MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2008

On Monday, I went to school at ten o'clock with Anna at the Lycée Ozenne. I knew the school a bit since this is where we did the exchanges. I met the school Proviseur (Principal). The school has about 2200 students, only a third are on the high school level. The rest are post graduate students in a variety preparatory business programs. Anna teaches English in several of these courses. We spent the class period (three of them) with my telling them a bit about myself and the US and then answered questions, all of course in English. I made believe that I didn't know French, but at the end I spouted out a string of French responses and they all laughed and called me a liar. All in fun. Most of the students were of French background, but there were some who came from (or whose parents came from) a variety of countries including Viet Nam, Bulgaria, England, Austria, Morocco, Benin, Madagascar, etc.

At one o'clock, I met Alexandria downstairs in front of Anna's apartment. She lives only two blocks from the school. We went off and had lunch at Le Paradis du Fruit, a vegetarian and fruit restaurant. After lunch, we went to take a walk around the center of Toulouse. We went through the place Wilson. There is a fountain and merry-go-round there. There are a number of cafés and restaurants on the place.



We the walked a little farther and came to the place du Capitol which is a large plaza right in the center of the town. The town hall is there along with the Toulouse Opera House and a number of shops, cafes, and restaurants. While we were there we saw a group of pharmacy students from the university who were initiating a number of first year students. For one euro, Alexandria had the chance to push a plate full of whipped cream in the face of a freshman. Unfortunately. I missed a picture but here is the square with the pharmacy students.







We then walked up the rue du Taur to the Basilica of St. Sernin. The building was started in 1070 and worked on until the 16th century. It is the largest Romanesque church in the world still standing and a major stopping place in the pilgrimage to Compostela. In 1998 it was inscribed as one of UNESCO's World Heritage sites. Check out the web site by clicking the name above.





After the visit, we went back to Anna's apartment and in the evening went out to a lovely restaurant in town called Brasserie Firmin. We were accompanied by Anna and her friend Arnaud.





We had a lovely meal and a lot of conversation, some in French and some in English. The service was slow but the food was excellent.