Street Signs

Street signs in Toulouse are all in two languages - we assumed french and basque, but in fact there is another language with proud roots and a long history in Toulouse - Occitane. By chance we wandered into Maison de l Occitanie, a building which houses an organization dedicated to promoting a common understanding the Occitane identity. A man, passionate about his mission spoke to us for almost an hour, explaining the complex history of his people, in french, spanish and english. This is a history that goes back to the days of Julius Cesar!  If Daniel were blogging, he could tell you all about it, but I suspect that anything I might recount of the conversation would make a mess of things. However, there is a website: http://www.ostaldoccitania.net/)

My favourite picture from yesterday

We continue to have restaurant challenges.  Yesterday we sat down for an afternoon snack: I ordered a rose, Daniel requested a coffee.  Ah, but wait, no hot beverages are served in this restaurant between 16h00 and 19h00.  Shortly after that particular "French Restaurant Edict" was issued the owner appeared on the scene and happened to sit at the table next to us. We didn't realize he was the owner until he ordered, you guessed it, a coffee. The server came over and told Daniel that since he was going to have a coffee made for his boss, he would try also to have one made for Daniel. Today, at the same restaurant, we watched as an entire table of people were required to move about to accommodate an employee's sudden need to sweep around, between and under their table. Just before that, there was a heated exchange between the cafe bouncer and someone wanting to distribute flyers to people at the tables (we're sitting outside in an enormous town square). There was mention of the Laws of the Republic and a lively exchange over whether the restaurant had the right to restrict access to the patio which was essentially on public property. Eventually flyer man abandoned his mission and left. A little later the owner appeared - he seems to come around at the same time each day (and so do we I guess), and guess what? Flyer man is a friend of the owner.  It just got more bizarre. We're becoming very fond of the spot. Maybe I'll take a picture of it and post that tomorrow. I think I've now figured out how to get the text to wrap around the photo - I'll try it out next time.