Holiday in Toulouse: Disastrous but Lots of Fun

In light of my excessive posting, I have put on my law-kid hat and managed to cut my original 4-post series with 24+ photos, to just one (still super-long, deal with it) post with 9 photos.

[Anyone interested can still get all the goss later :p]
Wednesday

The First Disaster

I had a train ticket from La Rochelle, which was due to arrive in Toulouse shortly before 9pm, when my French language-exchange friend codename Grandpère (recently returned home from Wellington) would pick me up.

However, it turned out that the trains were on strike that day (apparently not uncommon).

All the Info Desk Man said to me (even though I approached him three times to confirm I'd communicated properly) was, in sum: Go take the bus outside, after the taxis. No, there's no sign [for that transport service]. Today is special.

After four hours bussing about (incidentally when I was due in Toulouse), we arrived in Bordeaux (I had previously confirmed with the bus driver that there were connections available to Toulouse). It was THERE that I was informed by a much more helpful Info Desk Man that there was a strike, and all trains were cancelled. I'd also missed the last bus to Toulouse.

And so, after receiving two lots of conflicting directions to the nearest youth hostel, I checked in to a hotel across from the train station, where I spent the rest of my night variously frustrated, watching 'Glee' in French.

FYI: 'Glee' on basic TV in France is dubbed in French, except for the songs, which they leave in English. This means however that the occasional dialogue-build-up just before a song is rather annoying. Also Sue is PERFECT as a Frenchwoman.

Thursday

Day-time
Problems can be easily forgotten (in my world) after a cheap but decent espresso and fresh croissant. I also treated myself to something extra, because all I'd had the night before was a little grilled cheese panini (which is as delicious as it sounds, but hardly satisfying).

Chausson de Pomme! Pretty much a sugar-coated apple pie-ish pastry thing.

Arrived in Toulouse shortly after 1pm, where I bumped into a lost Chinese girl slightly younger than me, who is studying in Bordeaux (her English is good but her French is unfortunate; at any rate she's studying in an English programme so she can improve French without failing everything). We headed to the centre of town together (Place du Capitole), took a picture and exchanged names and numbers haha.

Then when Grandpère finished work early afternoon, he gave me a tour - and there is no better guide than a proud local.

Toulouse, I think one of the bigger cities in France, is PRETTY AWESOME. Also a lot of the street signs were in two languages - French and Occitan, the latter of which is now hardly spoken and was a result of the massive wave of Spanish immigrants during the Franco dictatorship.

I saw a Roman Cathedral (Saint Sernin, I think it was), a Gothic Cathedral, the bars and pubs of Grandpère's youth, the fancy expensive streets, the cheaper streets, random statues on buildings, various chocolate shops and bakeries:

Also at some point I bought a salmon and cream cheese baguette which was DELICIOUS; and unlike in NZ was the same price as a standard ham and cheese baguette. Then we hassled two of his friends at their respective work places - a Frenchguy of Tunisian and Italian origin (and who was never seen again), and a Toulousian codename Joker, who is the token little funny guy of the group, except he is genuinely hilarious (instead of lame) as well as lovely.

But my favourite place - aside from the AMAZING lawschool campus (their gardens made me want to wander around in a big swooshy ribboned dress and exchange whispers behind a fan), was Place Saint-Pierre, which had a beautiful view of the Canal du Midi.

SUNSHINE.

Then we headed to his house in Roques (20 minutes out of town). His house isfull of character - by which I do mean that it was quite a mess with broken bits, but also it genuinely had lots of cool stuff, including a standup piano (unfortunately horribly untuned), a plethora of Asian lamps, and random paintings:

This was my favourite, in the lounge.

We were briefly greeted by codename Roux (French for redhead, because it feels weird calling him Ginger; a good chum of Joker), who lives across the road; and someone who I don't really remember, but never came back again anyway.

