It started out with me going to the market for food for dinner this evening. This is pretty standard for Wednesday as it is my one not planned day. I used to use it for my explore day but now I am not as good at heading out of Toulouse for the day. I need to get back into that pattern. There are a couple of places I would still like to see.

I have gotten used to living in Toulouse and no longer feel like I am a tourist or need to go see lots of things. This has become my regular life and I try to treat it that way. I do find differences between life here in Toulouse and my life in Alexandria. I am not quite sure what makes it different but here I have a standard routine that I follow fairly regularly and it makes life good. I do not feel that in Alexandria, I have the same routine life even though I do in some ways. In Alexandria, I have the French conversation group once a week, I go to church on Wednesday and Sunday, I have lunch with Tom on Wednesday, I run on Thursday nights and Saturday mornings and see friends. This is not much different than here in Toulouse – I run Tuesday and Thursday night, I go to church on Sunday, I go to the St. Aubin’s market on Sunday. I have lunch out on Tuesday and Thursday and dinner out on Friday and Saturday.

Even though these seem the same, I have a different feel here in Toulouse. I think it is driven by two or three things. One is that I can walk everywhere here. I do not have to drive to do anything that I want to do. In Alexandria, many of the activities require me to get in a car to do. So you do not get the same lively vibe as you go about your activities. The other is that I get to walk along the banks of the Garonne everyday. There will be more on that next. The third is really the liveliness of the city – there are always people out and about enjoying life. Walking on the river, I see tons of people sitting and reading, groups picnicking, artists playing their instruments, just a vibrant life.

The river is an important part of life here and has become for me. I try every day to walk along the river. I love the sound of the river going over the groin (little waterfall) especially when the river is running high. I like the changing color of the river depending on its level and whether it is running high. When the river is calm and you can see the sky, buildings and clouds reflected in the surface. When the river is running fast, you can feel the strength and energy of it. Having read some of the history of the Toulouse, the Garonne has played a great part in its development and commercial life. When that came to an end, the city transformed the river into a lively social center of the city.

I, also, realized that for most of my life I have lived by a body of water. The Hudson River at West Point, the Atlantic Ocean in Charleston (along with the Ashley and Cooper Rivers), the Atlantic in Jupiter, the Gulf of Mexico in St. Petersburg, a lake in Durham, the Congrée River in Columbia, the Adige River in Verona and the Potomac in Washington and Alexandria. I think the only time I did not live by water was in college. Water has always been important to me. We were a family of boaters and we sailed and motor boated when I was growling up.

The difference between here and Alexandria is that the river is not the center of life in Alexandria. They have worked very hard at making life along the river more lively in Alexandria but because of the car culture and because there is not as much density along the river, you do not have the same vibrant life. When I am in Toulouse, I will go down to the river and sit and read. Or, I will go to the riverside cafes and order something and read. I do not do that in Alexandria as that is not really the culture in Alexandria. You have upscale restaurants and bars but not somewhere you can just order something and sit and enjoy the river.

Lunch today was eclectic – I had an artichoke, the small avocado, Beaufort cheese, French radishes, olives and baguette. This is one of my favorite kinds of lunch. It is grazing at its best.

In the afternoon, I did one of the things that I like the most, I sat by the river at a cafe and read.

Since it was Wednesday, I cooked dinner. I made shrimp scampi which was delicious. I am getting better at cooking on the induction stove and using more ingredients.