and started doing studies for what looked like future paintings. It was interesting to see him work.

In the evening, I headed to the running group. It was large again because the weather was beautiful. Unfortunately, Elliot was not there as he had injured his back. He mentioned it on Tuesday when we were running. I was disappointed not to have someone to chat with but would enjoy the run.

Well, I was wrong about not having someone to chat with. As we were running, one of the run leaders asked me how I was doing as we were running. I answered but said that I did not speak French all that well. He asked me where I was from and I told him. He said he loved to talk to people in English. So we spent a lot of the run chatting. He had lots of questions for me. At one point he asked me when I started running and I explained my running history. After that, he asked me how old I was but was embarrassed to ask and said it was something that the French would never ask as it was private and the French were reluctant to discuss private matters. I told him generally Americans were much more open and were willing to discuss almost any subject. I told him and he was surprised.

Neom is studying at the university here. He wants to be a physical education teacher. One thing that was amusing is that he said starting phys ed teachers only have to work 16 hours a week and get paid 2000 euros a month. I said that when I worked I worked more hours (at least 40). He immediately added that Americans like to work and the French do not. I thought that was amusing but probably accurate.

The run was difficult as we did a hill work out. We ran the hill that I hate twice – it has a long slow rising approach and then a steep finish. We ran it and then did a loop where we had to run up a slow rising incline and came back to the bottom of the first hill. We only had to run three quarters up the first hill again. My legs got a good work out as we had both uphills and downhills. The run overall was fun.

It is nice now to have someone else I can talk to when I run. It was a plus for the day. I am increasing my community little by little.

I got a like on yesterday’s blog post and looked at the blog of the person who liked my blog post and I was taken by his post. He was talking about how making a ritual out of normal activities enriched those activities and make them more meaningful to a person. It made one life more fulfilled. I am not sure I have gotten to making any of my normal activities a ritual but do put purpose in my daily wandering here in Toulouse so that I do not think I am just being aimless. Aimlessness might be good but it feels somewhat empty. But my father had made a ritual of cocktail hour when he was alive. He said that making his Martini every night as a ritual allowed him to decompress after a day at work as he spent the time making the perfect martini. My mother was part of the ritual as well as she made a small appetizer to have with the drinks. They would then sit down and discuss their days and relax. I am going to see if I can find ordinary activities to make into rituals.