The day started out with me searching for the Entremet pastry shop. I had read it was one of the best in Toulouse and I needed to buy a pastry so thought I would find it. Little did I know I had walked by it many times as it is near La Braisière. It is just up the street from it.

The reason I wanted to find a good pastry is that today is Ervim’s birthday and I wanted to give him a little gift to celebrate. He is always super nice to me when I am at Le Panache and he had texted me on my birthday.

I found the shop and the pastries did look incredibly good. I bought one that I thought had universal appeal as I do not know Ervim’s food likes and dislikes. I bought a chocolate and hazelnut tart. I am definitely going to have to go back and try the pastries.

I walked over to Le Panache and gave the gift to Ervim and wished him happy birthday. I think he was pleased by the gesture. Since he was working and I had reservations at Terra Tolosa, I did not stay long but said I would see him tomorrow as usual for dinner. Friday night is my standard night to go to Le Panache.

Lunch at Terra Tolosa was delicious as usual. They were very busy which is good. Pierre showed me the chalk board menu and explained the items. I guess they are getting to know me to well as he knew what I would order for the starter. Trout Tartar with pears. I really like their fish tartar dishes. They are very creative and have very interesting flavor combinations. The fish flavor with the sweetness of the diced pears gave it great texture. The dill in it gave it a little bit of bite.

The main course was chicken stuffed with mushrooms. An addition that I did not pick up for the menu was caramelized pearl onions. They were a great addition. There was roasted white asparagus which is in season and very popular in France. There were other roasted vegetables as well. It was a nice dish.

The dessert was panna cotta with pears. The pear purée under the panna cotta was a good complement to the custard. The crumble gave the dessert a good crunch with the softness of the other elements. There was a new cookie shape served with the dessert – generally in the past they have been stylized leaves this time to was a circle design.

As I was walking by the Garonne, I a saw a family of ducks paddling along and eating in the river. I was very impressed with the effort as the river is running particularly high. It is not at flood stage as it was in February but it is definitely swift and high. The baby ducks were having no problem paddling against the current but I am sure it was taking a lot of effort.

In the evening I did the usual run with Run in Toulouse. Marc and I decided to work a little harder and we chose the hour long run at 8:30 minute pace. It is really supposed to be a 9:00 pace but we were a small group and had lots of free run portions so we went faster. Nordine lead the group and he is good at pace management and let us do what we want for pace. It was a small group, there were only 6 of us who chose to do the long run. I met Frederico who is from Padua, Italy. He has been in Toulouse for two months and is looking for an engineering job. He is the first person who really talked politics with me. He was not super critical, just questioning of how Trump became president. Marc got a reprieve from talking English as Frederico and I talked for most of the run.