Heat and House Guest

Main square Toulouse

Summer heat has paid a visit to le Grand Sud....it was 97 degrees yesterday.  We've been trying to keep cool, shuttering the apartment against the sun, drinking gallons of water, not moving around very much.  While the building collects and holds the heat, the benefit of warm summer evenings is being able to go outside and commune with the other Carcassonnaises. 

Betty arrives

More exciting is the arrival of my friend Betty from the US.  I took the train to Toulouse on Friday to meet her at the airport and bring her back home.  Toulouse was a little cooler and less humid than was Carcassonne, and surprisingly uncrowded for a major tourist city.  I spent a little time down in the old city and then was off to the airport to meet Betty. I ran into a wedding in the park, a man walking down the street in a kilt, pleats a-swinging, and a French flag made of three solid color t-shirts hanging from a balcony. 

Toulouse carousel

Toulouse is famous for its brick building

She is exhibiting fewer symptoms of jet lag than I ever have after that trip from the west coast of the US.  It's a hard trip and made a little more difficult in such heat as we've had.  Nonetheless, we were off early to Saturday market to buy vegetables for soup, some cheese from the cows of the Pyrenees, some flowers--all the essentials for daily life here.  We took a little late evening stroll in Gambetta which at 10:30 P.M. was still filled with delighted children playing in the fountain. 

First Carcassonne breakfast

Yesterday, in search of air conditioning, we went to the movies.  I had heard marvelous things about the movie Dans le Foret de Siberie (In the Forest of Siberia).  It was the perfect movie for Betty--very little dialogue, French subtitles for the Russian conversations, some English.  It was so well acted and filmed that while a non-French speaker might miss some of the subtleties, she understood and appreciated what was unfolding on the screen.  It is a film worth seeing and I hope it comes to the US.  Don't miss it.  Our search for air conditioning, however was in vain. We had to rely on the power of suggestion, looking at all that frozen landscape, to cool down.

After the movie, we stopped in Place Carnot to assess the chances of getting a seat at La Casa, who'd put out extra tables and chairs and had opened up their walls to allow a glimpse of their big screen TV.  It was the final of the Euro Cup soccer match.  France vs Portugal.  We decided that there was too much noise to stay there, so we went around the corner to a little cafe on Place Carnot and had some dinner.  Some friends happened by and joined us for a glass of wine.  The food was okay, the service was the worst I have ever had, ever, anywhere.  But the air was sweet and soft, we were cooled by breezes, the company was warm--the heat seemed to dissipate.  Or at least it was less oppressive. 

The headlines in yesterday's La Depeche read, "Day of Glory."  That turned out not to be the case.

Evening lights from Pont Vieux

I had rubbed a blister  hurrying to make the train to Toulouse, so in a way the present heat wave has been a blessing, forcing me to allow it to heal.  I am well on the road to good walking once again.  Today will be a day for much needed housekeeping chores--laundry, a bus ride to the big store for paper products.  Maybe I will finally get the floors washed, with Betty here to motivate me.  

The heat wave is scheduled to depart today.  Happily, my house guest stays!