To Toulouse

  Toulouse, Midi-Pyrénées, France
Tuesday, April 22, 2008

I worked all this morning in the hotel room. I checked out of the hotel at noon, put the luggage in the car and decided to have lunch in the old city of Carcassonne. I walked about a bit, enjoying the medieval feel of the town, and the beautiful sunshine.

The walls of Carcassonne

There were quite a few people in Carcassonne - many families with young children especially - because we're in the Easter vacation period now.

The ducal castle

I heard languages from a number of countries being spoken as I strolled around: German, Spanish, Italian, a Slavic language I didn't recognize, as well as English English and American English. I picked a place for lunch on the picturesque place Marcou not far from the castle and ordered a magret de canard, breast of duck, a specialty of the region.

Place Marcou

It comes in thick slices rather like a steak, with the skin still on the edge of each slice, and is cooked to order like a steak would be as well. I had mine medium (à point). I picked a table outside on the square but under an awning since the sky had stared to could over. It rained lightly during lunch, but not enough to cause a problem and the duck was delicious.
 
I found a supermarket where I could fill up with gasoline (that saves about a dollar a gallon over autoroute filling stations!), and then started the trip to Toulouse where I arrived fairly late in the afternoon. I found a B&B hotel. That's a relatively new hotel chain where everything is automated. You pay in advance by credit card at a machine outside the building and receive a slip of paper with your room number and keypad entry code on it. To have the room's telephone line opened, you pay an extra Euro, and one also orders breakfast in advance (a set price buffet of cereals and breads).  You can stay at these hotels and never see a person working there. They're pretty sterile as you can imagine, but the draw is that they offer free wireless Internet access. Sometimes it works in the rooms, but they don't promise anything more than access in the lobby. The access in my room came and went, but I was able to do what I needed to get done.
 
A bit after 6:00 I drove into the town center to have dinner with Mr. Ray Clore. Mr. Clore works for the US State Department, and during his career has served as a Consul in places like Cameroon, Haiti, Jordan, and France. He now works on special government projects, conferences, and discussions on international agreements. He is also an elder in a sister Church of God association. I first met Mr. Clore at the Feast of Tabernacles in Haiti in 1982, while I was a student at Ambassador College. In the past few years we've kept in touch and gotten together for a meal from when it's been possible. Some years ago, when he was stationed in Paris, the Clores invited my family and me to meet them for lunch at the US embassy, which was quite interesting not only because of the conversation but to see parts of an embassy most people don't get to see.

This was the first time in years that we had had the chance to get together. We talked about family and old times and caught up on news of common friends and acquaintances as we walked in search of a decent restaurant. We settled on a Moroccan restaurant. Since much of North Africa was part of the French Empire (at its height, the French Empire included almost 9% of the planet's land surface and around 1/3 of Africa!) for over a hundred years, there are lots of connections between the regions. North African restaurants and dishes are common in France. Mr. Clore and I both had couscous: wheat semolina (that's an English word!) accompanied by a choice of meats, and a broth with various vegetables in it. I ordered lamb and merguez (which is translated as "North African spiced sausage"). I asked the owner if it was a real Moroccan merguez. Authentic merguez are the authentic ones, only made with beef and mutton, since Muslims don't eat pork. French sausage makers also make merguez, but they may put other meats in them too. The waiter assured me they were authentic, so I approved, and the meal was delicious.  We stayed at the table until after 10:00. It was a very enjoyable meal and conversation.