I'm Still In Auch

No excuses except laziness. Nothing new to report except it's finally supposed to rain for the next couple of days.

There's a Carrefour Express here in Auch so I got some dark chocolate. Six packs of Heineken were on sale for €2.70 but only if you get two of them. I'm sick of that tuna in mayo crap so I didn't restock. Besides when I bought the first batch I also got a pack of plastic forks. Threw half of them away and stuck the rest in a pocket in my pack. Now whenever I stick my hand in that pocket I get a plastic fork tong up the cuticle. A spoon would have worked just as well.

Anyway, off to get some Indian food.

The Name Sets the Tone

Auch. Sounds like ouch.

I couldn't believe the final six km into this town today. Walk along a superhighway going away from town for a km, go under it and back along the other side of the superhighway for a km. Then take a right past a manure processing plant, then through a dump, up past an industrial complex and you think you're home free. But no. Now your back to the same superhighway and the signs point back away from town again. A couple hundred meters later you go back under the highway and up a hill past the "Boeuf du Gers" factory. Ie, a slaughterhouse. I swear it was six km of this when Google maps would have had me here in two.

Don't get me started about how awesome it was walking into Toulouse!

Anyway, I'm staying at the Hotel de France. It's what the Grand Budapest Hotel would be like if it were run by Basil Fawlty.

It wasn't all bad today. I did get lost for an hour though. I need to pay better attention to specific directions.

When I finally got to my room and took off my first boot a bee flew out of it. It was caught between my sock and the tongue of the boot. It didn't really fly out - it was more of a stumble. The little fella  WALKED around the bed toward the window. I opened it for him and off he went.

I had a great meal at a Chinese restaurant down the street but felt bad because I was the only one there. I told the owner (Helen from Hong Kong) that if I were her I'd get outta Auch and head for Toulouse!

Speaking of Toulouse, here's a family of ducks and a turtle in the canal on the way in. 

Do You Have A Dog?

It's 27c here in Gimont.  That's 84f.  I left this morning with just two half liter bottles of water and by the time I reached the village of Monferrand-Saves at around 12:30, they were both empty.  I couldn't find a drinking fountain or store that sold water.  With14km further to walk I was very lucky to stumble upon Francine's second grade class having lunch outside in the playground.

I got the teacher's attention and she was beyond nice about filling my two empty water bottles.  We introduced ourselves and when she went inside, the kids started shouting things at me in practically perfect English.  There were like 12 of them and they were asking "what's your name?", I thought to myself wow what nice friendly kids - and they speak excellent English. I said "Je m'apelle Steve", in practically perfect French.  Next they all seemed to want to know if I had a dog.  I told them "no, avez-VOUS un chien?"

Francine the teacher came back with my water and was so damned charming.  I'm pretty sure that they had English class just before lunch.  Her grin told me that.  I had been going head-to-head with an entire class of seven year olds, dueling in foreign language skills at a second grade level.  I wasn't winning but I wasn't losing either.

I'm mad at myself for not taking their picture but the timing seemed wrong.  As I started walking away Francine said something to them and they all yelled "bon chemin" or "bon voyage" and I yelled back "bon apetit!"

I ran into Dominic and Guido just after meeting the kids - they're the guys from the day I was lost twice going into Castres.  Dominic is the one who speaks English and he told me that they had just been talking about how they'd probably never see me again.  I told him that yesterday I walked around Toulouse for four hours or so and then took the train (I LOVE French trains) to the suburbs and walked another hour or so to L'Isle du Jourdain.  The guidebooks all say to do that.  He scoffed at me for taking a train and I kind of laughed in his face (in a nice friendly way of course) and asked him how he liked walking through the burbs.  It turns out he didn't.  He got a ride in a car from friends to pretty much the same place.

Have I mentioned how much I love Toulouse?  It's nice to be back out of the city and past the suburbs.  Tomorrow I'm headed for a small city called Auch.  The route is supposed to be nice rolling hills and in a day or two the path starts heading south towards the Pyrenees.

I downloaded the first couple of episodes of Veep season three so will watch a little of that before hitting the hay.

Supermax?

I'm staying in the oddest place tonight in L'Isle du Jourdain (I think).  More than once I've said that you can't get a bad meal in France.  I take that back.  Granted I'm esthetically hung over from Toulouse but this place is grim.  I'm not going to disparage it by name because the people are nice enough and they have good wifi but the food probably ranks somewhere between penitentiary and public school.  The proprietor's two year old kid was crawling around on the floor in the dining room crying because he threw his binky under the ice cream cooler.  The waiter came over with a broom and fished it out for him but the family dog grabbed it first & ran away with it.

