I felt that I was back in Washington today as the weather forecast called for snow but then none materialized. That seems to be the norm for the DC area and maybe it is the same for Toulouse. It did feel winter like most of the day. I cannot complain because it is late November and up until now the weather has been beautiful.

I went to Terra Tolosa for lunch as usual. It was the first time that I had something that I did not feel was fantastic. After about 20 meals one miss is alright. The miss was the cauliflower panna cotta for dessert. It probably is because I do not really like cauliflower so I should not have ordered it. I was taking a gamble and it did not pay off the way I would have liked. It was funny as Pierre, one of the servers, kept telling me it was an experimental reach.

The rest of the meal was good. I had bleu cheese and pear for the appetizer. I always knew that bleu cheese and pear were a good taste combination and the dish proved it. There was a nice pear purée, pieces of sliced pear, endive and the bleu cheese. I really enjoyed it.

The main course was arancini – fried rice balls. The arancini was served with roasted sweet potatoes and large scallions in a very nice cream sauce.

The appetizer and main course lived up to Terra Tolosa’s reputation for fantastic food. I just should have gone with my gut instinct and avoided the cauliflower panna cotta. It was not a bad dish, just not my general flavor profile.

In the evening, I went to the Run in Toulouse running group. The new format definitely gives the group greater variety for choices of running. There is the only run groups that do an hour run, the run and exercise groups that do 45 minutes of running and then exercises and the hill group. Marc and I did the 45 minutes with exercise at 8:30 pace. Marc indicated the hour at 8:00 minute pace had been a little too much for him on Tuesday. I followed his lead on choosing the group. It ended up just being Marc, Luca (the captain) and me. For part of it I felt a little lost as Marc and Luca were speaking in French which is normal and I was not able to participate in the conversation. After a while I was more willing to talk in French and add what I could. In the end, as is usual, we all started speaking in English.

I did as Marc about the groups that were labeled Jolimont as I did not know what that meant. He explained that it was the hill group (should have guessed as mont – is mountain or hill). It is a metro stop at the top of the hill we run. I am glad to know now as I can avoid that group unless I decide I need a hill work out.