It was raining most of the day today so it became somewhat of a lazy Saturday.

I did some grocery shopping at the Victor Hugo market as I need some food for lunch. I bought the usual items, jambon, cheese and a baguette. I branched out a little and bought some patê Au forester. This was from a stall that I had never shopped at before. The patê was very good when I ate it at lunch.

In the afternoon, I became more my Alexandria self as I watched a movie on Netflix and read. It is only the second time I had resorted to Netflix since I have been here. I figured since I could not go out and walk around, it was a good way to entertain myself. Also, threw in some reading as well.

I had dinner at Le Petit Marais again. I enjoyed it last Saturday and it was a great value so I thought I would do it again. The meal was great and the young man who waits on tables is very pleasant and funny. We did most of our conversations in French which is good at helping me learn and practice. It was slow at the start but the waiter told me they had lost of reservations for later and then even more on Sunday. He explained that a Spanish magazine had written the restaurant up as one of the best in Toulouse so they were getting lots of reservations from Spanish tourists. He was funny as he said it was somewhat of a problem as he did not speak Spanish so organizing it all was hard. The Spanish eat late dinners so it was not starting to fill up until I left right before 9:00 pm.

After dinner, I went to the Easter Vigil at Saint Sernin. It starts in the plaza where they light a fire and then bless the Easter candle and light it. We then processed into the basilica in the dark but have candles that are lit as you enter. I did not know about the candles but a nice woman gave me a candle when she saw I did not have one. The first part of the service is done all in candle light. It is biblical reading and songs to start. I did not understand all of the biblical readings as it was all in French but I did get the Genesis, Abraham and Exodus readings. There were two others – one from Ezekiel. There was a New Testament reading from St. Paul and then the Gospel from St. Luke. I understood the Gospel as well. It helps when you know the stories and they are in context. Right before the Gospel reading, the lights were turned on in the basilica to represent the resurrection. There were baptisms during the services. The rest was the standard mass. The whole vigil took over 3 hours. It is interesting sitting in an 11th century building that is somewhat cold and definitely dark and experiencing it as the early worshipers must have.