Arachnophobia

The other day, I exited our apartment to find this waiting above our apartment door.

I'm sure you can imagine my reaction. Mid sentence to Dave, I stopped what I was saying, screeched, slinked down into a crouching position, and ran away. I had actually walked under that thing, it was literally right above our door, waiting, lurking.....

I couldn't even get the word "spider" out to Dave, I just pointed and made some concerning noises of alarm. He could tell by the panic in my screech that it must be bug related. And was it ever! That is honestly the biggest spider that I have ever seen in person. Had I known that spiders like that existed here, I'm not sure that I would have moved here haha. It actually had fur. And it's legs were so long and finger like...ugh, I shudder just thinking about it.

Dave wanted to get rid of it, but I was afraid it would try to eat him and he'd die, and then I'd be left alone with the spider. So, we left it there and went out for the evening, hoping it would be above someone elses apartment door when we got back. However, several hours later when we returned, it was still above our apartment door. I guess it liked us

Knowing I would never fall asleep that night, with visions of spiders invading our apartment, Dave bravely went to battle the spider armed only with a broom and dustpan. Now, I wasn't there to witness what happened, seeing as I was busy curled up in the fetal position under the blankets on our bed, but Dave insists that he bravely knocked the spider down from the wall and shooed it , as it quickly scurried, out of the back door of the apartment building. He also says that the spider turned back and hissed at him as it was exiting, but I'm not so sure I believe that part of the story.

Thankfully, I was able to fall asleep that night without too many nightmares about spiders invading our home. However, I'm on constant spider lookout now whenever I enter the hallway. Sometimes it's good to have a guy around, especially when giant man eating spiders are lurking above your apartment door.

Until next time...

Au revoir

La Fête Nationale

Since Dave and I missed all the Canada Day celebrations on July 1st, we decided to check out La Fête Nationale (or Bastille Day to us Canadians) on July 14th. The day was pretty low key, but in the evening we went downtown to check out the concert and fireworks that were being held. When we first arrived around 7pm there weren't many people out and about yet, so we decided to go for a little wander around the town and check out some of the streets we hadn't explored yet. We came upon the Basilica of St. Sernin. Dave and I had actually taken a tour of this Basilica when we were visiting Toulouse last August in anticipation of our move. It's a beautiful Basilica and has a really cool crypt in it. We wandered around the outside and took a few pictures.

After leaving the Basilica we happened to come upon an English Pub called The George & Dragon that had some English signs. We grabbed a couple of beers and relaxed for a bit from our walk. It was a nice pub and and there seemed to be a few groups of young people too, so it might be a good spot to hang out one night. Also, there were signs for a quiz night on Wednesdays, so we were pretty excited about that and will definitely be returning to defend our title of quiz champions from our nights at Western's Grad Club back home.

After finishing our beers we headed back to the main stage where all the Fête Nationale celebrations were supposed to take place. The square went from barely any people there when we first arrived, to totally jam packed! It was awesome! There were people everywhere enjoying the french music concert and having drinks in the streets (I have to say, the nice thing about France is that you can enjoy a beer in the streets and nobody cares). We bought a couple of beers from a vendor on the street, they had vendors all over selling canned beers and even some pop up bars selling draft beers. The concert was fun, but was all in French. It was still enjoyable, but the highlight was definitely the fireworks, which were set to music from a drummer on the concert stage. They were really good and it was a fun night.

The only thing I will warn you about is that unlike in Canada where they set up a section of port-a-potties for big out door events like Canada Day, the French do not set up things like this. The only place to go to the bathroom is a restaurant if you are a paying customer or one of the pay toilet stations outside that only have one toilet in them, cost a euro or so, and on a day like this had a massive line. Needless to say, after having a couple of beers I had to pee more than I've ever had to pee in my life. I actually thought to myself "oh my god, I'm 27 years old and I'm going to pee my pants...I'm actually going to pee my pants" haha. I knew I wouldn't make the metro journey all the way home, so we popped into our favourite pub De Danu, grabbed a drink, and I used the washrooms! It was glorious! I've never had to pee so bad in my life. De Danu definitely came to my rescue.