Rather than dwell on the unpleasant - did I tell you how awesome Toulouse is?  I walked through a lot more of it today and it is definitely the nicest city I've ever seen.  Sorry Pamplona.

Le Trek Tolouse

Get it?  Le Trek Toulouse?

I've got to say, Toulouse is the nicest city I've ever seen. Granted it's only been four hours and the weather is stupendous but this place has got it all.

In addition to spectacular architecture on a gorgeous confluence of rivers and canals, it has a beautiful mix of ethnicities that all just seem to add their own flavor to the city's core Frenchness.

Speaking of the "flavor of Frenchness", there really isn't much, at least as far as food is concerned. Thus I'm writing from my table at Le Majarajah, an Indian pace in the heart of the old part of town. I've been Jonesing for Indian food forever and this place didn't disappoint.  Onion bahjis and medium spicy salmon curry was just the fix I needed.

Tomorrow will be 3 weeks Since I left and it seems like three months.

It's been an interesting trip. Except for the two guys I met while going the wrong way AFTER getting lost, I haven't met a single person unless I was paying them or asking for directions. That hasn't really bothered me much but today I wish you were all here to enjoy Toulouse with me. 

Good Eating!

It's happenned more than once. I'm about to dig in, someone says "good eating!", and wonders if they got it right. I enjoy the proud looks they have when I tell them that in my country we say "bon apetit."

It was another long one today. I ended up staying on the Canal du Midi all day today and it wasn't as horrible as I feared. At least terraIn-wise. Still, by the time I got to where I am now (seems like the Wilton, CT suburb of Toulouse) I was vowing to take a bus, rent a car or hitch a ride on a canal boat into the city.

I know this is my personal hang-up, and it's irrational but I have a weird fury toward serious cyclists.  The pedestrian path along the canal is also an officially designated cycling path.  Don't get me wrong, the families and regular folk that were cycling to get somewhere or for recreation are a pleasure to share the path with. It's the other 80% with their stupid lycra outfits, cycling shoes and serious cycle scowls that make me want to jam my walking stick through their front spokes.

Anyway, if you walk along a canal long enough, you get to see it in action. I passed at least 10 sets of locks today and towards the end I reached one just at the same time as a pleasure boat. It was pretty cool to watch the process. Just the couple on the boat doing the whole process themselves.

More Perfect Union

I hope everybody enjoyed the picture of the horse yesterday. Matt Harvey was pitching at 730 local time and I had to watch the gamecast on my laptop. How bout those Mets!

Last night I stayed at a truck stop about a half km from the path. It was a little grittier than Le Routier in Old Saybrook but it had authentic French trucks parked outside.  The owner is a friendly guy. I'm thinking my French must be getting better because we got into a conversation about whether dark chocolate or "Melissa Water" is better for overcoming fatigue.

Eau de Melisse might be the oldest continuously produced product in the world. The current concoction has been sold since 1611. It's only sold in pharmacies and is 80% alcohol and infused with nine spices and fourteen other plants. The bottles come with dropper tops and you're supposed to saturate a sugar cube with it and pop it in your mouth. Maybe it's a placebo effect but I don't think so. You're only supposed to do it two or three times per day. After getting my first bottle I did five cubes before dinner and didn't sleep well at all.

Anyway, the walking has been kind of dull. Very nice but pretty much more of the same. Today's route was about 30km, the first 20 of which were alone g the Rigole river, which feeds the Canal du Midi. The CdM  indirectly connects the Atlantic to the Mediterranean and was built in the late 1600s (I'm thinking it was the result of Eau de Melisse).  Good canal I guess but a canal is a canal, right?  And so damned flat. I took a "variante" for the last 10km which went over some hills and ended up down at the Canal where I'm staying tonight.

This place is a big win. €47 for a room in a place that reminds me of the Montauk Yacht Club. I'm just finishing dinner now. Had the cassoulet which was a sizzling union of meat and bean! 

Note:  I've been trying to upload this for over an hour from my phone.  I had some good pictures but Android and Google Blogger won't cooperate with each other.  Thank God I brought my laptop.  I/m going to watch some Veep!