Thé weather has not been ideal but I cannot complain as it is still good for some walking. I do not walk as much as usual as the skies are overcast and the wind is blowing at a brisque pace. I have mentioned that there is a wind called the crazy wind that comes off the Mediterranean and blows continuously and can cause people to go crazy in rural areas. I think we are in one of those periods. The wind is constant and at times fairly strong.

Even with the wind I did my usual activities. In the morning I headed over to the farmer’s market on the Boulevard d’Arcole. There were not as many vendors as usual and I was not sure if it was the weather or because it was Holy Week.

I bought strawberries for my breakfast. It is the start of the season for strawberries so most of the stands are selling them. I found some that looked good and were relatively inexpensive. They are very large berries which is interesting.

I had always read that taste and smell can trigger memories and it definitely was the case with the strawberries. When I got back to the apartment, I washed and ate one of the strawberries. The smell and taste immediately transported me back to my grandparents house and land. My grandfather in retirement had a very large garden with many varieties of fruits and vegetables. It amuses me in my adulthood that he was a big gardener who grew everything from green beans to asparagus as he was a total meat and potatoes person – he did not really eat all the vegetables he grew. Also being southern and having a southern cook, most of the vegetables were cooked with some kind a pork fat and were basically mush. After that aside, eating the strawberry reminded me of being a child and at East Hundred in the summer and running around and eating the strawberries out in the garden. The smell and taste were so fresh that even though I bought them, it was like I had just picked it. I definitely do not get that memory from the strawberries I buy in the grocery store in the U.S.

For lunch, I went to Chez Nico which is an Asian street food restaurant. It is super small and has good quick stir fried food. I had the carmelized pork stir fry with rice and Asian salad. It is very good and reasonably priced. It is a good non-French option for Tuesday lunch.

Walking by the University of Toulouse on the way to lunch, the students reminded me of my college days. They were lined up in front of the cafeteria or “university restaurant” as they call it. I remember my days of waiting in line for a meal. It might be getting old and nostalgic that are bringing back these memories.

In the evening, I ran with Run in Toulouse, one of the not to be missed activities in Toulouse. It was fun to see Marc, Elliot and Hugo (my running buddies). Hugo wanted to work harder than Elliot, Marc and I wanted so he did the Jolimont hill group while the rest of us did the regular run. As usual, it was amazing but we ran a different course than we had run before. For a while, every run was a slightly different course. These days there are some repeats as I have been running with the group for quite a while. As has become routine now, Hugo and I run back from the run to the split off for our routes home. Hugo and I did an exchange of learning English and French.

I gave a “shout out” to Phil Le who is a tech rep for On Running and a friend. He had given me a new pair of On Cloudflow shoes and I have been running in them in Toulouse. I do not think I had properly so I posted a picture of the shoes on the Zodiac sign in the Place de Capitole. I love the shoes!