It was a very nice Easter even though I was not with family and friends.

When I was in Toulouse last fall, I had attended the Anglican (Episcopal) Church in Toulouse a couple of times. It was nice but had a very small congregation and did not have a full time minister. So I started going to the English Mass at Saint Sernin.

For Easter, I wanted to worship in the Anglican Episcopal church but wanted to make sure they had a minister to officiate and were giving communion. I looked the church up on their website and found that there would be a full communion service with minister.

I headed out to the church which is in the suburbs of Toulouse. This was my first ride of the Metro here in Toulouse on this trip. It is a great Metro with convenient service, reasonably priced and clean. It was a 10 minute walk to the station and a 3 stop ride to the station where I had to get off to walk to the church. The fare is 2.00 Euros and a round trip is 3.80 Euros. I like the flat fee here in Toulouse rather than the distance based fares in DC.

When I got to the church there were about 5 people along with a few musicians and the minister. By the time the service started there were approximately 25 people all told. The minister (the Reverend Jacqueline) was very enthusiastic and very funny. She produced a very celebratory and fun service. I grew up in and attend a fairly traditional church in Alexandria and this church is the exact opposite. The music is much more folksy and it a keyboard, violinist, clarinetist and flutist. The service is projected on a large screen (I think part of this is there might not be prayer books available for everyone at the church). The congregation seems to be a mixture of British ex-pats, some French and then some immigrants. There also seemed to be some other Protestants but not necessarily Anglican.

I was one of two visitors for the service. The other was an American also who lived in South Florida and is on an exploration trip to find his next chapter as well. His wife had died, he was not happy with the state of the United States and was able to get a year long visitor’s visa so was exploring France as a place to live. As he said, he was looking for his next “mission”. He really liked Aix en Provenance so was thinking of settling there.

The interesting part of it was he had grown up in Langley in Northern Virginia and had lived in West Palm Beach for 25 years. It ended up at we worked at different ends of Indiantown Road when I lived in Jupiter. It is a small world where you can randomly meet someone in an Anglican Church in Toulouse and have two things in common.

After the service I went to Terra Tolosa for lunch. I had walked by it and seen that they had a fixed price menu for Easter. The menu looked good so I made a reservation at the Chef’s Table. Figuring being by myself it would be a good place to eat. When I got there they offered me the chef’s table which is just a small table that is next to the Kitchen and where you can see the chefs at work or a table in the restaurant itself. I choose the Chef’s table as it would not make me feel as alone or awkward sitting by myself when every other table had more than one person.

The decision was a good one as the chef, sous chef and the waiter/manager (only one server) all spoke English. One of the chef’s was from Hungary and did not speak French all that well so the server said they mostly conversed in English. It was fun to talk to them and listen as they worked. The young man who was server/manager had worked in Orlando at the French Pavillion at Epcot and spoke very good English. The chef and sous chef both spoke English. It ended up being a very nice Easter dinner.

The food was fantastic! It was a four course menu and all was beautifully presented and delicious. First course was seared scallops on lentils with various sauce and accompaniments (caviar). The second was foie gras ravioli in broth. The third was slow cooked lamb with various vegetables. The dessert was orange cake soaked in orange syrup, chocolate mouse, chocolate crumble, orange purées and orange sorbet. I am definitely going back for another meal there. This meal with two glasses of excellent wine and sparkling water was 68 euros. A little more than my normal budget but well worth it.

One thing that I thought was incongruous but very amusing was that there was a container of Tabasco sauce in the kitchen. It might be there as one of the chefs (not there while I was eating) is American-French. He and his family did stop by while I was eating. They had a left over box of pizza with them. He joked that he had meant to cook a fancy meal but they went out for coffee and just opted for pizza. I guess he wanted a day off as well.

The feature picture is American vs. French Easter candy. My mother was addicted to Peeps. I jokingly referred to her as a peepaholic. When I was younger, I would find Peeps stashed at different places in our house long after Easter. One year, I found them in the back of the linen closet. All her friends knew she loved Peeps and would give them to her. After she died, I found a shopping bag in the pantry full of Peeps. So I bought some Peeps before I came to France knowing I would be spending Easter here. I thought a little reminder of home and family was good. I broke them out and had some. I, also, bought good French Easter candy.