Tom and Susan's Blog

November 6th, 2024

No political posts today, but I do have a blog update for an event that went on last weekend. There was a 3-day "Urban Opera" in Toulouse with the giant machines from the Compagnie La Machine (they are a street theatre company founded in 1999). Over the 3 days, 3 different giant machines (a Minotaur, a spider, and a scorpion woman) acted out a story in various places throughout town. We managed to see each of the 3 machines in action but we did not follow the story through. You can check out the pictures and videos in my Guardians of the Temple Urban Opera blog.

October 18th, 2024

Another view quick update ... this one on the European Heritage Days. These days, launched in 1985, is meant to celebrate the history and culture in Europe. During this event, held every year in September, numerous monuments and sites are open for visits, some that are only open during these days, and others with special events. We try to pick a couple things each year to attend. This year, we did a special "tour" of the stained-glass windows at Cathédrale Saint-Étienne where each and every window had additional information explaining the scenes that are shown in the windows. There was also a couple different events related to the construction of the new line of the metro (Line C) and the extension of the existing lines, planned to be completed in 2027 and 2028. We went to the construction zone on the south side of Toulouse, where we were able to walk through the new subway tunnels where they are extending the current Line B to add 2 more stations, including a connection at the end to the future Line C.

October 17th, 2024

The final installment of our August Trip, Part 6 is ready. It is fairly short, 2 chateaus and one city, plus some videos of a light show on the side of a church one night that we had a perfect view to from our B&B room.

October 10th, 2024

More for our August Trip, Part 5 of our August Vacation blog is ready, which covers our last full week of vacation. Our gîte for this week was a short drive from the beach, so Lucy got a few more play-days on the sand and in the water. We did a set of seaside resorts (really, channel-side resorts since they were on the English Channel), as well as a few inland within a marshland, including a wooden-boat trip in the channels of the marsh. We hope you enjoy! Next blog should be up fairly quickly and will be fairly quick, just with our 3-day drive home.

September 26th, 2024

More for our August Trip, Part 4 of our August Vacation blog is ready, which covers the week we stayed in England. We rented a holiday home (similar to the gîtes that we rent in France. In this case, it was 1/2 of the ground floor of a house with the owner living in the other 1/2 and her son's family living on the upper floor. It was a short walk to a puppy-friendly beach (Lucy had a great time) and to the downtown for coffee and dinners. We also went to various cities, towns, and a couple castles along the way. We hope you enjoy! Next blog will be back in France.

September 13th, 2024

Happy Friday the 13th! More for our August Trip, Part 3 of our August Vacation blog is ready, which is actually fairly short. We had a 2-day gap between our first-week holiday home and our 2nd-week holiday home (which was in England). We stayed right on the English Channel is an apartment literally on the beach, and visited a few towns near where you catch the "Le Shuttle" car train that goes under the English Channel between France and England. The blog also covers step-by-step taking the Le Shuttle train: checking Lucy in at the Pet Reception area, checking us in, and the various lines and queues to drive the car onto the train. Enjoy! Next blog update will cover the week we stayed in England.

September 10th, 2024

I have Part 2 of our August Vacation blog ready, which covers our first full week. We stayed just south of Lille, France, near the Belgian border, so our towns that we visited included ones both in France and in Belgium. I'll have Part 3 up shortly.

September 3rd, 2024

La rentrée is here, which means the end of summer vacations, back to school, back to work, back to normal lives. And with la rentrée comes the end of our summer vacation this year. 4 weeks, 4500 kilometers, and 3 countries, including a car train under the English Channel. Quite long, so I've split my blog into 6 pieces, and the first one is ready, and I hope to get the others up every few days. But until they are all there, you can start reading the introduction and Part 1 of our August Vacation blog.

