Before I write about the weekend in Toulouse and our visit to Carcasonne, I have to give one bit of advice:
If you go running in a town you're not familiar with, taking only les cles (the keys) to your house does not make any sense. Taking only the keys assumes a) that you're sure of your way back, b) you're sure you won't injure yourself, and b) you're sure it's not going to rain. May I suggest a cell phone and some sort of rain protection? I went for my first run after dinner today. In the first twenty minutes of it, I sprained my ankle, got lost, almost got hit by a bus (this time, I was glad to "miss the bus..."), and it started raining. I hope my ankle isn't hurt too badly...it didn't hurt on my run, but it's kind of sore right now...merde (I'll let you look up that definition...).
Back to the weekend. We left Saturday morning with our friends from their apartment at six o'clock am sharp by taxi. Because of the Grand Prix, it was difficult to get the le gare (the train station), but we managed it. Also, when I made the reservation (in French) the previous night, the man I had spoken to had not given the memo to the taxi driver that we needed space for six passengers, so he only had a Mercedes station wagon instead of the minivan (taxis are expensive in southern France, hence the nicer vehicles). We eventually convinced him it was okay to illegally take the sixth person...
We switched trains at Toulouse, and went on to Carcasonne. (I've discovered I really like train travel...it's easy, smooth, and it puts me to sleep). Carcasonne is a small, historic town, home to a medieval castle. When we arrived in the downtown area, there was a huge farmer's market in the square. I was so sad I couldn't buy anything--I would have had to carry it around for the entire day. I did take a few pictures, though. We went to the castle. It's like a city...you go inside of the stone gates and explore. Now it's filled with tourist shops and really good restaurants, whereas I'm assuming there were blacksmiths shops and apothecaries centuries ago. Eventually you get to the center of the city where the castle is, and you can tour the actual castle. I decided to do some exploring by myself while my friends toured that. I found an ancient cemetary that's still in use today (very cool).
We returned to the downtown area of Carcasonne and sat at une terrace cafe (an outside cafe) where the farm market had been set up earlier. It is really fun to people watch. Some of the girls ordered crepes and my friend Metta and I ordered milkshakes (quite different...they aren't thick and creamy like they are here. They are basically sweetened milk).
We took the train back to Toulouse, where we had booked a hotel room for the night. We were quite nervous because we weren't sure what it was going to be like (and it was really inexpensive), but it turned out to be just what we needed. We were in a great location (right down town, practically on top of one of the nightclubs which had been recommended to us) and the hotel was old (in a historic, quaint way), in good condition, I could stretch out in the bed, and the shower was hot...my hair felt clean for the first time in days! I told Metta, "If travelling on the weekends means we get a good night's sleep and clean hair, we need to travel a LOT."
Toulouse is France's fourth biggest city, so it was a really good experience to see what big city life is like in France. We went out to dinner around 9:00 (people here really do eat late--between 7 and 10 or later) at a really cute restaurant. I ordered the grilled lamb that came with French fries. It was really good. We then walked to le capitol (I can't really describe it, but I think I have pictures of it). It's like a big square, and the hotel de ville (city hall) is there. It was the strangest thing...people had set up couches in the middle of the square, and you could pay to sit down (for the leather couches it was about 1 or 2 euros, for the cloth ones it was less). The only thing we could conclude about it was that since the nightclubs don't open until midnight or later, people must just mill around until then. We went to a spanish-themed night club and watched some of le match de football (soccer game) between France and Paraguay. It was a tie. We ended up not really going out to a discotheque, because we had walked around all day. It was sad, but now we know to nap after dinner (or pay to sit on a couch) and then go out. No one gets home on the weekends until 5 or 6 in the morning!
The next morning, we walked around Toulouse, and walked by the river. We went to a beautiful park, and to some cathedrals. There are parts of Toulouse that are quite livable, once you get away from the touristy areas. We had lunch at a cafe and sat outside and people watched for quite a while (we were back at le capitol, and instead of couches, there was a huge cultural fair going on).
We came back Sunday night, and did homework (nothing is open on Sundays, so we were all hungry and couldn't do a thing about it...definitely a strange experience, given our easy access to fastfood stores and twenty-four hour drug stores). It was a good weekend. It's really difficult for me to be a tourist, because I dislike it so much. Despite the fact that I'm living with a family, it's difficult to get a sense of what French life is really like, especially since I'm here during the summer. Student teaching, maybe?
I had language class today and my French Cinematic Comedies class, after which Metta and I went grocery shopping (more like toothpaste and Febreeze shopping for me...their washing machines are quite hard on clothing, unlike my gentle one at home, so I've resorted to chemicals in order to hopefully keep my things in better condition). I also bought a swiss army knife thing with a corkscrew--Metta and I have decided to have picnic days a few times a week, and we found out the hard way that there is really no possible way to open a corked bottle without un tire-bouchon (a corkscrew). It's also difficult to cut salami.
Anyway, here's the link to the album for the weekend (I will post more pictures in it of Toulouse, but they're on a different camera):
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2108205&l=1b52e&id=39112435
Love,
Marguerite.
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