Posts filed under 'Life in France and Toulouse'
Sunday was a beautiful day here in Toulouse, so I went and spent the afternoon fig and blackberry-picking with a couple of girlfriends. The fruit was deliciously ripe and we predictably succumbed to the temptation of taste-testing our fresh produce along the way.
The girls braved the stinging nettle to pick the best fruits, while I…
… admired how happy my feet are in the new Birkenstocks I bought a couple of weeks ago in Biarritz 
I came home with a huge bag full of figs that we would never have time to eat before they went bad, so I decided to try my hand at fig jam. I have no idea how it tastes yet though, because one recipe said I had to let it sit for 4 days in an airtight jar before tasting it… I’ll let you know!
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September 6th, 2007
In just over one week, France will kick off Rugby World Cup 2007 in a match against Argentina at the Stade de France in Paris.
The next day (8 September), Australia will play its first 2007 World Cup match in Lyon against Japan. My mate Craig will be volunteering at the World Cup and he has managed to pull “show the Japanese rugby team around Toulouse” duty. I wonder if he’ll still manage to be nice to them if by some miracle they beat the Wallabies.
Toulouse is one of the Rugby World Cup 2007 host cities and, since this part of France is completely rugby-mad, I’m expecting quite an exciting atmosphere to reign over the city until the end of October. Especially since this year, Toulouse’s beloved rugby team, the Stade Toulousain, is celebrating its centenary.
29 September should be a particularly festive day for Toulousains and expatriate antipodeans: French rugby fans love the All Blacks - so much so that you can actually buy All Blacks memorabilia in certain roadside rest stops along the highways - and the New Zealand team will be playing against Romania on this day, at Stadium Toulouse! Fast-forward to 3 pm and, two hours up the road in Bordeaux, Australia will be playing against Canada in their last match of the group stage. Let’s hope they make it to the quarter finals!!
Last but not least, that same evening, the Garonne River that runs through Toulouse will be set ablaze with fireworks as part of the Stade Toulousain birthday celebrations. And of course there will be parties and entertainment. Phew! what a day it promises to be!
In the lead-up to that big day, Remi and I will be attending the Romania vs Portugal game on September 25th with some mates. It’s not one of the major matches, obviously, but we managed to get some decently priced tickets and wanted to experience Rugby World Cup fever first hand.
Go the Wallabies!
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August 29th, 2007
Summertime spells fields of sunflowers in certain parts of France. These ones are just outside of Toulouse. And now, for a totally unrelated post…
Since seeing the movie Transformers, I’m convinced that our old beat-up Peugeot 205 is in fact an alien robot in disguise. Her name has evolved from plain “Lucy” to “Lucy Prime”. So she is Optimus Prime’s little sister and one day, she will save us.
Lately we’ve gotten into watching an American series called Heroes. You must have heard about it, it’s actually very good in a comic-book-set-in-real-life kind of way. It’s a little like X-men, but without the funky, weird haircuts and costumes. It’s set in our everyday world and life and centers around ordinary people who find out that they are in fact extra-ordinary - something to do with evolution and genetic coding. Together they must, of course, do no less than save the world! And we follow our Heroes on their journey.
Friday night, we went to see a wonderful movie: Caramel. If it comes out at a theatre near you, make sure to go and see it, if you can handle watching subtitled films, because the movie is set in Lebanon and is in fact in Arabic. I guess it’s in a similar vein to Volver and Chocolat, so if you liked those, you’ll love this. It was heart-warming… warm and smooth just like Caramel. Loved it. It’s interesting to note that the lead actress actually wrote and directed the film! But I didn’t know that when I was watching it.
This was a quick post to break the silence of the last few days. The new French school year starts tomorrow, so people have come back from their seaside holidays and as a result, since Thursday work has resumed for me and my life is once again ruled by deadlines. So, back to the grindstone!
