After breakfast this morning, I started getting back in the routine of my life in Toulouse.

One of the things I like about Toulouse is that the city is very vibrant and there are people out and about the city all the time. People are out at cafes enjoying the weather. There are street artists everywhere performing. It is just a very lively atmosphere.

I shopped at the Marchè Victor Hugo for food for lunch. My lunches in Toulouse consist of Jambon Bodega Serrano from Maison Garcia, cheese from Deux Chavanne, cherry tomatoes from the vegetable stands, pastries from A Poussin Rose and fruit. The cheese types and fruits change by the season and what is available at the markets.

I am always conflicted and have trouble when choosing the cheese because Deux Chavanne has probably 100 different cheeses on display. I know information about cheese but am far from being an expert or connoisseur. I walk up and down the display looking at all the cheeses trying to decide on a choice. I try to choose a different one each time to get to know the different cheeses. Luckily for me, the cheeses are broken up by type – bleu, soft and creamy, hard, semi-hard, and the various goat cheeses. They also display if the cheese is goat, sheep or cow. This time I bought a semi-soft cheese called Bethmale de Tradition. It is semi-soft with small homes. It has a nutty flavor.

After making my cheese and jambon purchases, I went to A Poussin Rose, a small pastiserrie I had found on my first stay here walking back from the train station to my apartment. The reason I was drawn to A Poussin Rose is they have small pastries. Most French pastries, as elsewhere in the world, are very large and I cannot really eat a whole one in a single sitting. These are small and easily consumed in one sitting. I, also, bought my baguette needed for every meal in France there. I especially like their eclairs, raspberry tarts and chocolate mousse cakes.

After finishing my shopping I went back to the apartment and stored the various purchases and enjoyed a good lunch. As you can see, I added a small glass of wine with my lunch.

A surprise of the afternoon was a FaceTime call with my friends Julie Staggs. We had not talked in a long time but she had messaged me when she saw I was on my way to Toulouse. We set up a time to do a FaceTime call and caught up on our lives and what we were up to now. It was nice as it was as if no time had passed since we last spoke. It is nice to have friends where even when you do not see each other often when you do it is as if not time had passed and you just fall back into normal chat. We did discuss on the call how modern technology has made it so easy to stay in touch with people all over the world. Back when I was younger and was going to university in England, it was all by written letter (old air mail blue envelopes that if you had small handwriting you could write a 3 page letter). Then when I backpacked around the world, I had a Blackberry and could send emails or go to an Internet cafe and logon to a computer and send emails. Now with WiFi and my iPhone, I can test, email and FaceTime my friends. It is as if I am in the same place. The only thing I have to remember now is the time difference so I do not send texts at 3 in the morning.

In the evening, I walked over to La Reserve, a nice cafe/bar that has a happy hour where I can get an Aperol Spritz for 5 euros. It is a relaxed atmosphere with nice people. It had just opened when I was here last fall and I would probably go once a week to get a Spritz. The manager/owner would always remember me when I came in and give me the Spritz without my needing to order after a couple of visits. She remembered me when she say me this time. I told her I had just gotten back and was here for 3 months and she immediately said 3 months for Spritzes! It is nice to be remembered at these places.

Friday night dinner as usual was Le Panache. They had a new dish on the menu that Ervim recommended I have. It was monkfish is a brown sauce. I am not sure what all was in the sauce but it was super flavorful and I used the bread so eat every drop of the sauce (I am definitely become French). The accompaniment was mushrooms is a frothy cream sauce. I love mushrooms was delighted with it. Another factor in food here is there are many more mushrooms used in cooking than we normally have in the United States. The mushrooms here taste very earthy. I did even become more French as I had cheese for dessert. Ervim made me their new summer cocktail which included passion fruit. All in all a good evening!