Night-time
Quiet drinks at Grandpère's! We were joined by:
-  the aforementioned Joker.
- Nondescript guy - who was actually pretty nice and helped explain when the conversation centred on some French thing I mightn't necessarily know of; but because he wasn't THE nicest or THE tallest or anything, I don't know what else to call him. He got bonus points for liking the French equivalent of Master Chef and trying to push Grandpère into taking us there the next night, ha.
- Cousin - Grandpère's little (by which I mean 20 year old) cousin, who gets bonus points for having tattoos on his left arm of two diagonal brushes of paint - but who gets hilarious-silly-white-man points for having 'FIERCE' tattooed on his right arm in freaking Katana (I mean maybe there isn't a word for that in Japanese, but what with all the samurai I doubt it).
- The Spaniard - technically a Frenchman but with Spanish parents or of Spanish origin or whatever; he served as the eyecandy, ahaha.
- CoolChick -the token girl, a BADARSE, who was semi-jokingly explained to me as being a bit of a maneater or something. I liked her lots and she proved to have a nice variety of tights :D

Anyway we drank red wine, including a bottle of beeaauuutiful Bordeaux that I'd brought from La Rochelle as a thank you present for Grandpère. At some point we nibbled on these little seafood pie things, that were delicious and had bits of squid them.

Friday

Another Disaster
Grandpère dropped us off at the train for town, as he had to go elsewhere. We checked times for trains to Carcassonne, but timing was awkward (either ridiculously early, or too expensive for only one-two hours there), so we skipped it. This proved to be a good decision. Anyway, we set out!

I had big plans to show them my favourite spots; I was excited, but without a map.

Meanwhile they were indifferent and said that since I "knew" were I was going, and (essentially) I was the one with the enthusiasm, it was up to me to read the maps at bus-stops (often without street names) and ask for directions. That was okay enough - if only they didn't appear to resent my attempts to include them (by asking them to pick a direction/street that looked nice, or make a choice between two parks on the map), or if they hadn't had to bitch quietly to each other (not even complaining to my face like real people) that I kept asking people who turned out to be tourists (French as well as foreign). 

I accept that it was my fault that we got horribly, horribly lost a couple times - but it was not necessary for them to get grumpy with me for other people's behaviour, e.g. Nondescript guy called for us to meet up with him, Joker and Cousin at a café - and instead of giving me the café name, he said to go to a square (Place Saint Georges) near Place du Capitole, which I could find by asking locals. I wasn't too bothered by this but apparently it wasn't good enough for the girls.

I also accept that it was my fault when I called back Nondescript guy to say we were in front of the pharmacy, only to discover we were a block away, at Place Wilson.

But, rather unfairly, the girls got even more annoyed with me when Nondescript guy called yet again after we'd arrived in Place Saint Georges, to explain where they were. And apparently it was a problem to have to step up onto the raised garden-y green part to cross diagonally to where the guys were - but I thought it the quickest way instead of navigating through the sea of people and tables; and dude, what a pansy complaint. Whatever, man.

But earlier in the day we had found a Japanese Garden and rested there for a while, that was nice.

Food and Drinks
When we arrived in town, the girls and I lunched at a random kebab place (picked by me in the silence):

This is a "sandwich baguette". I got American-style - which means it had thin hamburger patties.
The fries came with all sandwich baguettes.
I guess it's like the French chip-butty?
Also PEACH TEA.

The long walk of being lost warranted a MAGNUM MCFLURRY in Place du Capitole.

Later, after drinks with the guys at Place Saint Georges (I had a Leffe Blonde; the girls copied me even though there was cheaper beer and both have admitted to adhering to a "beer is beer" mentality, i.e. indifference), we migrated to a bar at Place Saint Pierre (at my unintentional request, because I'd mentioned I'd liked it and the other girls didn't express specific opinions even when directly asked) to meet Grandpère and Roux.

