Fete St. Michel

For the past 3 weeks there has been the "Fete St. Michel" in the gardens which are right near my house. Basically, this "fete" which is commemorating a saint is actually a huge carnival with A LOT of carnies and other somewhat unfavorable people in the park. It makes the parks almost impossible to walk around in, due to the crowds and packed-in concession stands and rides. And also, it's really ugly. Nevertheless, I love carnivals and it was fun to do some quality people watching. And apparently in France people don't really care about safety, because Annie and I saw this one ride that was like a twirly circle that went on its side and up and down and stuff. Okay fine...until we saw that there was nothing even resembling any sort of safety belt strapping the people in! I guess it was part of the fun, flirting with possible death and all. But we really could not stop looking, because it seemed like at any moment someone was going to fly right out of it! People were bouncing, and sliding on the seats, and everything. Crazy. So for our ONE carnival ride (they were ridiculously expensive, and there was no sort of day-passes or anything), Annie and I chose the much more sedate Ferris Wheel. It was enjoyable and we got some cool views of Toulouse from the top.

And this was the last weekend of the carnival, so now we can enjoy the gardens again without hearing a lot of blasting American music coming from the rides! Though I was fairly psyched to hear a little Black Eyed Peas today.

Something that I really enjoy in France: Frommage Blanc and Natural Yogurt. I don't actually know what Frommage Blanc is (literal translation: white cheese), but it is very similar to yogurt, and natural yogurt is just yogurt without any flavoring. And both are absolutely delicious when you put a lot of sugar in them. My host sisters eat it all the time, and I tried it the other night, and it's so good! So now every night after dinner, me and my two host sisters have some frommage blanc or natural yogurt while my host parents look on. And I feel like a 5 year old, but I like it. :-)

For all of you who are interested in the Tour de France: I forgot to mention yesterday that Albi was the starting place of Stage 21 this past summer. I wish I had known earlier (I ended up just seeing a poster in a shop window yesterday), but I don't know what I would have done, go looked at some road that Lance rode on or something? Nonetheless, I think it's incredibly cool and I love Lance. ;-)