As it was Sunday, I did my usual Sunday activity. It is one of my favorite days as I get to enjoy Toulouse life.

I walked over to the St. Aubin’s market and did my regular shopping. I really cannot remember U.S. food prices but I feel that things are definitely cheaper here. I bought six clementines, a cucumber, an onion, a garlic bulb, a tomato and a zucchini and it cost me $5.91. I got a head of lettuce for 1.20. All of this is at the farmers market and not a grocery store.

I had my usual conversation with the olive purveyor. He asked me when I was heading back to the U.S. and I told him it was two weeks away. I did tell him I would buy olive oil before I left to take home with me.

Next stop was Maison Pillon for my chocolatine. I have tried a lot of them and it is the best I have found. The dark chocolate in the middle is incredibly flavorful.

I got cheese and seafood at Marché Victor Hugo. I did think about buying some of the unusual shellfish but really do not know the best way to cook some of it and do not have the right utensils to eat it so I skipped it. I am going to go out and have a seafood tower before I leave.

The last official activity was going to church at Saint Sernin. Not being Catholic, it has been an experience to go to Mass on Sunday. I want to go to church and the English Mass at Saint Sernin is the best option. I am interested at the diversity of the congregation. There are Asians, South Asians, Africans, Irish, Eastern European, English and American. I have probably missed some. It is basically anyone who is not a native French speaker. The congregation size is fairly large and there definitely is a core group that is there every week. There is one woman who seems to be the leader of the lay group. She does the collection every week, she makes sure the bulletins are out. Her son is one of the alter servers. It seems without her, the whole thing would fall apart.

Last thing was having a Spritz at La Reserve. It is a nice cafe/bar near the Port Daurade. I use it as my place to grab a drink when I want to read and be relaxed. The interesting part is it was one of the first bars I went to over a year ago when I was checking out Toulouse. It was where I decided to Toulouse was the place I want to live. I saw the Run in Toulouse group run by and knew that a city with that large a running group would be a good place to live. The original bar closed and the building was renovated and La Reserve opened up.

It seems that whenever a restaurant or bar closes, a new one opens in the spot fairly quickly. I have seen at least 4 conversions since I started coming here. I am not sure why one closes in a location and then another opens almost immediately. It would seem if the one closed it was for lack of business but the others have all seemed to do well.

There was a Movember run this morning. It was fun to see all the shirts with mustaches and also people with fake ones running.

Sorry, I am getting nostalgic as I get ready to go back to Alexandria. I am going to miss Toulouse but look forward to seeing friends and enjoying Alexandria. I will be back here in March so it is not my last time doing the things I love in Toulouse.