It was a fun night and it was neat to see how the French celebrate their Fête Nationale.

Until next time....

Au revoir

Tales of a House Wife

I have to say, this not working thing really leaves you with a lot of time on your hands. It's quite enjoyable. Yesterday, I got up the nerve to wander out to a nearby cheap grocery store on my own. It was my first real on my own journey in France, as Dave and I usually go out together. But, I was proud of myself for making the journey on my own, as I tend to get nervous when doing anything new and different, especially in a country where I don't speak the language very well. But, I was determined to get out there and not turn into a hermit. So, I made the two bus journey to our local Lidl (a cheap grocery store) and bought some ingredients for the nights dinner. Dave had a busy day at school, so I decided it would be nice if I surprised him with dinner. I successfully made the journey all on my own. And I even went to my favourite new dessert bakery (where I bought those macaroons from a few posts ago). I love this bakery and the girl that works the night shift is so nice and understanding of my very poor French.

When I got home I got to cooking. Spaghetti, greek salad with homemade balsamic vinigrette, sesame baguette (which is so delicious), and two GIANT cookies (which I bought at my favourite bakery). We also enjoyed a lovely bottle of rose wine that only cost about 2 euros and was honestly one of the best wines we've had so far. You've got to love the price of wine in France. I love cooking and it's so nice to have the time to make really nice meals. When I was working long hours this past year, sometimes the last thing I felt like doing was coming home and making a meal. Now that I have the time, it's something I look forward to. It's nice to get back into cooking and I'm doing my best to be creative with our hot plate situation.

Here's a few pics of the meal, there was even enough for leftovers for lunch the next day :)

Until next time...

Au revoir

Hot Plate Chefing

We've been having a bit of a stressful couple of weeks here trying to deal with getting Dave an appointment for his Carte de Sejour and  trying to set up a bank account and get our funds transferred over. After trying to go the prefecture a few times on our own, we finally enlisted one of Dave's school colleagues to come with us and help us with the French. It was a good thing we did because he was able to get Dave an appointment with the prefecture in August to hand in the things for his Carte de Sejour and get the whole process started. It was a relief to finally have an appointment after trying to figure it out on our own for the last few weeks, the French system can be a bit confusing, especially if you don't know the language very well.

After getting our business at the prefecture taken care of (for now), we moved onto trying to open a bank account. We tried a few different banks first, most of which either didn't speak any English or just weren't very helpful, FINALLY we went into a bank here called Credit Agricole. We managed to find a representative that spoke a bit of English and we were able to get an appointment later that evening to open up a bank account. The appointment involved signing a ton of paper work and filling in a bunch of online forms, but we finally finished and we now have a bank account here in France. YAY!  However, in France you have to wait for about a week to receive your debit cards (which they call credit cards here...weird), which get delivered to the bank and you have to go back to pick up. We waited our 7 days and went to the bank on Monday, only to find out that apparently they forgot to order our bank cards. GAHHHHHHHHHH!!! That's right, we have to wait another 7 days, so annoying. Hopefully they will have set it up correctly this time and we'll have our cards by next week, which will make life a little easier. We still have to transfer our funds over, which we hope to have started by tomorrow, but the whole process for that takes about a week to go through as well. It'll be nice when we finally have our money and our cards.

