My friends, Jesse and Jen, are coming to visit and arrive on Thursday. I have started getting rid for their visit. One of the things we both enjoy is wine so I went to Boutique Vins, a wine shop that I have found and think gives me good information on the wines and has good choices.

As is my norm when I am here in Toulouse, I try to buy local wines as you cannot always get them in the United States. The proprietor recommended two bottles. I think I had one previously on another trip, a Cahors Malbec from Chateau du Cedre. I like French Malbecs so it will be fun to have it again. The other was a bottle from Fronton, which is the most local wine region. It is mostly Negrette which is a grape that I knew nothing about before I came to Toulouse. The wine is called Le Haut du Bois, (The Top of the Wood). The bottle says it is a particular plot for this grape – I am guessing it is high up.

It will be fun to taste the Malbec again and try the Le Haut du Bois.

After buying wine, I headed to Midica, the local Target type store, where I buy the things that I need for the apartment. I bought a French Press for coffee. The apartment has a Nepresso type machine but there are not many pods for it. Jen is a big coffee drinker so I wanted to get an actual coffee type pot and buy fresh coffee from one of the local coffee roasters that I have found. This is all pretty amusing as I do not drink coffee myself but I think it is necessary to have good choices as a good host.

Today I will go out and buy the coffee, buy some pastries from my favorite pastry shop and get some other provisions so we can have a good visit.

I had lunch at La Panache as we cannot go for dinner on Friday as they are having a private party that night. I have to eat at least once a week at La Panache so I thought my Tuesday lunch would be a good choice. I always eat lunch out on Tuesday due to the run group in the evening and not want to cook dinner after the run.

The first course is a poached egg on a bed of mushroom purée which crispy potatoes fingers. I am not really an egg person but all the flavors made the dish super good. The main course was salmon with green curry sauce on a risotto base. The curry sauce was had great flavor but was not super spicy.

In the evening, I did the Run in Toulouse group. It ended up being the hill run. I was not thrilled as I had run a hard run on Monday but glad it was tonight as then Jesse would not have to run it on Thursday when he gets here and is jet lagged. I am not sure Jen will run as she has been injured. If she runs, she will probably run with the 8 KPH pace and that group never does the hills.

I chatted with one of the fellow runners, Marc. He is very nice and lets me speak some French but we generally revert to English. He is a big trail runner and likes doing the train runs in the mountains. He is from Andorra which is high in the Pyrenees so grew up running in the mountains. He, also, was not thrilled with the hills but he is a great runner and really powered up each of the steep hills.

Lucas was also there and he always plays music when he runs with the group. He is a really interesting character. He has lots of personality and energy. I follow him on Instagram and his post are always creative and very interesting. I think his job is a videographer. He played some American disco music and I told him that it brought back memories of when I was his age.

It is fun to feel part of the group and have a group of runners to chat with as I run. It is part of my building a community here in Toulouse.

I have mentioned it before but I never get tired of the sunsets in Toulouse. There was another glorious one tonight. It is the post picture.