Other Happenings in Toulouse

When we're not traveling, Dave and I try to keep busy and have fun right here in Toulouse. Last time I told you about our "French" weekend of cassoulet and the St. Aubin market. We had a lot of fun that weekend. Besides that weekend we've also been up to some other adventures.

A while ago, Toulouse had its first (and only) snow fall of the year! We don't get a lot of snow here, as we are close to the boarder to Spain. That's right it's usually sunny skies or rain here. It does get chilly, but not Canada chilly. We like the weather, but I have to admit I was missing having at least some snow. So, when we finally got a snowy night we had to go out and play. Dave and I put on our coats and bundled up in our hats and mitts to head out on a snowy, winter walk. We had fun playing in the snow and "somebody" (who knows who, really? could have been anybody) threw a snow ball at Dave. We also built a tiny snowman. The snow was perfect for snowman building, it was the right amount of sticky! But, by morning, the snow was gone and our little snowman melted away (RIP friend). It was a fun night while it lasted and I'm glad we at least got one snowfall to give us a taste of winter. Of course, that was several weeks ago and now it is definitely spring here in Toulouse. The sun is shining and it is warming up. Last week we had temperatures up to 31 degrees (sorry Canadian friends and family, feel free to hate me, I understand). I can't believe it's this hot in April! As much as I missed the snow, I think that one snow fix was enough and I'm so happy to have such hot weather now! We enjoyed some time in the sun and had our first (of many) patio visits downtown. I love patio season and I am thrilled that it's starting already!

Snow!

Plants all covered in snow!

Our snowman

Look it's us, walking in the snow!

Tree in the back of our building

Enjoying the sun

Mmmmm patio beers

We also had some fun celebrating St.Patrick's Day at our favourite Irish pub De Danu. We got up early to make it there for opening at 11am as we figured the only Irish pub would be packed. However, we forgot that we live in France and while the French are great, they do not show up early for things. In fact, they usually show up late or just on time. We also forgot, that perhaps the French aren't as hardcore about celebrating St.Patrick's Day as we are used to back home. So, when we got to De Danu we had no problem getting a table, as there was practically no one there yet haha. We had fun anyway and ordered a pint of Guinness to start our celebration off right! It was delicious and by the time we were finishing them, the pub was starting to get busy. We stuck around to have another pint and some of the delicious burgers for lunch. Then Dave just had to get one of the free hats they were giving out (Dave loves free things...but really, who doesn't?). After that, we decided to call it an afternoon and headed home to relax (an "afternoon", oh my gosh we're old now, we went home in the afternoon on St.Patrick's Day!). It wasn't as crazy a celebration as we've had in the past, but it was fun anyway. And it was nice to spend some time at our favourite hang out De Danu, we hadn't been there in awhile.

De Danu

Love me some Guinness

Dave enjoys Guinness too

Oh thank goodness! Finally filling up!

A few weeks later we were off to Paris for a visit, but that's a story for another post.

Until next time...

Au revoir

Our "French" Weekend!

Guys, I'm sorry for my long absence from the blogging world. I took another online class and it didn't leave much time for blogging. But, I'm finally done that and I have so much to update you on, including a trip to Paris! But, I'll start with some adventures Dave and I had right here in Toulouse.

A few weeks ago Dave and I decided to have a very "French" weekend. Since we moved here, we have heard a lot about this dish that Toulouse is famous for called cassoulet. Cassoulet is a stew-like dish with sausages, pork, duck , and beans. It is quite heavy and hardy, so while we wanted to try it, we weren't exactly craving it in the hot summer weather. We waited until the weather got a little cooler and decided to head out on a rainy evening to try it at a restaurant called "La Cave au Cassoulet." I actually heard about this restaurant from Dave's uncle when Dave's relatives were visiting in the summer. Apparently, it is "the" place to have cassoulet, we made a reservation and decided to give it a try.

As the name indicates, the restaurant is located in a "cave", or an old wine cellar. It made for a really cool atmosphere, as the room was located downstairs and the "cave" was all made of brick. The lighting was low and each table had a candle on it. We both started with an appetizer, I had a warm goat cheese salad and Dave had some sort of duck meat charcuterie dish. We both ordered the cassoulet and it came in a huge pot for sharing with a big ladel for serving it out onto our own plates. The cassoulet was delicious! There was a hint of wine flavour in the sauce that was very nice and it had tons of meat in it, including three different kinds of sausages and a duck drumstick (definitely not for vegetarians)! We enjoyed it a lot and also had a nice red wine with it to wash it down. For dessert we shared a chocolate mousse that was also quite good. We were stuffed and the cassoulet fulfilled it's promise of being "heavy." It was a good thing we had to walk home from the metro station! We spent the rest of the night in food comas, waiting to digest, but it was worth it because cassoulet is delicious (seriously, I would totally eat it right out of that casserole dish with the ladel!).