Anyway, after all that stress I decided we needed a nice dinner and a relaxing evening as a treat. I only have a hot plate, but I decided I could get creative...why can't you cook gourmet on a hot plate after all? I found a recipe for mushroom risotto and set out to buy the ingredients. We headed to our local vegetable and fruit store, a little store close to our home that sells produce. It is really cute and you put everything you want into this little basket and the lady at the counter weighs it for you and charges you by weight. We got a bunch of fruit and the shallots and garlic I needed for my recipe for a few dollars. I will be visiting this market a lot. We also came along a new bakery called Ronde de Pains, which was full of delicious desserts and pastries. If it weren't for the fact that our bus was coming in 5 minutes I would have spent about a half an hour looking in there and probably about half our money too. Instead, due to the time constraints I settled on a selection of macaroons for the night's dessert.

When we got home, I got to chefing on my risotto. It was  a long process because you have to stand at the stove stirring constantly while all the broth is absorbed by the rice. It takes awhile, but it is soooooo worth it because at the end you have creamy, yummy risotto deliciousness. Plus, it didn't seem that bad since I sipped on white wine while I cooked and Dave literally fed me pieces of baguette while I stirred haha. When it was finally done, we had risotto, a very good risotto if I do say so myself (especially since this was my first attempt at making it). It was very rich, and certainly not on the diet plan, but it was such a nice treat.  The recipe I used makes a ton too so we get leftovers tonight, along with some Toulouse Sausage that we picked up at the grocery store (it's supposed to be a Toulouse specialty).

We enjoyed our dinner and dessert and had a great night. The risotto was well worth the effort and the macaroons were a delicious dessert.

A few pics of my chefing, it doesn't look like much, but it's delicious:

Our meal: mushroom risotto, baguette, white wine and macaroons for dessert

Cute little package the macaroons were in

Flavours: pistachio (my favourite), vanilla, coffee, chocolate, and lemon

We had no trouble finishing them all

Until next time....

Au revoir 

Le Bikini

A few weeks ago, when Dave and I were exploring the path along the Canal du Midi, we came kept seeing signs for a place called Le Bikini. We followed the signs and discovered that Le Bikini was a little outdoor bar and restaurant where you could enjoy a cocktail, as well as a swim in their outdoor pool. They also host music concerts there in the evenings (with guests such as SUM41 and other bands) and they have music theme nights, like an 80s night. We couldn't believe what we had found and vowed to go check it out once we had a nice weekend.

Unfortunately for us, the last few weekends here have been a bit cloudy and overcast, so when we woke up to sun on Saturday morning we knew what we had to do. We packed our bags and changed into our swim suits and walked on down to Le Bikini (that's right, it's within walking distance to our apartment).

We spent the day lounging in the sun, sipping on drinks and swimming in the pool. It was like paradise in our very own backyard. I imagine we'll be spending many a summer day here.

We started our afternoon with a couple of the Affligem Rouge beers. They were really yummy and nice and fruity, perfect for a sunny summer day outside. We kept seeing people ordering bottles of rosé that came in these little ice packs to keep cool, we couldn't resist enjoying a class of chilled rosé by the pool, so we ordered one too. It was a perfect relaxing day in the sun.

 

 At 8pm, the sun was starting to go down and the kitchen was opening (dinner in France usually begins around 8pm and many restaurants don't even open their doors until then) so we decided to stick around and have some food to end our wonderful day. I'm glad we did, because the food was delicious. I got the duck and Dave got the rabbit, they were both delicious and both were accompanied with some yummy vegetables and potatoes dauphinoise (basically potatoes with cheese, what could be better??). It was a great meal and wonderful day, we will definitely be going back to Le Bikini. 

My duck

Dave's rabbit

 

paradise

Until next time...

