Bienvenue à Toulouse!

Hello, Canada! I am now in Toulouse! It is full of awesome and I have lots to talk about. Just a warning, though, my internet usage may be spotty for the next little bit since the hotel’s internet connection fails half the time.

Some things about flying:

Entry to an airport with ten pieces of luggage, five carry-on suitcases, and five personal carry-ons is an exercise of precisely organized chaos.

I always see a lot of pretty or interesting people when I’m travelling and it frustrates me to no end that I can’t just stand around and take pictures of them. African ladies in awesome clothes especially.

Flying is always more fun on no sleep! I got up at 9:30 EST, got on a 5:30 flight, arrived at 8:20 local time, and went to bed at 10:00 that night. That’s 4:00 PM in my home time zone – meaning that I was up for about thirty hours, with only an hour of napping in the afternoon.

The French are awesome. I have come to this highly scientific conclusion based solely on the fact that their airplane food doesn’t suck. Also: watching Slumdog Millionaire on the airplane with my mother – most epic thing ever.

France – at least the bit of it that we flew over – is covered in fields. Fields everywhere! It’s insane. Also: Paris? Ridiculously large.

Some things about Toulouse:

I love this city! Like, what the heck, it’s awesome! Beautiful and full of the coolest architecture I’ve ever seen. It’s kind of gritty, but, me being me, that just makes me love it more.

So many awesome shops! We found a sweet vintage store, a thrift shop with a wall of Converse, two amazing goth stores – one of them very loli-goth, it was so cute – an awesome market, a manga store… The awesomeness is slightly offset by everything being more expensive here, but oh my god. So cool! New project: get a map of the city centre and start noting the cool shops.

Restaurants are brilliant, too. All so unique, full of delicious food, and, bonus – all the prices are tax and tip included. Also: patios!

The French are strange and eat dinner at like 8:00. This means that they basically go to bed right after dinner. They take like two hours at dinner, though, so that’s okay.

A lot of things are weird, really. The plumbing is odd. The electricity is weird. Everything is, really. Not unusable, but still. Very weird. Like that bathroom that was mixed-sex, but had urinals right out in the open, and the guy from the restaurant who came in while Shona and I were there and just started peeing.

Streets are narrow. Sidewalks are narrower. Some of them have cobblestones – most of those the pedestrian-only streets – and there are fountains and churches everywhere. Half the buildings are made of this pink stone that is apparently really common around here – Toulouse is la Ville Rose. Also, lots of parks and huge old trees.

The Rivière Garonne cuts through the city. There are also canals. It’s really pretty, but I wouldn’t want to swim in it. Lots of bridges, too – my favourite is the Pont Neuf, which is the last of the old stone bridges in the city – a name I find delightfully ironic, as all the others are newer than it.

French people smoke a lot! Will have to adjust to this. There don’t seem to be any laws about smoking in public places – or drinking in public, either. Apparently people also pee on the streets sometimes, since public toilets cost money.

Lots of universities means lots of students, which means lots of awesome things happening in the parks – like that group who had instruments out and were playing French reggae. Bob Marley’s face was everywhere at the market we went to.

French boys: apparently not shy about flirting. Ever. People keep looking and smiling at me, someone blew my mother and I a kiss, and someone else has already asked my sister for her number. The best part? Even if she wanted to, we don’t have a number to give out.

Lots of hot girls and pretty boys. If I’m not careful, they’re going to start spawning into characters. Also, people here are very flamboyant in their dress – lots of strange outfits. I don’t feel out of place. Not quite sure how to feel about this.

French people will buy sandwiches, panini, or flatbread for lunch and just wander over to the nearest park to eat it. It’s awesome.

Toulouse is a crowded city. Lots of cars, lots of crowds, lots of people – and all of them are shopping.

Lots of graffiti. I think it’s something of a local art form. Walls are covered – sometimes with layers and layers of tags, sometimes with gorgeous murals. We saw one commemorating Michael Jackson.

There are lots of cool cars here. Cars that don’t exist in Canada. Some of them are covered in graffiti.

Can’t wait until we move into our apartment downtown. Must brush up on my French.

More updates will follow as we continue our adventures! Hopefully my internet will remain stable. Hope everyone is having a good time in Canada. À bientot!