A Quick Post from Near Toulouse

We're very much enjoying being out of Paris and into the country again.  We are staying in a wonderful home in a small village outside of Toulouse.  The countryside reminds us very much of home -- lavender and oleander, photinia, plum and apple trees, tomatoes.  The exception to the familiar feel are the nearly endless fields of sunflowers growing all around this area, plus the more general green-ness of the place.  We are enjoying the space and enjoying the quiet.  The house has a pool, and we enjoyed that, too.  So our trip is off to a good start.

It didn't begin that way.  This morning we were awakened early by a huge thunderstorm in Paris, which produced bright lightening, loud claps of thunder, hard driving rain and even, further north, tornadoes, a rare occurrence in France.  To get to Orly Airport, we'd planned to take the "Orlybus" from Denfert Rochereau, which required us to walk to the Metro station with all of our luggage in a heavy rain, then find the bus stop after we exited the Metro at Denfert Rochereau, then stand, wet and sweaty, for 30 minutes in a hot, steaming, absolutely packed bus.  (But hey, it was only 6 euros apiece.)  After that the trip started to get better.  The airport was great, the crowds were minimal, the flight was on time and short, and we were met at the airport by the daughter of the family whose home we are staying in.  She was a charming, friendly, adorable young woman, who went out of her way to be nice to us, from making a little "Family Shupe" sign so we'd know who she was when we arrived, to showing us all around the house to make sure we didn't have any questions.  (We were a little shocked when we asked her what she did, and she told us she worked as a checker at a grocery store, since she seemed very bright and not particularly checker-like [not that there is anything wrong with being a checker in a grocery store], but she later told us that she was awaiting a letter confirming her admission to the Sorbonne, which accorded a little better with our preliminary view of her.)

After a bit, we went to a big shopping area to eat and get some groceries, where we saw one of the most phenomenally large stores we've ever seen -- it looked like a combination of a big Target, a big Best Buy, and a huge Safeway all put together, and then supersized.  You actually could not see all the way from one end of the store to the other (I promise a photo later to prove that I am not exaggerating).  It was so enormous, and had so much food in it, that it was hard to shop -- faced with the choice of 60 different kinds of Camembert, 20 different kinds of bread, and God only knows how many different kinds of yogurt, it's easy to freeze.  So we were happy when we finally concluded our shopping and came home.  We had a small dinner out on the patio, overlooking the nearby hills, watched a little TV, struggled more than a little with the wireless Internet connection (which is working now ... I will not be defeated).  It's late now and I am tired and about to sleep.

We are so happy to be in a green and quiet place, and can't wait to explore the area.  I really love France.  We continue to meet the friendliest, most helpful people (along with a few counterexamples, of course, but nothing is perfect), and I can feel my French skills growing daily.  We are incredibly lucky to be on this adventure.