La Cave au Cassoulet , outside the restaurant

Inside the "cave"

Dave's duck charcuterie

My warm goat cheese salad (the french insist on putting corn and beans in all salads... I do not know why)

Our casserole dish of cassoulet!

Yum! Three different kinds of sausage!

A duck drumstick!

Yay! I love cassoulet!

We were on a roll with our "French" weekend, so the next day we decided to check out the market that is set up every Sunday in front of St. Aubin church. I've been wanting to go to this market for awhile now, but if you know Dave and I, you know we like to sleep in.  The market happens in the morning, until about 1pm so we hadn't managed to make it into town on time for it yet. But, nothing was going to stop us this weekend! We set our alarm, pulled ourselves out of bed and made it to the market bright and early. I'm so glad we did too because it was soooo cool! There was fresh produce everywhere, but also cool food stands, bakery stalls, pastry stalls, butcher stalls, and even a macaroon stall! We had fun wandering through all the stalls and even bought a few treats. The produce all came direct from local farms and was super fresh! So fresh, in fact, that upon returning home and cleaning up some lettuce that we bought that morning I encountered an array of wildlife. There were little, bitty slugs hiding in there and even a spider (yikes! but it was dead...). I have to admit I was a little scared of the creepy crawlies I was finding, but only because some of them were still alive and all of them were still slimy. But, that didn't stop me! No, I MacGyvered myself some gloves out of some grocery store produce bags and elastics and went to work on that bad boy. I cleaned it all out and transferred the "wildlife" to a lettuce sanctuary with the discarded lettuce leaves where they could live out the rest of their slug lives not on my dinner. Then I thoroughly washed the remaining lettuce and double inspected for remaining signs of wildlife before converting it into a delicious salad for dinner.  It was worth the effort because the lettuce was super tasty and fresh (no wonder those slugs were eating it!). We also enjoyed some of our other treats for dessert. It was a great day at the market and I'm glad I decided to get up to check it out. Who knew morning time could be so much fun! I'll have to try that whole waking up early thing more often!

St. Aubin Church

Apples! We bought some, they were yummy.

Even furniture! (a little hard to get home on the metro though)

Macaroons! (we definitely bought some of these guys)

Olives (Dave doesn't like these so we didn't get any this time....next time though, next time)

Mmmm cheese heaven!

Yes, that is me standing at the pastry stall making the most important decision ever (turns out I'm bad at deciding, we bought like three different pastries, try a "St. Honore" so good!)

Baguettes (had to get one of these)

Look at all that chicken! It smelled so good!

Live chickens anyone? (decided not to get one of these)

We wish this guy was for sale. A cute little doggy friend at one of the stands.

French weekend was a success! We had a ton of fun being "French" in Toulouse!

Until next time...

Au revoir

New Year's in Vienna!

And here it is, FINALLY! The last installment of the Christmas trip blog entries. I miss it so much!

Day One December 30:
We arrived in Vienna bright and early on Sunday morning. Unfortunately, we weren't able to check into our apartment until 10am that morning so we had a few hours to kill. We found a McDonald's in the train station, ordered breakfast and waited for the time to pass. Eventually, we took the subway down to the apartment, picked up the key and checked in. After a quick shower, we headed out to explore. The first stop was Schonbrunn Palace. We took a tour inside the palace and were able to see many of the rooms. The tour included a free audio guide that gave you a good history of the palace and the royalty that lived there. The palace was beautiful and very ornate. Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take pictures inside the palace. But we did snap a few of the outside. There was also a Christmas market going on in front of the palace, we had a quick look around the stalls and then decided to head into the centre of the city (the Stephansplatz). The first stop was St.Stephen's Cathedral. We had a look inside the cathedral and then Dave wanted to go to the top before it got too dark. Luckily there was an elevator to the top of this cathedral so I got out of climbing this time! We managed to get one of the last trips up to the top. There was a great view of the city and it was really cool. After viewing the city from the top of the cathedral we were starting to get hungry so we decided to head for dinner and drinks at 7 Stern Brau, a little micro-brewery/restaurant that I had heard about. We both enjoyed a yummy dinner and sampled a few of their micro-brews. The beer was good, but we both agreed the beer we had on Christmas day at the monastery was better. But, it was still delicious! After dinner we headed home to get a good nights sleep so we'd be ready to party for New Years!

Schonbrunn Palace

The gardens behind the palace

The back of the palace

Dave and I in front of Schronbrunn Palace

St. Stephen's Cathedral

Inside St.Stephen's Cathedral, they had really cool lights projecting on the walls

The cool roof from the top of the cathedral

View from the top

Dave's dinner: a gnocchi and cheese dish with a variety of meats (it was really good)

My wiener schnitzel and potato salad

Dave's winter beer

My dark beer

Dessert : nut souffle

Inside the micro-brewery

They had a beer vending machine at the entrance!

