I promise an update on the 15 days I spent traveling Barcelona and Istanbul, as well as a photo album soon. As wonderful as my whole trip was, I, as well as everyone else I traveled with, was delighted to get back to Toulouse last weekend. It’s thrilling too to think that, whilst traveling Eastern and Western Europe, when I say I’m looking forward to going “home” and sleeping in “my own” bed, I really mean home in the South of France.
Thursday (yes, my “weekend” begins Thursday) I got free student tickets to my first classical music concert which I attended with my friend Ana – a duo, a pianist and violinist who played 3 sonatas. Friday night, to continue my cultural kick, I went and saw the Barber of Seville at the Opera at Place Capitol with a bunch of other assistants. We got rush tickets 30 minutes before the show and grabbed the absolute last 6 seats. Unfortunately, not only were we not able together, but had absolutely the last seats in the house that you could sell: first row of the orchestra, the highest balcony, chairs moved tino the unoccupied spots allocated for wheelchairs, etc. I thought that I had the luck of the draw when the usher showed me to my seat in one of the boxes with a great view of the orchestra and stage, until 5 minutes before the show when this incredibly well dressed Italian couple arrived looking very confused to see me there, looked at my ticket, and pointed to the little strapon fold-out seat attached to where I had been sitting. Oops. I was put in my place, so to speak. Regardless, the Opera was really great, I loved the music, scenery, expressive conductor who I still had a great view of from my kids seat, and playful humor of the storyline. I’m going to miss all the promotions Europe has for people under 25 in terms of reductions for cultural events like that.
Friday night I took my bike to meet up with some friends I hadn’t seen since before vacation and had a little trouble getting up Saturday morning. It was Amy’s birthday and she invited a bunch of the assistants to the town of Muret 15 minutes from Toulouse where she teaches and lives with a host family. They have an incredible Saturday morning market and we all bought something to eat and returned to Amy’s family’s house to prepare lunch. When we arranged all of our purchases on the table, there were naturally several different kinds of cheeses, namely goat cheese, an obscene amount of bread, olive tapenade, tomatoes, guacamole, roasted asparagus (yay summer veggies!), and a few kilos of the first strawberries of the season. We finished with a chocolate mousse lack cherry whipped cream birthday cake which I had ordered from a boulangerie in St Cyprien and brought to Amy’s. After a healthy amount of eating and sitting around sharing our vacation stories, we played a game of group kickball in the backyard – it was really nice to get out of the city and spend the afternoon at a house with a yard!
I came back to Toulouse to give a private lesson which brought in some much needed moo-lah, and went out on the town to continue the birthday celebration.
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| View from the front stoop |
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| Gisele, Gilou, Christine and Queen Mother |
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| Inside the cabin |
Today Gisele invited me to her and her companion’s country home about an hour outside of Toulouse where she usually spends her weekends. Her friend, Queen Mother and daughter Christine picked me up this morning and we all drove together. The house is more like a cabin/shed with no electricity in the middle of a small orchard of pear, apple, peach, cherry, and almond trees with a gorgeous view of the Pyrenees. We spent the entire day outside under the sun and a gentle breeze. After lunching on sausage and braised vegetables, bread, cheese and homemade marmalade, all washed down with a Bordeaux, we took customary after-epic-Sunday-lunch siestas. I curled up with a blanket and pillow under one of the cherry trees, and woke up an hour later to coffee and gorgeous pastries. Qu’est ce qu’elle est belle la vie.
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| Wood-burning stove inside the cabin |
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| "Kitchen" with a gorgeous view |
After returning to Toulouse this evening I cruised my bike over to a film festival being held in a building that’s been “squatted” for 18 years and serves as a kind of artistic space and room for events. Cool event, cheap drinks and homemade veggie-friendly dinner served.
Walking home I had to stop and take a photo of this crazy moon we’ve been having, I can’t get over how much it illuminates the city at night.
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| View of the luminous moon from the bridge I cross to get home overlooking Toulouse |
A bientôt!
Linz
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