Toulouse & Party Time

It's been a busy week and what a great surprise there was waiting for me at the end of it. We finally finished plastering the guest bedroom & en-suite & applied the first coat of paint. It's amazing what a liberal coat of good quality paint will cover. Although we haven't got round to applying the gloss paint we have plenty in stock. When we headed back to the UK before Christmas we were laden down with wine & duck breasts. We returned with gloss paint & Branston pickle which is a fair swap when you consider how expensive both commodities are out here. Perhaps this could be a little side line & we can open a stall at St Antonin-Noble-Val selling Dulux & Crosse & Blackwell's best. Stephané Regourd was back on Tuesday to fit the shower cubicle in our en-suite & said his father & brother would call early on Wednesday to do the second fix which would then enable me to fit the final piece of plasterboard (whoopee) & tile it. All went well until it came to grouting. I weighed out the grout left over from tiling the shower enclosures & then opened the new pack that Barbara had bought the previous day & poured into the bucket. I should have checked the label first as the new pack was a lovely shade of gris! So it was off to VDR for a pack of blanc grout.

On Friday Barbara had been invited to attend a meeting of French & English women to listen to a talk on reflexology. It was an enjoyable afternoon and a great way of avoiding doing the painting. She also found out some information about the French lessons for foreigners held in VDR, a course we really must attend. Next week she's off to a gathering of French & ex-pats from Portugal, Holland, & the UK to build her French language skills.

I have a very special birthday coming up and Barbara had arranged a night away in Toulouse. We'd decided to take the train & arrived at Najac station just before 9:00 on a cold & frosty Saturday morning & 90 minutes later we were in la Ville rose. Although we'd already had breakfast Barbara insisted that we should head straight for 'Paul', a patisserie at the station & have coffee & croissants. It was then time for a visit to the toilet which was hardly surprising given the amount of coffee we'd consumed. Barbara now wanted to go & check the return train times, this despite having already asked the guard if the trains would be running as normal on a Sunday. By now I was beginning to think we were going to spend most of the weekend in the train station. It soon became clear why there had been some delaying tactics as two very familiar faces appeared in front of me. Rebecca & Matthew had conspired with their mum to give me an early birthday present & had arrived on the morning flight from Gatwick. They'd all worked very hard to keep it a secret & I was in a state of shock for a least the next couple of hours. We were all staying at the Crown Plaza Hotel in the centre of the city on the Place du Capitole & had great view of the town hall which, as is normal for French government buildings, magnificent. Barbara had booked us a Crown Club room which entitled us to complimentary drinks & nibbles and a continental breakfast. The hotel receptionist was very helpful & when we asked if we could take guests in to the Club room he said that he was sure no one would object. Toulouse is a busy bustling city & we had a great day wandering round the shops & stopping at many of the numerous cafés & bars. One of the may shops we called in was the Nespresso Boutique and despite asking for coffee in our best French the shop assistant replied in perfect English describing the coffee we'd ordered as 'sweet but with woody notes and ideal for a short espresso which is not too strong'. I know it's a good excuse but sometimes you wonder why bother learning French. We'd all decided that we would try & find a proper French restaurant for our evening meal & after clocking up a few more kilometres we landed at Le Bon Vivre and it turned out to be a great choice. There was an extensive selection of local dishes including cassoulet & of course the ubiquitous canard. The atmosphere was great, the food outstanding, the wine competitive and the waiters friendly & helpful & I would certainly recommend a visit next time you're in Toulouse.

Fortunately, as Rebecca & Matthew's flight wasn't until 9:00 in the evening, Sunday was a lovely sunny day & we were able to take a long walk along the river Garonne, call in at local market and sample plenty of coffee along the way. I did try & get everyone to try out the hire bikes which are located all over the city but, despite it being my special weekend, they declined & we continued exploring the city on foot. Our train back, which was packed with students heading back to college all of them it seemed with PSP's and all of them exceptionally polite, was just after 6:30 and we left R & M at the station having had a really great birthday weekend.