I skipped posting Monday as I did not really have anything to add. It was the usual Monday. I did laundry, cleaned the house, got caught up on “life maintenance“. I made dinner which was shrimp scampi which was good. I guess I was in my Italian food period as Sunday was pasta with clam sauce and Monday night was the shrimp scampi. Other than that it was a regular day.

I got back into the groove of things and had a more interesting day. I knew I would need some new fruits for my breakfast and since it was Tuesday, there is a fruit and vegetable market on one of the main streets here in Toulouse. It has a few cheese stands and charcuterie but is very different than the St. Aubin market. It does not have cooked food for sale or any crafts. This is just fruits and vegetables.

As I have said before the fruits and vegetables are only seasonal. So none of the berries that we have year round are available at these markets. The main fruit right now are apples, pears, mandarins (grown in Spain and Portugal). Grapes have come in for the season so there are lots of grapes – more varieties that we get in the U.S. I bought pears and mandarins for my lunch fruit and for snacking. I was amused as the seller “made” me buy two more pears as it rounded out the cost. Since I would eat the pears I did not mind. I had one pear for dinner and it was very good and just the perfect ripeness.

I explored a new grocery store. It was one of the bigger Intermarchès and is just outside of the old city. I needed some new tea and cookies. I love the LU chocolate cover biscuits and they are so much cheaper here that I buy them to augment lunch. The grocery store had a very good selection and was more like a U.S. supermarket.

I unloaded my groceries and then headed out for lunch. Tuesday is eat out day so I do not have to cook after I run. I had not eaten at Restaurant Gascon on this trip. I had eaten there multiple times on previous trips. I always joke that it is the retirement center restaurant. Its formule cost is 13.50 euros for entree, plat and dessert. It is very good deal as portions are healthy and good. The food is not fancy but filling. I call it the retirement center restaurant as it seems the clientele is marked older than other places I eat. The costs suit a retirement budget.

I did not get there until 1:00 pm and one entree and one plat were already sold out. It shows how popular the restaurant is. I had the Feuillettes with formage, which was puff pastry filled with cheese. Restaurant Gascon is one of the places that actually includes salad with its meals. The entree was great.

For the plat, I had Bavette – a flank steak. I was expecting potatoes with the steak but it was served with butternut squash. It is definitely in season as I see it at the vegetable markets all the time. I have also had it puréed. It was chopped and sauteed. The table next to me must have not liked butternut squash as they asked for frites with their bavette. Almost all meat is served fairly rare which suits me so it is good. I have heard that if you asked for steak well done you will not be served steak. There was portion of salad as well so I got a good does of health food was well.

Dessert was Flan which I love so I was good with that for dessert. The different with it here, is they serve the caramel sauce in jar and you pour it over your flan.

The food at restaurant Gascon does not meet the fantastic food at other places I eat but it is definitely good and filling. For the price, you really cannot beat the meal.

After lunch, I went to Decathlon, which is a sporting goods store, in search of a headlamp for running. Europe goes back to regular time two weeks before the U.S. so it has already changed to winter time (as they call it here). This means sunset is around 6:00 pm now so when we run it is dark. There are not as many street lights as in Alexandria and with all the obstacles when running here, a light is important. Marc who I run with has a light that I liked. The bad was two small bungee type cords so it was not a large band. I wanted to find one like that as it would not be as annoying as the other kind and I could wear it with a hat. I found one and used it for the run and it worked perfectly.

The run was fun. I ended up running with the faster group as they wanted to break the 10k group up and Marc convinced to run with the faster group. We did not kill ourselves but it was a faster run. I stayed for the calisthenics after as Marc harassed me about not staying. He had noticed that I was not staying. I have enjoyed getting to know Marc on the runs. He works for a data company and is a developer.

Elliot has had COVID and has not felt well at all so I have not seen him in a while. We have texted but he sounds like life is not being nice to him.

The evening was lovely with a moon and clear skies which was nice. It has been fairly cloudy during the day so the clear night was great.