Les grandes personnes envahissent la ville de Toulouse!

     Late Saturday, a collection of gargantuan strangers, along with an assemblage of menacing creatures, invaded Toulouse. It seemed a largely unexpected and surprise raid on this pink city in the southwest of France, as happy families, adoring couples, and hurried individuals traversed about the tiny, curving streets visiting shops, cafes, and markets. Even the local gendarme seemed unaware of any impending assault on their city, as they sat in their cars rendered immovable by the beasts in the streets.

 

       "I have no clue what is happening here," claimed Claire Talham, a temporary resident of Toulouse, as she sat upon her father's shoulders attempting to view the chaos. "All I know is, nothing like this EVER happens in my hometown of Gainesville, Florida, so this is swell!"

Claire Talham sits atop her father's shoulders staring at les geants while her sisters Corinne and Charlotte look on.

     There was speculation last night among some government officials that perhaps some rogue members of the Spanish National Circus, or El Circo, were attempting an escape along the pilgrimage route followed through Toulouse to Santiago de Compostela in the 8th and 9th centuries. However, the rather substantial beasts seemed to be traversing the route backwards.

Some pointed to this suspicious photo as proof that members of El Circo were behind this event.

These figures were reported to be peering inside windows.

     "All I know is I live on the second floor (which in France is really the third floor) and was dressing for a dinner date. The next thing I know, a pair of eyes, each as large as the Grand Rond in Centre Ville, were peering in at me. My heart stopped beating, and I collapsed to the ground. I crawled to a closet and hid inside until two hours later when my date arrived. He described being stuck in traffic that couldn't move around these intruders," explained 24-year-old Celeste, who moved here from Paris last May.

     News reports helped to settle the populace in France's fourth largest city late last night by airing an explanation provided by the Institute for Studies in Occitan. They called the invasion a parade to begin the Festival of the Occitania. The institute has as its mission the preservation and teaching of the language, culture, and literature of the langue d'oc, a literary language written in the 12th century as troubadors began to perform shows in all the royal courts of Europe. Its roots are in southern France, the Basque country of Spain, regions in Italy, and in Monaco. The outsized characters are in fact replicas of important figures in the Occitan history.

A horned creature shocks concerned citizens by spontaneously becoming explosive

   
     The festival will continue until October 27, and Toulousians can expect to see more totem people and animals roaming the streets, at times dancing to accompaniment provided by musicians working on the conservancy of the Occitan culture.
     Et voila! The mystery is solved. "I wasn't concerned,"claimed Corinne Talham, sister of Claire, as she watched the spectacle with boredom. "I was reading my book, and all of this commotion brought me outside. I'm going back to read," she announced as she dipped under the large handkerchief dangling from the wife of Pere II's immense hand. It all seemed perfectly normal to her!

Pere II's wife

Food in France. Of course, I have to talk about food in France! We go to the organic market on Saturday mornings at Place du Capitol. Dan has already made his yummy ratatouille a couple of times with the most delectable ingredients--I get so excited by the different eggplant and squash varieties. Maybe that sounds ridiculous, but I'm okay with that! The lettuce is soft and has (gasp!) flavor! The tomatoes are a burst of smoky sweetness. I've made some delicious salads for my lunches--adding whatever I might have available: eggs, olives stuffed with anchovies, avocado, figs, you name it! I also improve my vinaigrette every time I make one, so I should be pretty good at it by the time we're through here. Another item I made recently was a potage au carotte'. Using carrots we got at the market that seemed just plucked from the ground, I cooked them in some broth and blended it once cooled. The carrots are so tasty, that's all it needed. I topped with a bit of natural yogurt and a sprinkle of curry--voila! I've included a couple of pictures. The yogurt is what I can't get enough of. For one thing, it tastes like yogurt should taste--ALL yogurt, not just Greek yogurt. If greek yogurt had not been introduced at home, we'd still be eating sugary, yucky, not entirely creamy concoctions that are very far from real yogurt--unless you could get some at the Farmer's Mkt or Ward's or Fresh Market. I was buying Stonyfield Farms plain yogurt and adding my own fruit. Now, I can enjoy flavors again! Call me crazy, but I L-O-V-E flavors like rhubarb, cranberry, figue, and kiwi! I'm probably eating too much yogurt, but while I can, I will. Here's photos--don't judge me on my fascination with food. I get to spend some time with it this year, so I intend to. And, I will thank you not to notice any extra weight I may bring home!

School Supplies a la France!

Never before have we had to pay so much attention to the school supplies list (aka liste de fourniture)! We've spent hundreds on precise notebooks, fountain pens, peculiar pen erasers, dividers with tabs, folders, agendas, paper, books for conjugation, geometry tools, and the lists go on and on! Every day there were more items to find. It became a running joke here about what someone was going to need today. Watching how these are put to use, though, has been extraordinary! All in the name of organization, the whole system works incredibly well to make sure students know what work is where. Phenomenal! I love it! I'm getting ideas! And, surprisingly, one thing that seems to have no language barrier for the girls is the language of organization! If they don't get the name, they get the color! One priceless skill to have (or so I'm telling myself because of the very large outlay of cash!) is organization. I'm sure we all can name at least one person whose organizational skills we envy. Even when the truly paperless day comes and everything is electronically kept, the ability to organize won't be negated. How can you keep track electronically if you couldn't do it with paper? I wish you could see it--here are a couple of photos of the very first shopping trip. And I thought we were done...Ha!

Cows on Parade

I adore public art! Some may argue whether painted cow statues constitute art, but I consider them artistic and lively! We had something similar to this in Ocala (horses) and Gainesville (alligators), and some years back saw a display of cows like these in NYC--Charlotte must have been about 3. Anyway, in a delightful surprise, we followed some tiny, twisting streets of Toulouse and tumbled into Capitol Square where we discovered this display. We went back to Capitol on our first Saturday morning for the organic market and had a chance to take some pictures. Since then, the cows have been distributed around the downtown area so that we are pleasantly surprised when we come upon one of them. Enjoy the show!

And we're off!

During the stress and frenzy of preparing to leave home for almost a year, I kept thinking that as soon as I am on that plane, I will take a deep breath, decompress, and release my anxieties--what else are you going to do at 36,000 feet? Well, somehow I forgot to picture my children in the scenario. That seems highly unlikely, but I did neglect to consider that they would require some interaction from me.

Sometimes they want to truly engage with me, and other times they simply want to poke me (figuratively, although it sure feels like I could bleed!). Happily for me, one wished to engage and another wanted to poke. The third--angelically reading a book and off in her own blissful state.Funnily, their dad was a row back with an aisle seat--I wonder how that happened?

At the risk of sounding a complainer, I am sharing this to publicly state that I needed this moment. One of the girls and I were earnestly discussing the flight information available on the screen in front of her--current altitude, time at destination, km/mi to destination, and outside temperature. She noted that the outside temp was currently -56 degrees F. A short time later she exclaims that the temp is rising (now -48 degrees F)! My poker leans over and says to me, "Girlfriend, 's gettin toasty!"

For some reason, the three of us thought this was hilarious and giggled away. There goes some stress! Sounds like we're moving in the right direction. I was humbled in my realization that my lovely little ladies could actually play a part in my de-stressing. I just love them to pieces!