Toulouse! Day 1
We are in Toulouse! It's our first time together in France since we left Lyon back in 2011. I can't believe it's already been four years.
We flew out Saturday night from Newark, got upgraded by Lufthansa to premium seating, and I had plenty of wine and cognac on the flight to Munich (I had fasted from alcohol and sweets this past week to lose some weight). In Munich we spent six hours in the lounge, but we were well-prepared to take a refreshing shower and change of clothes, so that we arrived in Toulouse reasonably fresh and also reasonably rested at around 7pm.
Our hotel is in the center of town. The room has an "innovative" transparent glass wall that separates the shower from the bed. We had experienced such a room once in Austria, and it was weird but fine, but what I don't like about this room is that the full bathroom is on display, including toilet, whereas in Austria the commode was a separate tiny room. Sure, the glass has a feature to make it translucent, but it's still awkward. But that's a minor quibble since we're only here two nights.
We showered again quickly, and then headed out to get dinner at La Cave au Cassoulet, which was a traditional Toulousain restaurant in a cellar with rounded ceilings that reached down to the floor (no walls). Ironically, even though cassoulet is a specialty of Toulouse and ostensibly the specialty of the restaurant we went to, neither of us ordered it because we saw how big of a plate it was on other tables. Instead, I got foie gras de canard mi-cuit appetizer and a magret de canard with cepes for the main course. Christian got an appetizer of salade gersoise, which had a thin slice of foie gras de canard (not mi-cuit, so not quite as good), cured slices of duck breast, and lots of turkey gizzards. His main course was civet de cuisse de canard, which was a duck leg covered in smoky wine sauce. It was heavenly having foie gras mi-cuit again and the light mustard dressing on the salad reminded us a lot of salade lyonnaise. On recommendation of our waiter, we started the meal with an aperitif of floc de Gascogne, a sweetish local wine whose grapes are left longer on the vine. Then we had a nice bottle of madiran (very light body, but also heavy on oak and charcoal) and dessert was a tarte tatin and glass of armagnac for me, and creme caramel for Christian. The meal was a perfect way to start the trip: nothing was particularly spectacular, but it was all solidly good and reminiscent of what we loved.
After dinner, we walked for a bit to the river, took some nighttime photos, but then jet lag hit us so we headed back to the hotel.
We flew out Saturday night from Newark, got upgraded by Lufthansa to premium seating, and I had plenty of wine and cognac on the flight to Munich (I had fasted from alcohol and sweets this past week to lose some weight). In Munich we spent six hours in the lounge, but we were well-prepared to take a refreshing shower and change of clothes, so that we arrived in Toulouse reasonably fresh and also reasonably rested at around 7pm.
Our hotel is in the center of town. The room has an "innovative" transparent glass wall that separates the shower from the bed. We had experienced such a room once in Austria, and it was weird but fine, but what I don't like about this room is that the full bathroom is on display, including toilet, whereas in Austria the commode was a separate tiny room. Sure, the glass has a feature to make it translucent, but it's still awkward. But that's a minor quibble since we're only here two nights.
We showered again quickly, and then headed out to get dinner at La Cave au Cassoulet, which was a traditional Toulousain restaurant in a cellar with rounded ceilings that reached down to the floor (no walls). Ironically, even though cassoulet is a specialty of Toulouse and ostensibly the specialty of the restaurant we went to, neither of us ordered it because we saw how big of a plate it was on other tables. Instead, I got foie gras de canard mi-cuit appetizer and a magret de canard with cepes for the main course. Christian got an appetizer of salade gersoise, which had a thin slice of foie gras de canard (not mi-cuit, so not quite as good), cured slices of duck breast, and lots of turkey gizzards. His main course was civet de cuisse de canard, which was a duck leg covered in smoky wine sauce. It was heavenly having foie gras mi-cuit again and the light mustard dressing on the salad reminded us a lot of salade lyonnaise. On recommendation of our waiter, we started the meal with an aperitif of floc de Gascogne, a sweetish local wine whose grapes are left longer on the vine. Then we had a nice bottle of madiran (very light body, but also heavy on oak and charcoal) and dessert was a tarte tatin and glass of armagnac for me, and creme caramel for Christian. The meal was a perfect way to start the trip: nothing was particularly spectacular, but it was all solidly good and reminiscent of what we loved.
After dinner, we walked for a bit to the river, took some nighttime photos, but then jet lag hit us so we headed back to the hotel.