Thursday, January 30, 2025 - We settle in, and start to explore Toulouse.
Sunny and 55° F (13° C).
Took it easy this morning, enjoying the idea of not having to travel for a whole week!
The place we are staying, Résidences Guerlin, is working out well; here's a pic of the front from the street.
Though really, you can only see the doorway in that picture, and our apartment on the top floor looks out over the inner courtyard and you can see some of the other apartment buildings on this side of Toulouse.
Fun fact: this place used to be a lingerie factory. They layout of the building doesn't suggest 'factory' though.
We decided that the first thing we needed to do was to get some groceries. One of the ways we are able to travel for two months at a time is by getting groceries and preparing our own food at "home", which saves us money and provides more control over what we are eating. We'll still eat out, but two months of eating out sounds terrible for the wallet and the waistline!
We found an InterMarche around the corner, made a list, and set out to explore our food options for eating in.
On the way, we got sidetracked by the lovely sunny weather and sat down to take it all in. I really appreciate the multitude of public spaces; they are designed to let people linger and mingle. There are plenty of cars, but pedestrians rule here.
Shopping was both familiar and unfamiliar; different brands of the same types or products we would buy in the US but with labels in French we had to work to understand. We bought three bags of groceries, enough food for breakfasts, sandwiches for lunch, rice and pasta and some ground beef, cheese, anchovies, instant coffee and cream and butter, and eggs.
When we left Portland, we were paying over $10 for a dozen eggs. Here you can see they are just over four euros. That's about $4.50 so less than half. The three bags of groceries came to 72 euros, including a bottle of wine. What we took home seemed significantly less expensive here then at home - was it that the product sizes were smaller or you just get more for your Euro?
After some sandwiches and a bit of rest (okay jet lag is still a factor three days in!) we ventured out for another walk.
We wandered down the wide boulevard on which our residence is located. The road is called "Allee Jean Jaures" and is named after Jean Jaures, an important journalist and politician of the left who united the French socialist movement and was a pacifist who tried to prevent the outbreak of WWI. At the end of the street the boulevard becomes Allee du President Franklin Roosevelt, and is mostly free from motorized traffic, though there is a profusion of bicycles and kiosk. If you want some mint tea and to hear some Arabic spoken, this is the place.
The road ends at a lovely circular park with a fountain and carousel. We're beginning to feel the charms of this city.
There were lots of folks out walking, but we found this back street that demonstrates why Toulouse is called "La Ville Rose" or The Rose City. The bricks and sediment from the surrounding region has a pinkish tinge and so many of the buildings in the city bear this color.
We eventually found the Toulouse Capitole, which is a historical monument but also Toulouse's city hall.
We'll be exploring the insides soon!
At last, we made it to the river! The Garonne river runs from the Pyrrenes mountains north all the way through Bordeaux to the Atlantic ocean.
It was a beautiful day!