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August 26th, 2007
Through a series of happy events, the Toulouse Football Club, affectionately known around these parts as the Téfécé (that’s Tay-fay-say for those of you who speak French with a really bad English accent *gnarf*), managed to secure a spot in the UEFA Champions League behind the Olympique Lyonnais (OL) and the Olympique de Marseille (OM). This marks the first time ever TFC will compete in the Ligue des Champions, so it’s all very exciting!
In what could be a real stroke of bad luck though, when came time to draw the teams that would have to play each other to qualify for the group stage, our beloved TFC got lumbered with Liverpool. Liverpool has 5 Champions League wins under its belt and came in second to Milan AC in the last Championship. I’m sad to say that I don’t think our Toulouse team stands a chance against them as I do feel TFC relies too heavily on Elmander, its Swedish secret weapon. The home game is tomorrow afternoon and I’m still hoping that the home crowd can boost them on to a victory.
We went to see TFC play Lyon on Saturday (which is when we took this photo of the countdown billboard at the stadium). It was the second time we went to see them play live, and the second time they played - and beat! - Lyon, France’s number 1 team. Let’s pray that tomorrow they play to win… and not Toulouse! 
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August 14th, 2007
The place where we live is being overrun by ducks. We must have about fifty of them at least. We always had ducks here, perhaps about 10 at a time on average. They qwacked away merrily and gladly scoffed down people’s leftover bread when lunch time was over. Then, at the beginning of spring one female had her first lot of babies… 10 of them. Just as those babies started growing, another female had another lot… of 9. Before we knew it we’d lost count. They are so cute as babies that none of us could resist feeding them to encourage them to come close. Well the result of this now is that they no longer fear humans one bit and just see us as a meal ticket. You can be peacefully walking home after work and about 25 ducks are there ready to pounce on you!
Even the babies join in and you end up having to use your secret human weapon… the shoe. Yes, one day one near-adult duck got so uptight with me that I had to gently boot him up the bum to remind him that yes! we are to be feared!
I’m kind of worried that some evil person will look at them one day and just see pate de foie gras and these poor ducks will not know fear of humans and will have no defences.
It is pretty cool watching them all grow up though, starting to get their colours, learning to fly, learning to stray away from mum. Sometimes the babies come right up to you and nibble your toes in the hopes of finding some stray breadcrumb.
The ponds, on the other hand, are being overrun by lotus flowers, which always make for some nice afternoon photo sessions.
So there you have a little piece of our world as it is right now.
Tomorrow we head off to Montpellier for some camping by the sea and to catch up with a very good friend of ours from Montreal. We get back on Sunday night! Next week I might be motivated enough to share with you some of my driving experiences (YES! I’ve started my driving lessons!) and my bike-riding progress (YES! that too!)
Until then… Come on Aussie Come on! for Sunday arvo and Allez les Bleus! for Sunday evening
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June 15th, 2006
A couple of weeks ago Remi had an ex-colleague/friend visiting from Montreal, so we headed off for a few days of discovery in Basque Country, taking full advantage of the 4 day long weekend in honour of the ascension of Christ, the 40th day of Easter.
Basque Country (Euskal Herria in Basque) is made up of 3 provinces on the French side and 4 on the Spanish. Remi’s mother now lives on the French side, in Bayonne on the Atlantic Coast. Bayonne is famous for its “ferias“, its ham, and apparently its chocolate. Trivia: linguists still have no clue as to the origins of the Basque language, which it has to be said is quite strange.
We arrived early afternoon on the Wednesday and after a tasty lunch set off to the beach at Anglet and then on to Biarritz, a playground for the rich (once a favourite holiday spot of the British royal family) and favourite spot for surfers.
The next day we set off to St Jean de Luz then over the Spanish border onto Hondarribia, stopping for a picnic between the two at a choice cliff-edge spot looking out over the ocean. They are both lovely towns, though St Jean de Luz could be considered more of a playground for the rich and Hondarribia has more character with its colourful fishermen’s houses.
