Jet Lag, Fireworks and La Ville Rose

My friend told me that Toulouse is one of the ugliest cities in France. Not from where I am sitting. The winding streets dating from the Roman conquest, the red brick buildings that hem in on all sides and the river curving through the city are as picturesque as they are confusing. As I lock the four different locks for the two doors leading to my house every morning (usually on time, but once an hour late due to my inability at calendar navigation) I walk out to the Canal Midi, passing shop keepers arranging fresh bread in their boulangeries, jumping out of the way of cyclists ringing their bells, past the homeless women who sits on my bridge with her blond hair in in one huge dreadlock, feeding her dog, I have to work to keep a silly grin off my face. Its been a week, that has felt like a month, and every experience is still surreal.

This weekend was Festa Europa, an arts extravaganza full of crazy events all over the city. This is primetime to be a tourist/student in Toulouse as the city is a candidate for the cultural capital of Europe and so all was pomp and craziness to try and impress the judges that were here.

Saturday afternoon was rainy, and I decided it would be a great idea to where some orange espadrille sandals.....long story short between the rain, stepping in gum, and shoddy manufacturing, my shoe fell completely apart ten minutes from my house. I sat on the side of the street in the rain, my purse between my legs, my knees in my face and my umbrella dripping down my back and half tucked under my chin tying my stupid shoe to my foot with the ribbons. I began laughing as I walked along, sloshing water everywhere and drawing an amazing amount of strange looks as I limped to the city center. The man who helped my buy some new shoes (fortunately on sale) laughed when he saw my shoes, and asked if I even wanted to keep them. As they had by this time, fallen completely into pieces, and were soaking wet, I declined. The sun came out and although I got some of the biggest blisters of my life that afternoon, it was worth it. Many of our group from Dickinson walked down to the river, bought dinner and wine and sat on the riverside and watched the sun set over the water.

Little did we know our amazing planning as most of the city of Toulouse swarmed around us in the next two hours. We watched fireworks over the water, squeezed together in one huge pulsing mass of people.