Saturday, May 27 – Canal du Midi: Toulouse to Ramonville-St-Agne
Good walk today ~9 miles. The Canal du Midi is an engineering wonder, and the French are to be admired for their foresight in building it. The walk beginning in Toulouse is pretty urban. Parts are pretty; parts are not. The Toulousians use it fiercely, to walk, bike, hang-out, snort things, whatever. A few miles in I found myself asking, “is this all there is?” As the scenery became more bucolic, I stopped asking questions and just enjoyed the walk. (See our videos for more).
Temps have risen. We arrived in Ramonville-St-Agne, quite hot and ready for a celebratory something. Little appealed in this Toulousian suburb. A stop at a wine Shop “La Cave de 1,000 Vins” put us in a better mood so we headed to our BnB. No one answered the door. What? No one answered the phone. What? Done in, we headed to a restaurant we had seen before, but which had not spoken to us. Again, we were humbled and surprised.
The restaurant is run by a family from Guadeloupe, a French départment, consisting of an archipelago of islands, islets, and rocks, located in the Caribbean. It’s cuisine is unknown to us, but we were hot, tired, and hungry so we approached the barman and took a table. Having secured our drink orders, the man proceeded to express confusion about what to serve two foreign vegetarians. In no time, the kitchen door opened, and his wife appeared, advising that she could prepare x, y, and z. In no time a wonderfully prepared plate arrived consisting of: salad, archand (delicately pickled carrots and cabbage), frites (which I specifically requested), plaintains (not those nasty over-fried dried ones we get in the States, but rather delicately fried, warm, tender ones), and a “tropical” sauce (I couldn’t get more out of the barman). All wonderful, and clearly recipes handed down to the fine female chef from her mother. Très bon!
Thus fortified, we returned to the BnB, to be greeted by Martine and Christian and welcomed into our sweet apartment for the evening. When Martine offered to wash our clothes, we were sold!
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