Un Peu de la Mer et un Peu de la Merde

Ana and I by the Mediterranean

I had a lovely Saturday at the beach. Then Saturday night my wallet got stolen. C'est la vie. 

Saturday 5 of us went in our friend's car to Port Leucate, about 2 hours from Toulouse and not far at all from my colleague's house in Roquefort where I have been several times. The weather was amazing, we even went swimming! The beach was a small and not crowded at all at the base of a pretty steep descent down some cliffs. The water, while chilly, was super clear and very salty - I could definitely feel the difference in buoyancy from the Sound. 

We all went out when we got back to Toulouse Saturday night, and Sunday morning (after only a few hours of sleep) I woke up early to take a train to go meet Martine in Roquefort for the day. While doing my last-minute make-sure-I-have-all-my-essential  check I realized that my wallet from the night before was missing from my bag. There was a frantic 10 minutes where I still could have made the train when I turned my room upside down, then I resigned myself to the idea that the wallet was gone and I wasn't going anywhere. 

I spent Sunday calling credit card companies and, even more fun, at the Hôtel de la Police to file a declaration of theft to give to my bank here in case there were any fraudulent charges. Sunday seemed to be bring your screaming kid to the police department day. And after waiting in a long line, and kicking it in the waiting area even longer to give my report, I found myself in front of an older policeman who seemed to have never used a computer before. After, no joke, 25 minutes of search-and-pick typing, I started to feel like I was in The Shining and that he would turn the screen around at the end and have been hitting the space bar the whole time. Finally, as the way things go, after much agonizing time and energy, I received a piece of paper that will supposedly be indispensable. Anyway, alls in order now, not too much damage done. It had been a while since I'd dealt with French bureaucracy anyway, I needed a reality check.

The rentals arrive Friday for a 10 day stay. We'll spend Friday-Thursday in Toulouse, probably making a few day trips around the region, then Thursday-Sunday we are going to Roquefort to stay at Martine's house for the 2nd weekend they are here, and they leave on Monday. 

Bisous et a bientôt!