I took french classes from the 5th grade through my sophomore year in college. As such, you'd think I could speak some amount of french (I can't) or that I'd be horribly excited to see Paris (I wasn't). I had some strange sense of familiarity of the city when I saw it - probably because I've seen so many pictures and have heard/read about it in all of my french language classes. Nevertheless, I was happy to finally go.
On the sidewalk after a rain:
A local outdoor food market. Here, people shop for food nearly everyday, rather than 2-3 big trips a month. Quality of ingredients is very important and there far fewer processed foods.
I learned how to cook a fish and remove the bones before eating it. Bleh. If I had to prepare all of my meat meals from the animal I'd definitely be a vegetarian.
McDonalds is much nicer in France and they have kiosks where you can place an order. I didn't eat there, but I thought the upscale decor and relatively thin patrons were interesting.
I'm told this is a very french park, as evidenced by the perfectly manicured trees and shrubs. It was beautiful.
Notre Dam
Puss in boots!
The police - high speed boat chase?
This was outside the Louvre. The guard dog had a large leather muzzle over it's mouth.
A perfect lunch in Paris - ham and cheese sandwich on excellent bread and a chocolate eclair. mmmm. We need better bread in the US.
I hiked (ok, paid a euro and took a funicular (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montmartre_funicular)) up to Montmartre. At the top was a large church, a beautiful view of the city, musicians (guitar, cello, violin), painters, and beautiful homes covered in greenery and flowers.
In a window:
Street art
For Mufasa : )
Wall art at a train station.
After a couple of days in Paris I flew to Toulouse where I met up with Cedric, a guy I'd hosted in DC last summer off couchsurfing.org. He immediately took me to an excellent restaurant for lunch that his friend owns - they have a fixed menu - you pay 12 euros and get fresh bread, a salad, an entree, dessert, and coffee - we sat outside under grape vines - it was lovely.
Next, we rented a bike to get around Toulouse:
This is a motorcycle with three wheels - I'm told locals buy them because it allows them to get a larger engine without having to upgrade their driver's license.
A free public restroom. I like the idea of everyone having access to a toilet.
A steam punk merry-go-round. This particular piece was a flying machine and the wings flapped up and down and the children could pedal. The whole thing was awesome.
A store for jugglers:
An amazing, melt-in-your-mouth pastry with gold leaf on top. You will be missed.
Fresh bread. Crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside.
A vendor at a flea market was selling things you need to make your own shot gun rounds. The shells are on the bottom right, the gun powder is in the jars on the bottom left, and the rods used to pack the shells are in the trunk. Pellets were sold elsewhere.
Smoked calf meat. I tried it. The taste was good, but the texture was terrible - very soft and tender - I'd expected something more like beer jerky. People I met in France ate a lot of meat, many 3 times a day. I went to a fancy restaurant and had a 3 course meal and there wasn't a single vegetarian option.
This is a condom vending machine - they can be found throughout the city. I explained to my hosts that condoms in the states are usually inside pharmacies. He thought that was ridiculous and asked how people got condoms when the stores were closed.
We spent a day touring a medieval village and hiking through a canyon. It was exhausting, but beautiful.
We had lunch by a river:
I could almost hear the horses trotting through the village and felt as though I'd traveled back in the time as all of the buildings were very old, some as early as the 12th century. I had no idea stone houses could be used for that long. Villages like this are popular retirement destinations for the English - so much so that several of the bookstores only carried English books. I can understand the appeal.