[…] I have to admit that first part was written just a couple of days after our return and I hadn’t had a chance to get back to it since. As such, I have forgotten the details of the trip such as what day we did what. What I can tell you is that we went to Bilbao to visit the Guggenheim museum and you will see in the photos that this building truly is amazing, all made of titanium, sandstone and glass. Once there we got to see the Russia! exhibition, apparently the largest collection to ever have left Russia and some of it was awe-inspiring… namely standing in front of a Rubens portrait and wondering how the hell. Some are so well captured in paint that they literally look like photographs.
We also visited San Sebastian, a city burnt down to the ground in 1813 by English and Portuguese and then rebuilt. For a while it was the Summer residence of the Spanish royal family and also a playground for the rich! Quite a lovely city, it would be nice to go back there one day and spend a little more time.
We also stopped by Guernica which we very much liked and appreciated even more thanks to the friendly bar we visited where they served us some delicious tapas for a very good price… so be sure to stop off at Auzokoa if ever you happen by Guernica with a rumble in your tummy!
Some of you may actually have heard of Guernica because of Picasso’s famous depiction of the Guernica massacre… “the first aerial bombardment in history in which a civilian population was attacked with the apparent intent of producing total destruction.” (…) “aerial bombardment in history in which a civilian population was attacked with the apparent intent of producing total destruction.” (ref. wikipedia entry). Very interesting from a modern history point of view.
Anyhow all these places have a very interesting past and for those who are curious I highly recommend searching Wikipedia for more info.
And last but not least we visited the lovely little town of Espelette, famous for its red Espelette chilis. All in all, a great 5 days! Click here to go to the photo album in the galleries section.
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June 14th, 2006
Well, it’s finally revised and updated, done and dusted, check it out at www.fizzylight.com and let me know what you think. The new look was a long time coming but I think it was worth the wait… for me at least. Now I can concentrate fully on getting my pro one up and active.
Remember to check out what we did last weekend: the Pic du Midi; you’ll find it in the galleries under France (fancy that).
I’ve been flat-chat lately with a lot of work and projects so looking forward to some R&R. Tomorrow we head off to Basque Country then for a couple of days in Spain… yay us!
Catch you on the flip side!
xx
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May 23rd, 2006
The French seem to love Midnight Oil, a phenomenon I am having trouble understanding since even a friend of mine who speaks English very well for a French person, asked me the other day what Peter Garrett was saying in a particular song and what it meant. This baffles me even more because it seems to indicate that they like the musicality of Midnight Oil. I always thought anyone who liked them only did so because of the political messages carried in the lyrics and their in-your-faceness, rather than any musical talent per se.
So everyday without fail “the time has come to say fair’s fair, to pay the rent now to pay our share” comes blaring on over the radio waves. Just now they even played a sound clip: “Bonjour, c’est Peter Garrett, je suis sur RTL2″. Well actually it was more like “Bon-jor, set Peter Garret. Jay soui sur RTL2″, but great effort all the same… though to me it was all just extremely bizarre.
So yeah in France, when they talk Australian music the first band mentioned is not INXS but rather the Oils. Dear lord, who’s gonna shave me!
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April 30th, 2006
Grumpy from a long day of information gathering, I decided I needed to get out for some fresh(ish) air and a change of scenery. I established I was way too tired to go and quiz myself at the driving school, and after a last minute phone call, as I was stepping out the door, that left me grumpier still, I decided the only place I was going was to the video store to see if they, by any chance of a miracle, might have the first DVD of Desperate Housewives Season 1 in store. Then I was headed to the supermarket for something to feed us for dinner. A simple schedule.
Once in the city I was crankier still from just having spent 15 minutes of idle metro time stewing over the phone call and by then everything was getting on my nerves so much I decided to withdraw my mind from my body so as to avoid punching some poor bystander’s face in. You know what I mean right? When your whole brain just goes blank and you move through fuzz, barely conscious of your physical existence?