Day Two December 31:
Dave and I packed a lot into our New Year's Eve. We woke up and picked up a few supplies at the grocery store across the street (chips and champagne of course!). Unfortunately, I wasn't able to find a free walking tour in Vienna like we went on in Prague and Krakow, so Dave and I decided to do our own walking tour. Dave found a few websites that had suggestions for walking tour routes, so we printed them out and headed on our own tour of Vienna with Dave as the guide! We had a great time. The first stop was to Belvedere Palace, which was a palace located right up the street from our apartment. It took us about 5 minutes to walk there and we were at these beautiful palace grounds. There are a ton of palaces in Vienna, it's very royal! We decided not to go into this one because we wanted time to explore some other parts of the city. But, we did have a nice walk around the palace grounds and snapped a few pictures. Then, we continued on our way into the centre of town and followed the walking tours that Dave had found. We covered a lot of ground and managed to see most of the sites in Vienna. We didn't go into a lot of them, but it was nice to just walk outside and see them. It was also a beautiful day, sunny and pretty mild. We also enjoyed stopping along the way at some of the stands along the New Year's path and enjoying a sausage and a beer or glass of champagne as we walked. We managed to make a stop at the Sacher hotel to buy a small Sacher torte. Vienna is famous for its Sacher torte and when we got to the cafe at the hotel there was a line out the door to get seated. We decided we didn't want to waste all that time just for a piece of cake, so we went to the gift shop attached to the cafe and just purchased a small torte instead. It costs more than just getting a slice, but it was worth it not to have to wait. Plus, you get a cute little wooden box as a souvenir. We also stopped at a famous bakery called Demel and purchased a slice of cake to go. Dave just pointed randomly, but we ended up with a really delicious cake. We also stopped at one of the New Year's stands and bought ourselves a tiny New Year's pig. Apparently, in Vienna a pig is good luck for the New Year and there were stands everywhere that were selling all sorts of different pig trinkets and stuffed animals. We bought a little one and named him Wiener, so hopefully we'll have a lucky year. After completing the walking tour we decided to head home and rest up for a bit so we'd be ready to ring in the New Year that evening (also, Dave wanted to watch the World Juniors and I wanted to eat some of that cake and drink some of that champagne!).

Belvedere Palace

The gardens behind the palace

Dave and I in front of the palace

Came across this neat building on our tour

Enjoying our first glass of New Year's champagne in the centre of the city (the Stephansplatz)

Dave enjoying his champagne

monument

We stopped for lunch at a sausage stand. They were the best sausages ever and Vienna is really at the top of hotdog technology. They serve them in a hollowed out tiny baguette and then put the end of the baguette back on top, that way there's no spills and everything is tucked inside and ready to eat on the go! Also, the bread was super soft and it was so so good.

Couldn't even stop eating mine to take a nice picture

A square we came upon on our walk

One of the stands along the New Year's path, they were selling whole bottles of champagne

Stopping for a beer on our walk at one of the New Year's stands

St.Peter's Church

The roof in St.Peter's

Inside St.Peter's

Getting cake at Demel

Yay cake!

Hofburg Palace (i told you, they have a ton of palaces)

Old ruins in front of the palace

In the courtyard of the palace

museum

more museums

The Hotel Sacher

Eating cake from Demel and having a glass of champagne

Our lucky pig Wiener

 Once we were recharged and full of cake we headed back out to Par-tay! Things were getting quite busy down town along the New Year's path as everyone was getting really excited to ring in the New Year. We did a little walk along the whole path and had a few glasses of champagne along the way. There were all sorts of different stages playing music that catered to different age groups. They had entertainment that ranged from disco, to waltzing , to rock. There were also food and drink stands everywhere selling sausages, champagne, beer, and all sorts of treats. We walked the whole path and ultimately decided to stay at one of the areas that had a pretty good music concert and some great food stands. It was a lot of fun and we sang the night away. At midnight we counted down to the New Year and enjoyed the fire works in the distance. It was a wonderful way to ring in 2013!

The Rathausplatz (where we celebrated New Years)

Stage in front of the Rathausplatz

The streets were VERY crowded

Ringing in the New Year

Happy New Year!

 Day Three January 1:
On our last day in Vienna we slept in and recovered from our festive New Year's Eve celebration. We didn't have time to do much but we did dig into our Sacher torte before having to head to the airport and catch our flight to begin the journey home. Sorry, but most of this days pictures consist solely of cake! The Sacher torte was good, although dryer than I was expecting, but delicious. We had a nice relaxing day, cleaned the apartment, and caught our flight. It was the end of a wonderful Christmas trip and we had a great time.

The bag and lovely wrapping the torte came in

Cute little wooden box

The torte

Yum!

We had a really wonderful time on our trip and we were sad it had to end. But, it was nice to get "home" again and also to eat vegetables finally! While I love a diet that consists mostly of meat, potatoes, and beer , after awhile you just need something green! It was a great trip and I hope to return to visit these places again someday.

Until next time...
Au revoir