Our last full day at our 'home' in Toulouse

Monday 16 September

Our last full day at our 'home' in Toulouse

It's hard to believe that this is our last full day at our 'home' in Toulouse how lucky are we to have been able to see so many places, experience the French culture and be part of our family overseas.  James and Rachel have gone out of their way to make sure we saw as much of Europe as we could and for the most part have driven us around and holiday'd with us.  

We have both been able to revise our school French and have had no trouble communicating in one way or another with the French, and for that matter other languages also.  But today will be busy.

I have enjoyed spending some time with Hannah while Rachel takes Penelope and Jasper to school in the morning. Hannah understands that this is the time for home schooling so she gets dressed and washed and finds an activity we can do together until Mum gets back.  Painting after breakfast has been the popular choice and we paint together, I tend to be a bit of a scribbler and am quite fond of telling stories that start with "when I was little...." while I fill in the spaces with colour, so we have little discussions and big colours!  Today her teacher aid came, her name is Tess and she is a French Canadian so speaks French and English fluently, her gentle nature and encouraging we ideas is just what Hannah needs, they have set up a blog for Hannah and it shows her baking, going to the shops etc.  I will keep reading.

When Rachel came back we decided to have one last trip to Toulouse and have a nice farewell lunch.  We thought we would go by Metro, but we couldn't find a car park, so Rachel dropped us off and she went searching at another station further back.  We arranged to meet at Midica a lovely home wares store where we were hoping to buy something we could take back home as a memento of Toulouse.

We had a look through and bearing in mind weight and size to go in our suitcases we weren't having much luck.  We met up with Rachel about 15 mins later and she showed us the crockery department, we were spoilt for choice, such lovely things, so colourful, and we settled on a dish with painted salad vegetables and lots of tomatoes, the word 'Couscous ' painted across the centre, so 'Provence' to me. Even though it was bigger and heavier than we would have liked, it had to be that one!

We had a bit of a deadline, Rachel had to be back home at 1.30pm as that was when Tess was finishing, so we walked a little way to where the restaurant Rachel fancied was.  We got there just before 12 midday and there was only one table taken.... but....they were fully booked, well Rachel managed to convince them that we would be quick and they tucked us into a corner outside under the umbrellas, which suited us fine.  

This restaurant was called Le May and is in a non descriped back street, but, boy, within 10 mins of sitting down the tables began to fill up.  The food was interesting, Rachel ordered something with eggs for an entree and it was delicious (she gave me a taste), a piece of smoked salmon and two raw eggs, covered in cream and baked in the oven until just coloured, it really was the best dish of the day.  It's always a bit of an adventure ordering a meal from a menu in French, the only thing you can be sure of is that it will be perfectly cooked and tasty.  Our waitron was very French and had no time for none French speaking customers, she made us repeat how she pronounced the meal and it was a lot of fun, I reckon that's why the place is so popular, she was a bit of an 'Edith Piaff'!

We finished with only enough time to go to Zara's to make sure this one in Toulouse hadn't got a bigger size in the check coat I liked so much in Porto, no they didn't, it wasn't meant to be.  We caught the metro home for the last time and arrived back by 1.30 pm.

While Rachel was busy with Hannah I went over to the local Carrefore supermarket for the last time, by now I was a dab hand at finding things I needed and spending time looking at all the different packages and foods available, I would love to know what to do with them all!  No snails or frogs legs I might add!  I was making a curry for dinner.

The beginning of term is also the beginning of homework, and children's extra curricular activities.  Rachel picked them up from school at 4.30pm a very long day for them after being on holiday for so long, they have a long lunch hour and have school meals and they do get used to it after a while.  Homework comes after a bit of afternoon tea and a bit of tv or iPad, but it's always an effort, especially after a long day.   

That over it was time for guides and brownies.  James was away - as Rachel put it, "he got up at ridiculous o'clock " to go to Hamburg, then the next day to Chester via Manchedster, in fact we missed him by only an hour at Heathrow the next day.

Penelope is so reluctant to put on her brownie uniform, this little fashion queen describes it as "poo brown and yellow", but enjoys going, and Hannah is quite proud of her badges.  

So to get the girls to their activities Rachel has to do a couple of round trips, fitting in dinner when she can, of course the brownies is at 6 and the guides at 7, or something similar - totally inconvenient.  Not too bad when James is there to help.

We spent the rest of the evening packing, unpacking, weighing (we had been away for 68 days!).  We went to bed with everything overweight and would have another go tomorrow.

Sigh, last time to see much loved Penelope's bunny, and Jasper's crocks, he was never without them.xox xox xox