The One Where He Travels A Lot

Wow, its been a whirlwind the last few days, rather than breaking apart by days, it might be easier to break it down by city:

St. John de Luz: As mentioned in the last post, after our stay in Larrau, we all loaded up into the VW Transporter (I unsuccessfully tried to get this to catch on as a nick-name for Dr.G) and drove to the beach town of St. John. Located on the Atlantic coast (picture above on right). Now comes one of those stories that make traveling worth it. We had a day to rest in SJL and Dr.G and I heard there was going to be some Basque singing in a square downtown so we decided to go check it out. Alas there was no singing there. We asked a street artist about it and she said there may be singing on the other side of the bay. What the heck, it's an off day. We walk up to the bay ferry just as its about to leave, and it drops us off on the other side. Just as we get off the boat, a full marching band pours out of a bar, lines up, and starts to play. What the heck, it's an off day. We follow these pide pippers (sp?) for a half mile to a giant circus tent. Just as we get there, another band starts playing, and waiters pour into the tent with trays of snacks, wine, and champagne. After about a half our of this, the band stops and directs everyone to another tent for the continuation of the fete. What the heck, it's an off day. Dr.G and I sit down to a four course meal of a potato and garlic salad, tuna, cheese, and apple pie. Through talking to the people around us we found out that we were crashing the town's annual party, and that in fact we were not crashing, but in telling the director of the "Party Committee" that we were American, had practically become the guests of honor. People came and said hello and made small talk after that including this cute French girl who asked if I wanted to dance. What the heck, it's an off day. It seems appropriate at this point to mention that all basque people seem to be born with this innate ability to dance. I tried to hold my own, but after two songs of being shown-up by everyone on the floor (including this 70 year old guy who kept flipping his wife [yes, like feet off the ground 180 flipping]), I decided to call it a day. Dr.G had made friends with some locals, so after a prolonged good-bye, we headed back to SJL. Not to bad for an off day.

Brassempouy: This was really and intermediate between SJL and Pau but it was pretty cool. There was this kickin church, and a cave where la dame de brassempouy was found. Turns out, much to Dr.G and our chagrin. They dont keep the real one there, it's in Paris. So the whole musee (and thus town) was for this replica.

Toulouse: I didnt spend much time in Toulouse, seems like a pretty cool city (picture to left). The two things I will talk about are the food. First, after getting excited about a hyped dish called Cassoulet, I was disappointed in its grandeur (the photo on wiki does it justice). Also, I got a pretty funny joke played on me: as I was walking along looking for somewhere to eat, I stopped and asked someone where a good, little known restaurant is. After going through several questions about the type of restaurant, he pondered for a moment and pointed me to a yellow building at the end of the street. It was a foreign language school. I was mad for a little then realized how funny it was. Instead, I pulled a Nick and grabbed a kabob and walked along the river.

Montpellier: Not much to report at this time. I arrived at montpellier around 2 yesterday got lost for 4 hours, at diner, got shown around, got a briefing on living in france, and ate diner tonight. Im glad that in our walking as a group, most people agreed that we should speak in French amung ourselves, both to pratice and to blend it. That should do great things for my French but it leaves you guys as my only English outlet. Rumor has it that tomorrow a big group is going to the beach, hopefully I wont be the only one not in a speedo. If you guys want to hear about anything Im not mentioning, please let me know!