So it was in this haze that I turned on to rue St Rome and came upon a man with a funky London haircut. Somewhere through the fuzz I thought ‘hey, cool funky London haircut’, and without conscious thought my eyes locked into the gaze of these amazingly intense bluest of blue intense eyes and as I walked past him, still reeling from the colour of his eyes, through the fuzz the distant voice of my brain said to me ‘hey, that’s whatshisface Gallagher’ and I slowly turned around as all around me little bunches of teenagers started frantically whispering to each other ‘wasn’t that Gallagher?!’, but in French of course and without mention of a first name because let’s face it… even though we all know they are called Noel and Liam, who can really tell them apart?
Well I can now. And it was Liam. And on top of having contributed to bringing some great music to the world, he has incredible eyes.
Coming from Bondi, I’m pretty used to bumping into celebrities but this is my first sighting of a big celebrity in Toulouse! So there you have it, I had to share it with you hehehe
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February 3rd, 2006
This is what we saw outside our window when we woke up this morning! Snow everywhere, you’d almost think we were back in Canada! Ok it’s still a pretty thin coating in comparison, and the snow is pretty slushy, but still… when it’s something you don’t expect to see here after average winter temperatures of about 10 degrees during the day, it’s a lovely sight to wake up to
So yesterday I had to check myself into the day hospital for my full day of tests and I must say I was pleasantly surprised to have been very well looked after. If that is what being in a French hospital is always like, they certainly have got something right. First I checked into my room and read for a while until the nurse came to take liters of blood from me for various tests, and also to insert an IV drip. Then a man came with a wheelchair to wheel me down to get my CT scan done. The iodine injection is a very weird sensation, you feel all hot all over as if you’re having an allergic reaction and then you feel like you’ve peed your pants. Luckily the nurse explains all this to you beforehand so you don’t freak out. Then it was off to X-ray for x-rays of my wrists, hands, feet, ankles, knees, hips and shoulders. Then back up to my room where a lady brought me some breakfast. Then the most amazing thing happened… my doctor actually came to check on me! In Australia when I was in for emergency gall bladder removal I think it took 3 days to see my doctor, so you can imagine how surprised I was yesterday.
After that it was nap time and lunch time, believe me IV drips and injections etc can really knock the wind out of you. At about 1.30 a really nice ambulance driver came to get me to transfer me to another hospital for my lung function tests. The lady who did the tests was really nice too… Bah! I guess everyone was really nice yesterday… She could see that I wasn’t totally comfortable with the whole idea of having my nose blocked and being locked into a tiny glass cubicle, having to blow in and out of a tube that cut my oxygen off intermittently. It wasn’t very pleasant, but the results were great. Apparently my lung function and capacity are above average for my age, height and weight. She thinks that any problems I might have with breathing on occasion would be caused by a lack of endurance since I don’t really do any sport anymore.
So then I got picked up by another ambulance and brought back to the first hospital to be given last instructions and to check myself out. That’s about where the bad news came.
The CT Scan shows nodules on my lungs. Now the trick here is to try not to panic but I think it came as a bit of a shock to Remi and me. Perhaps these nodules were there all along but only detected this time because of the iodine injection? My next specialist appointment is planned for March 10th but he may want to see me before that once he has seen the scan and other results. What I have to prepare myself for is the very real possibility of having to take steroids. I am hoping it doesn’t come to that though. I guess all we can do is wait and see.
So yesterday afternoon ended up being a little emotional and luckily we had a little soiree planned at a fellow Toulouse residing Aussie’s place for a little belated Australia Day celebration. We were greeted with flags galore, mini clip-on koalas, Slim Dusty, licorice bullets, Anzac biscuits, snakes, lamingtons… and Tim-Tams!! And a good time was had by all 
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January 28th, 2006
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