Toulouse

Another vacation! Leslie and I have been trying to decide for weeks where to go for the first week of vacation. Due to money and lack of commitment, we didn't make a decision until the day before. We decided to go to Toulouse for the first 3 days. We were even more spontaneous when we decided to go Saturday by covoitureage (carpooling). David L was very nice, but he lacked on the loud, crazy side. So we had a nice, quiet 3 hour ride from Avignon to Toulouse. He did earn points when he let us stop at a rest stop that overlooked the fortress in Carcassonne.

He dropped us off in the middle of town where we met our next "spontaneous decision", Pierre. A friend of ours from the Gap stayed with Pierre back in October and gave him great reviews. So we contacted Pierre the day before and asked if his spare apartment was available for us and sure enough it was! Pierre met us in the middle of town and took us back to the apartment. Since we were staying for free, we thought it would be nice to bring him a gift, and what's the one thing that all French people love? Wine! I have always been super nervous to buy wine for a French person but it turns out that we struck gold! We opted for a wine from our region and one for more than 3€. Our big hopes for this trip were to explore the city and do things the locals do, boy were we in for a treat. Saturday night Pierre's cousin and two friends joined us at the apartment then we all went to one of their mutual friend's basketball games. First off, I didn't know this sport even existed in this country. Secondly, no wonder it's not more popular, it was terrible. I am not much of a basketball guru, but this was no March Madness. Even so, we had a great time. Afterwards, we went out for dinner which was good considering it was 11pm! The next morning we were up and at it at 10:30! Pierre told us that one reason he picked his apartment building was because there is a market right outside every Sunday morning. That was our first stop on the list. Leslie bought herself a ring and tried her very first empanada. We came across the goat cheese fougasse and bought it without hesitation. We snacked on fougasse and bread as we ventured into the center of town. We walked closed to 8 hours that day and explored nearly every part of the city. Our goal for the day was the walk enough so we could continuously eat, success. I even tried two new mini pastries. One was a chocolate layer cake with a praline crust, chocolate mousse then chocolate ganache on top (I immediately wished that I had bought the big version) and the second was an almond crust with almond cream and almond slices on top. We explored te major squares, a chapel,  beautiful garden and even hiked across the river. We finally made it back to the apartment around 6:30 where we rested for awhile. Pierre had mentioned that he was going to be making Chinese food for dinner and asked if we cared to join. We politely declined then decided that we wanted some sort of Asian cuisine. We found a Thai restaurant close by and got ourselves up for dinner. Monday morning we weren't as timely. We got out of the apartment around noon and went to the supermarket and boulangerie for breakfast. The last things on our list to see were a chapel and a Japanese Garden in the northern part of the city. After getting lost and wandering around for awhile, we finally found the garden. It wasn't anything too special and the only thing worth noting was this weird dragon creature in the water. Before our train, we stocked up on candy and pastries to amuse us for the three hour ride. We both decided that we liked Toulouse, but I probably wouldn't go out of my way to visit it again.

pasta maker at the market

these are the awkward kind of pictures you can take when you travel in twos

St. Etienne's

I see you red door

weird gothic-like dog 

churches never cease to amaze me

there was a man playing the organ while we were touring the inside

WWI memorial

La garonne

Saint-Sernin

weird dragon in Japanese garden

Just Can't Get Enough

The boys from the Gap love us so much, they came back for a second weekend. This weekend, we had the pleasure of hosting our friends Jimmy and Danny. When we went to Gap back in October, we found the world's best fougasse and every time I think about them, I drool. When we picked up Danny from the train station, he greeted us with three fougasse in hand. He even skipped his classes just to go on a fougasse hunt for us. Needless to say he is welcome back any time as long as he continues to bring treats from Gap. Ever since I found out that there is a Haribo Museum is a nearby town, I have been wanting to go so badly. Yesterday, we finally made it there. We got up early and took a bus to the town of Uzès. We started off in the main square at the market where I bought Magnolia's birthday present and Harper's first apron. I was so excited by these find and I can't wait to give them to my nieces. After walking around the market, we ventured to the museum. After walking in the wrong direction for 30 minutes, we found our bearings and finally made it there. We took plenty of pictures with the Haribo man upon our arrival. IT WAS AWESOME. I felt like a 5 year old on Christmas morning. We got a free sample bag of candy to munch on while we walked around the museum. We saw how the candy is made and all of the varieties that exist around the world. After the museum, we went into the boutique and bought tons of candy. I had to limit myself to two bags. We had three hours to kill before the next bus came so we ventured back into the downtown area. We explored the town a little more then found a cafe to grab a coffee and rest for a little bit. We finally made it home late last night. We all cooked dinner and spent our last night together playing card games. Another successful weekend with the boys from the Gap.