Here I discovered A WEIRD THING. In France you can add variously-fruit-flavoured syrup to your beer. SERIOUSLY. So, you get a jug of beer and a small glass of peach syrup with a stirrer. Then you pour the peach syrup into your glass, then pour the beer, then stir the fuck out of it and drink. Interestingly enough, it's not self-evidently effeminate.

After tasting just the peach syrup, I made Rach try it because I knew (based on Raspberry Leffe) that I wouldn't be a big fan. My conclusion (supported by the other two girls, but who knows if it's just mine echoed, jesus) is that it tastes a bit strange but nice enough, but it isn't BEER.

We'd booked dinner for 8.30pm at a French restaurant near Place Saint Pierre (again at my unintentional request; I'd suggested French food since we were in France, and the girls remained silent) - but since it was still early we stopped at one more bar, which is apparently one of THE bars to go to when the rugby's on.

For once the girls chose their own drinks; probably because I ordered a Caipirinha and the girls know they (actively) dislike cachaça. We were shortly joined by TallGuy, who I previously thought of as SeriousGuy before he revealed on Saturday that he wasn't so Serious after all.

Eventually we migrated; I forget the restaurant's name but will ask Grandpère at some point. Anyway it was SO DELICIOUS OH MY GOD. First there was an entrée of vegetable soup - with a series of jokes (led by Joker) thanking me for my early morning work, oh yes very funny haha.
But the lovely thing about the French: after mocking the shit out of me for aaaages, they all make a point to make sure I know they're just taking the piss and to make me feel better by saying stuff like "don't worry, it happens to all of us; I've had my bad days too; we're just playing around".

Anyway there was also more LOVELY FRENCH RED WINE, but I forget the names now. Then for the main, I'd ordered:

Magret du Canard.
Duck breast - served with salad, a couple roasted potatoes,
and what turned out to be some sort of carrot purée,
and cauliflower stuff that was pretty good too.

I ALMOST finished it. Pirate next to me had orderd the lamb, which I'd also tasted and was  BEAUTIFUL. Meanwhile, Roux across the table didn't manage to finish his (also duck), but made a wonderful work of art with the help of Joker:

The waitress wasn't very impressed when she cleared our dishes...

Saturday
Cutting it short now, sorry:
- Massive sleep-in till noon. I'd left the girls with the double bed in the spare room, and camped myself on the couch because I was too lazy to sort out the spare mattress Grandpère had given us; plus there wasn't really space so Pirate would've probably stepped on my face in the morning.
- EGGS AND TOAST FOR BREAKFAST.
- PEPITE THE CUTE LITTLE GINGER CAT. He is so soft. He is the neighbourhood cat, apparently used to belong to the ex-girlfriend from someone down the road, but she (rather cruelly) just left him. BUT SUCH A CUTE KITTY AND HE LIKED ME.
- Girls and I were dropped into town.
- Despite being told of nearby museums, we ended up buying crêpes then shopping ahaha - I bought an exciting dress from Zara and a red nuisette/nightie thing that I can totally pull off as a dress.
- Eventually joined by Grandpère, Joker and Nondescript guy - the latter of which buggered off before the rest of us had a beer in one of their old haunts.
- To the groceries, to buy frozen pizzas, various bottles of alcohol and fruits for cocktails (originally supposed to be smoothies, aka "smoo-zies" N'AWW).
- After a detour to Grandpère's, dinner and drinks at Coolchick's AWESOME little house - with Grandpère, Coolchick, Joker, Cousin, Nondescript guy and TallGuy.
- Despite talk of going out, everyone seemed a bit dead (most notably the exchange girls) so we just headed home around midnight.

Sunday
Another sleep in on the couch. Then Family Guy and American Dad in French - I have been exposed to a whole new area of vocabulary which I promptly forgot the majority of; even Roux (who joined us from across the road) repeatedly laughed "that's disgusting".


And then we were dropped at the metro, to head to the main train station. I steered the girls towards Quick for lunch, in order to have a Jedi Burger for Julie :D

NOMNOMNOM.

And that was Toulouse.