I've been in Toulouse for a week now. I'm starting to see what Toulousians (I think I've made up that word - "Toulousians"...oh well) do, how they greet each other, what they do on the weekend, how they get around, and what life is like here!
Thursday and Friday I was with Cecile, running errands and seeing the town. We went shopping downtown - very different than the Sitka-style shopping I'm used to. We walked by Dolce and Gabanna, Yves Saint Laurent, and other french designer names I hadn't even heard of. They do have malls, too...the most prominent called "Lafayette" which is probably the equivalent of a Nordstrom's is the US. That's just clothes though.
As far as I can tell, grocery shopping isn't quite the same either. I haven't gone grocery shopping yet - but I know they don't get all their food in one place like we do. Bread is bought at a Boulangerie Patisserie, not the regular grocery store.
For fun, we play beach volleyball on the weekends, or last night, we went roller skating from 9:30 to 11:30.
It's called Rollers a la Rose (or something like that)...after Toulouse's "Ville Rose" nickname. At 9:30 everyone who wants to rollerskate congregates at Le Capitole (town square) and we skate around the city for about 2 hours...skating for 20 minutes, then stopping to wait cross the road, then skating. Their were several hundred people there, little with helmets, elbow pads, knee pads, and pads to protect your hands, to the "pros" - who skate backwards, sideways, jumping, in yoga positions, or in a ball.
Celine took 5 years of iceskating, and is a dancer. Camille, is good at anything, and loves to go fast. Thierry and Cecile have been doing it for a while.
I, of course, had never done it before.
And I don't think 3 or 4 days of skating on swan lake amount to much. However, they did help...I was a little wobbly at first. But it really is not that hard, and I got the hang of it after a while. Most of the time Camille grabbed my hand and pulled me alongside her so that I wouldn't be the snail at the end of the line, but I held my own, and I didn't fall down, hallelujah! Before we started, Thierry said "Now is the time to put your hands together and pray." I guess it worked, and I'm excited to go next Friday night. Maybe I won't need the elbow pads, kneepads, and hand protection again...
I'm going to try and post the pictures I've been promising. Hopefully I'm as lucky with them as I was with skating...
Ciao,
Meg
3 comments:
Looks like a nice place :)
Wow! that's like the running of the boots but way longer and every week. Do they eat their bread dipped in olive oil and balsamic vinegar, or is that from a different country? I love that...
haha, no no olive oil...bread is eaten at every meal, and at lunch and dinner with cheese. it's also used like an edible napkin that you mop everything up with on your plate! i do love that olive oil and vinegar though... :)
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