Christmas time in Toulouse!

Oh, I love Christmas. And the city of Toulouse goes all out, with lights and decorations everywhere! It's so charming and cheerful to walk around at night and have everything all lit up! This picture is of Place du Capitole on Saturday night. And every year (well, I actually don't know seeing as how I'm only here right now for the first time, but I'm assuming) there is a christmas market on Place du Capitole. They set up these elaborate little cabins (you can sort of see them on the right side of the picture), and then each cabin has different types of food to buy, or crafts, or whatever. And it's set up all these two weeks before Christmas. This afternoon, Annie and I went to check it out, and apparently so did everyone else in the city! It was packed, but that kind of just added to the exciting feel in the air. And we tried some regional food for lunch, namely "aligot" (a delicious potato and cheese mixture), and something that started with an "E" (I forget the name and tried to get it out of my host parents, but they didn't know what it was called either) and was toasted bread with a bunch of different cheese and oil on top, all melted and made delicoius. To quote Annie: "Did angels make this?", cause no kidding, it was that good. We shared one between the two of us, and probably set a record for fastest eating ever. Then I bought a soft pretzel, a speciality of Alsace (or actually, as it's called in French, a "bretzel", which is just silly), and then just to top it off, we each bought a chocolate crepe with hot cider. Total damage for the afternoon: 8.50 per person spent on food alone. Ouch. Oh well, it's Christmas, and it was delicious and warm and cozy in my tummy.
Also this afternoon, we went to another Christmas market that was held in the Parc des Expositions on an island in the Garonne. This one was pretty classy, with lots of artisans and crafty people who had pretty awesome stuff. You had to pay to get in, but Annie's host mom got free tickets from her bank and gave them to us. Look, host parents can be really useful sometimes! :-)
So on Friday night, we had our cultural outing for the month of December (every month, Laura at the Dickinson Center plans a different outing for us, usually theater or a concert, or something that will make us more cultured). This outing was to the Theatre Sorano, which is a very modern theater. The play was "Peer Gynt" (which is pronounced kind of like "Pair Goont", but the French totally made that up because the play is by a Norwegian guy). Anyway, the play was incredibly weird and strange, and the fact that it was being put on at this incredibly modern and avant-garde theater didn't help the fact. And the play is not exactly about happy things either, so this all added to a kind of creepy atmosphere. It didn't help that I was sitting in the front row, on the end, and characters in the play kept coming down these stairs at the front of the stage into the audience. I didn't realize it at first, but soon I learned that there was an entrance door directly kitty corner behind me, so I nearly had a heart attack when these pilgram/puritan/norwegian characters ran in from that door, right in front of Shana and me! And there was barely any room between us and the stage, so we had to move our legs all out of the way, and it was incredibly awkward and kind of scary because these actors were RIGHT there, and I was afraid that they would touch us or yell in our faces. Oh wait, then the main actor (playing Peer Gynt) exited by way of the door right behind me and touched me (he was kind of lurching around and being drunk the whole play, so it was a kind of "I'm trying to look authentically drunk and grab onto things for support", one of the things being my leg/butt area (my legs were crossed, and I was turned sideways trying to let the people by, so it wasn't as impossible a feat as it sounds), and then the same guy crept back in and scared me again by grabbing onto my shoulder! Totally scary, and also I couldn't stop laughing and neither could Shana and we were probably incredibly inappropriate. But helloooo, don't grab me if you don't want me to laugh, Peer Gynt guy, because stuff like that is funny.
So that was our weekend, in a big nutshell. And this is my last weekend in France (I am leaving next Saturday for vacation to the USA!), and most likely my last entry before Christmas, because I don't foresee anything exciting happening this week, so Merry Christmas, Happy Hanakah, Joyeuse Noel, etc. and see you after break! <3

Carcassonne!

Yesterday we went to Carcassonne! It's a city/town that's about 45 minutes away from Toulouse. It was first settled in 6th century BC by some crazy Gauls! And then in the 11th, 12th centuries, real people began to live there and it was a major fortress for a long time. And there is some story about when Charlemagne beseiging the town for years, just when the food was about to run out, some townswoman thought to throw the town's last pig out over the walls. Charlemagne's forces were so amazed that the town still had enough food to just casually toss a pig over a wall, they decided to call it a day and end the seige. Maybe that explains why there are pigs everywhere...(including a whole exhibit at the Musee des Beaux-Arts dedicated to pigs!)

So we get to the train station in Carcassonne and hike through the lower town (called "La Bastide St. Louis"), which is basically like the lame counterpart to the awesome medieval city located on the hill. There are just normal shops, and normal streets, and nothing to write home about. But then we get to the Pont Vieux ("Old Bridge", which is odd because every other bridge in France is named Pont Neuf, or "New Bridge", and I think old bridge is much more accurate). So anyway, we see these firemen who have a zipline set up from the bridge down to the river bank. So we think they are doing some sort of training exercise or something, but then when we get up onto the bridge, we see this little girl in a harness and a helmet! So turns out they were having a fundraiser to benefit handicapped children, and for 2 euros you could take a ride down the zipline! Annie and I were soooo in. So we got all strapped in and down we went! Way too much fun. And there were lots of cute firemen who thought we were cute because we are Americans. And we are cute, just in general. So that was super fun!

(Me looking oh-so-graceful going down the zipline!)

So after that fun start to the day, we were off to the walled city. It was cool, lots of old walls and turrets and other castle-y things. We explored the little streets for a while, then we went to the chateau, and walked around the little museum inside there that has history of the town. Then we took a tour (in english, with a tour guide that spoke terribly...always enjoyable!), and during the tour we got to go out on the walls! And it was really windy! And we got some great views of the Pyrenees, and lower Carcassonne. Then we went to a delicious candy shop, and got crepes at a different shop. We ate a lot in Carcassonne. During lunch at this little pizza place, there was an English couple next to us with an adorable baby, and these two little French kids (think ages 3 and 5-ish) kept coming over and being like "french french french french french", and being all cute with the baby, and the British couple had no idea what they were saying! So they just kept saying "yes...baby...umm...bebe....oui" and it was incredibly adorable. And then the baby looked at me and smiled. And I liked it. :-)

So that was our trip to Carcassonne! It's so great that these little historical gems are all over France, and so close that we can easily access them for a day trip! I love it. And I am going home in 13 days and I can't wait! France may have some great things, but home has amazing ones too.