Au revoir

Canal du Midi

As you may have gathered from my posts there are lots of delicious foods and many delicious drinks to be had here in France. I don't have the will to resist them, so that means I better pull out my dusty running shoes in an effort to stay fit. I am getting married in a few years after all and I have wedding dresses to think about. Luckily for me, the thought of running again didn't seem so bad after Dave and I discovered the Canal du Midi in our very own backyard. We went exploring along the canal the other day and it is beautiful. We even came across this amazing park where families were having barbeques and couples were snuggling under trees. I could walk along the canal for hours and the thought of running along it actually makes me want to run. With scenery like this, maybe I'll actually like exercising!?! I know, that's crazy talk...but I mean who wouldn't want to run in a beautiful place like this:

Beautiful

There were tons of house boats parked along the canal

Came across a winery in somebody's yard

Part of the park we came across

More of the park, it was huge

Cute little French house beside a huge field of sunflowers

Cute little French neighbourhood

Would love to live in one of these apartments

Look proof! Me running in a totally unstaged  photo

Like I said, I could get used to running with surroundings like these.

Until next time...

Au revoir

La Garonne

This past week Dave's school was hosting a conference and on the last evening they held a dinner on board a boat on La Garonne. Dave managed to snag a ticket so I got to come along, and boy am I glad. We hadn't had a chance to explore La Garonne yet, but it was beautiful. The boat set sail at 8:15pm and we traveled along La Garonne taking in the sights while sipping on champagne and wine from the region and munching on some appetizers. The drinks were fabulous and the food wasn't bad either (well except for the cold beet puree....I could have done without that). We sampled various cheeses, prosciutto, finger foods, and a few hot entrees (think sheperd's pie like...but way more yummy). It was delicious and La Garonne was beautiful.

Many people were sitting along it's edges sipping on wine and beer and watching the sun set. It would be a great place for a picnic and I plan on going back one day to do just that. There were also several other boats along the shore that looked liked they offered rides. One of the boats looked liked a restaurant and I'd like to go back sometime to explore that too. We'll definitely be spending some more nights along La Garonne.

Here are a few pics of the night.

Tons of people were sitting and drinking along La Garonne

Dave and I enjoying the champagne. You can't see, but it's pink from the grenadine.

The lights on this bridge were really beautiful

Not a bad view

It was a pretty nice way to spend an evening and we will definitely be coming back to La Garonne again.

Until next time...

Au revoir

Apartment: Home Sweet Home

Here it is, much anticipated, long awaited....that's right, it's the apartment blog post. Many of you have asked me to post pictures of my apartment so you can see this place we're calling home for the next year. It's not much, but it'll do for a year. It definitely took some getting used to when we first got here. It was rather small, which I was expecting, but it was even smaller than I first thought. Also, there was the fact that there was no kitchen sink, something I didn't anticipate, but we've made due. We also don't have an oven here, so I've been trying my best to use my chefing skills on our two plate stove top, and I haven't been doing too badly if I do say so myself.

The bed. That's literally all that's in this corner with two walls on either side. There's also that brown shelf where we keep our clothes. Very cozy. The only way to exit the bed is from the foot of it. Snug as a bug!

Standing at the foot of the bed you get this view of the desk. Excuse the mess, that's where I let Dave keep all his piles of papers (otherwise they'd end up on the kitchen table)

Standing in front of the window you get this view of the kitchen table and the front door.

On one side of the table, along the wall, is where our fridge is located. It's tiny, but we've managed to fit a few food items in amongst the beer. We also bought a few shelves to put food and dishes on. 

On the other side of the table is the door to the bathroom and a little closet area. There is also the stove top and a cupboard below. This is where all my culinary masterpieces get created. Please someone give me some stove top cooking ideas! 

Here is the view of the bathroom from the door way. 

On one side we have the tub/shower.

In the middle is the toilet and the sink is on the other side. Pretty standard. The toilet does flush funny though, took me a second to figure it out when I first went. You have to pull up on a silver knob at the top of the toilet. The flush is also quite vigorous.

You may have noticed the lack of kitchen sink. Who needs one of those anyway, especially when you've got one of these babies. We put this plastic tub into the bathtub and fill it with soapy water...voila! Kitchen sink substitute! 

So there you have it. It's not much, but it's home (for now)...and it sure is cozy.

Come visit, we'll find room for you somewhere!

Until next time...

Au revoir