I have been thinking about this recently. This stay has been very different than my first two stays. It is has been a good different but definitely different.

The previous two stays, I really did not meet anyone other than the Toulousians that I met through Run in Toulouse and the restaurants I eat at regularly. The exception was that I met Kristi Shepherd who I meet on a wine tour from Taste in Toulouse on my second stay. We had dinner a couple times during that trip.

This trip I have had various people who I have met who speak English and I have spent time with over the first part of my trip. It has been nice to have people to have dinner, coffee and go things with here in Toulouse.

The first was Raghu, a digital nomad, I met through Run in Toulouse. Raghu was here for my first two weeks. We would meet regularly for coffee or to wander around the city and see the sites. After the two weeks, he headed to Gijon, Spain for the next stop on his digital nomad life. The coincidence was that his family lives in Ashburn, VA which is very close to Alexandria where I live.

After he left, Mike and Nancy, reached out to tell me they were in Toulouse. Nancy and her friend Mary had been in Toulouse previously and we met on another Taste in Toulouse tour. Nancy had been following me through this blog and knew I was in Toulouse. We have met a couple of times while they were here for the month of October. They are a great couple and it has been fun to spend time with them as well.

The third was the visit of my friends, Jen and Jesse. They were here for a week. It was fun to show them Toulouse. We, also, went to Barcelona which was very fun.

It has been very different to have people to have dinner with, go for coffee and just hang out with doing things. Nancy and Mike are off back to Canada on Saturday so I will return to my single life again.

I have enjoyed getting to know the native Toulousians through Run in Toulouse and the restaurants that I eat in regularly – Le Panache and Terra Tolosa. But in reality, they are more acquaintances and the language barrier makes long conversations and meaningful ones hard. I, also, only see them in those circumstances.

The exception is Elliot. We have gone for drinks after the run a couple of times and Elliot joined Jen, Jesse and myself for dinner when Jen and Jesse were visiting.

Sometimes I run into the people I know casually in Toulouse and that always surprises me. I ran into Noam and Norden when running one time, I ran into Marc when heading out to dinner, I saw Gabriel just out wandering one day. It always throws me off when I see them as I do not expect to run into people I recognize here in Toulouse.

Last night I had dinner with Nancy and Mike at Prima Lova, an Italian restaurant. I had walked by it often but had never had dinner there. It is always packed so I figured it was good. It was good. I did not take pictures of my dinner which is probably because I was not eating by myself so had better things to do than take pictures of what I was eating. I did have good mushroom risotto. I had a Corbières wine. I did not have Italian as I think drinking locally is the best.

It was a cloudy morning but a lovely afternoon/evening. For all this week, we have had cloudy mornings but nicer afternoon and evenings. The temperature has been very nice even with the cloudy and windy weather.

I am fascinated with the lock system and happened to be walking past the lock onto the Canal de Brienne from the Garonne being used by the tour boat. I stopped and watched the process. It is always interesting to me.

I am back to the single life in Toulouse now. I will get back into my regular routine. I will miss the people I have met here and spent time with but love Toulouse with or without people who speak English.