Boys from the Gap

This weekend two of our friends who are assistants in Gap came to visit us. We visited them back in October and we wanted to return the favor. It was an awesome weekend fulls of laughs and good memories. Our friend Jimmy was the first to arrive on Thursday evening. We picked him up from the train station and soon discovered the he was donning the classic Euro-trend of jean-on-jean. That night we took him out to Place Pie where he stole the show. The next afternoon, our British friend Alex arrived. We greeted him at the train station with a giant group hug. That night we all made dinner together then played a few games before going out. We attempted "True American" from the tv show, New Girl which turned out to be a bit more complicated than we had expected. After trying to interpret the rules we opted for a card game instead. Saturday we decided it was time to show the boys around town. We started the day off at our favorite boulangerie then headed towards the Palais de Papes. We took them to the garden on the top of the hill which has a great view of the Rhone. Afterwards, we walked across the bridge to Villeneuve. We showed them around the quaint town and took them to the fortress and the bell tower. The Rugby 6 Nations started yesterday and since we were with two Brits, we had to watch the England-Scotland rugby match at a local pub. Since Avignon is such a small city, we ended up running into our new French friend who came and watched the match with us. By the time the game ended, we were all crazy tired and decided to call it a night. We came back to Chez HYDE, Paul and made breakfast for dinner, then played some more games. We ended the night by watching a slide show of our pictures from the weekend (mainly laughing at all of the ridiculous faces the Jimmy makes) and recounting the highlights of our time together.

I have 23 years...

...a classic foreigner's mistake. J'ai 23 ans translates to "I have 23 years." In a recent argument about how strange it is that the French use the verb avoir (to have) to describe age (among other thing such as hunger and thirst), the comeback was that these 23 years are mine; therefore, I have them. I still think it's strange. My 23rd birthday fell on a Wednesday which means, no work! The sun was out and shining so we decided to have a picnic outside of the palais de papes. We went to the grocery store and a boulangerie and each bought whatever our little hearts desired. We went to my new favorite boulangerie and I got my new favorite treat, a michette chevre et noix. Its a type of bread stuffed with goat cheese and walnuts and it's guaranteed that I will finish it in one sitting. We sat on the stairs outside of the palace for hours soaking in our vitamin D. Afterwards, we decided to go out for a coffee and people watch some more. After lounging all afternoon, we headed back home for dinner. Lalogene's last karaoke ever also conveniently fell on my birthday. I ended another great birthday by singing Bruce Springstein's "Born in the USA" and Jackson 5's "I Want You Back." So far, 23 hasn't let me down!

Come Dine With Me

The language assistans in Avignon have been recreating a British tv show called "Come Dine With Me." The premise of the show is that there are four people and each one hosts a dinner party for the other three. The host is required to make an appetizer, an entree and a dessert. At the end of each dinner the three guests rate their host and the person with the most points at the end wins. My group started before Christmas but because of the break we weren't able to finish. I did my dinner last night and not to brag or anything, but it was pretty dang delicious! When I was trying to decide what I wanted to do, there were so many ideas in my head. Do I do breakfast for dinner? or attempt a French meal with escargot and ratatouille? or a classic southern meal inspired by Paula Deen and lots of butter? I ruled breakfast for dinner out because Aunt Jemima pancake mix in France costs 6.90€ ($9.30) and the syrup is 5.70€ ($7.70)!!! I got my roommates input and they said that they have been craving the sweet potato casserole that I made at Thanksgiving. So I went for the southern inspired meal, using mostly Paula Deen recipes. For my appetizer, I made one of my favorites, Brie en croute. I have made this several times at home in various ways. Good thing cheese is so cheap here! This time I made it with raspberry jam, brown sugar and a pie crust. There is a good chance that we ate it all last night. For my entree I made green beans (unfortunately I wasn't able to cook them in fat back like we do at home, so I opted for onions instead), sweet potato casserole and baked chicken. For the sweet potato casserole, I just used marshmellow topping because some people have nut allergies. I marinated the chicken in EVOO and Herbs de Provence and baked it with cherry tomatoes and onions. Next dessert. Now, if there is one food that I had to pick to import here, it would be canned pumpkin. For Thanksgiving we found a pumpkin patch and steamed the inside and made a pie with fresh pumpkin. It was good, but I am still attached to my canned pumpkin. The fresh pumpkin gave the cake a bit of a gummy texture, but my roommates again convinced me to recreate a pumpkin dessert. A friend brought us two giant pumpkins last week, so we steamed the insides and did a little experimenting. The other night we made a pumpkin pie and again, I wasn't completely satisfied with the turn out. So for my dinner, I looked up a white cake mix recipe and added some fresh pumpkin. Again, the texture was more gummy than cakey, but I think I made up for it with the cream cheese frosting and the candied pumpkin garnish. Overall, it was a great night full of laughs, good people and good food!