August 12th, 2024

Well, the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics came to a close last night with the Closing Ceremonies at the Stade de France, with Tom Cruise doing a mashup of Mission Impossible and Top Gun to get the Olympic Flag from Paris to LA for the next summer games. Not a bad ending! We decided to make 2024 our Olympic vacation (after our Tokyo Olympic vacation got cancelled due to COVID-19). We spent less than a week in Paris but visited various parts of Paris, ate some great food, and went to 6 different athletic events. My Paris 2024 Summer Olympics blog is a bit long but I also include the process we went through to get tickets, the Torch relay coming through Toulouse, the Opening Ceremonies (which we watched on the TV), in addition to the sights, food, and events. Hope you enjoy!!

July 22nd, 2024

Across France in the summer, there are LOTS of music festivals. Most of them are free and held over a weekend in a park somewhere. There is an electronic music festival that gets held each summer in the park that our apartment overlooks, and it isn't one of our favorite types of music. So we try to find a way to get out of town during that weekend. This year, we decided to do a little loop through a set of small bastides (walled/fortified villages) a couple hours to the west. It was quite a relaxing weekend ... not much really to do ... just look around at villages, have a cup of coffee here and there ... play with Lucy in the yard of our B&B. We took a few pictures and have a little bit of information on them in our Loop Trip blog.

July 14th, 2024

Happy 14 Juillet (which outside of France is called Bastille Day). You have probably heard about the "snap" legislative election that was held in France recently. I have a quick block which attempts to explain French politics and elections a little bit, although I must say, this one was quite bizarre. It started with the European Parliamentary elections, which then prompted the French President to dissolve Parliament (the National Assembly) and call for snap elections. The first round went somewhat as expected, but then there was a bizarre twist with a couple alliances and coalitions and an outcome that was quite unexpected after the first round of elections (there are 2 rounds). I've tried to explain it in my June/July 2024 Election Blog.

June 15th, 2024

We did a few things with Lucy activities in June that I forgot to post, so I've finally gotten it up and ready. It includes lots of corgis who got together in a Corgi meet-up (called a Corginade), her normal Agility classes, and a little "Friendly" agility competition that she totally ROCKED!

May 28th, 2024

And finally ... all 3 parts of our 2024 Tuscany Blog is available.

May 25th, 2024

A bit slower than anticipated, but Part 2 of my Tuscany Blog is also up on the same page (you can use the link at the top to jump straight to Part 2.

May 15th, 2024

I really was trying to be a bit faster on getting blogs up after a vacation, but this time, I have failed fairly miserably. We finished a 2-week trip in Italy and I have only gotten Part 1 of my Tuscany Blog finished and ready for publishing. I will try to get Parts 2 and 3 up within the next week or so.

April 6th, 2024

Spring has sprung in Toulouse, with flowers, baby ducks, and pollen! We finally found a nice day to head up to a hill-top walk at Pech David (Pech come from the local language Occitan, and means a hill). Check out my March Miscellaneous Part 2 blog for the details.

Feb 18th, 2024

We haven't really been doing much traveling this month, but spending quite a bit of time planning and booking future trips. But we have done a few things around town, which I have put in my March Miscellaneous Part 1 blog. I'll have the 2nd half of the month up soon.

Feb 18th, 2024

I feel like we have been traveling quite a bit lately. After our weekend trip to London, we have done short trips to both coasts. We first headed to the Mediterranean coast, stopping by Saint-Felix-Lauragais on our way to the Narbonne Plage. We have been there a couple of times and we stayed at the same apartment (just steps from the beach) that we stayed at last time. In addition to the beach, we found time to stop by a museum that has lots of artifacts from the Roman city of Narbonne. Then back to Toulouse for a couple weeks and then we headed to the other side, to the Atlantic coast and the seaside resort of Biscarrosse Page for a night and then to Bordeaux for a special Valentines Day dinner. We then headed home, stopping by the village of Bazas along the way to check out the Cathedral there.

Jan 23rd, 2024

I didn't really mean to wait a month for my next blog update, but, here it is. We got through the holidays, celebrating with our some of our friends, and took a few days to do some "spring cleaning" when we took the decorations down and put them away. I have 2 blog updates today ... the first blog update has a little information on the public library system and a French tradition for Epiphany (which concerns food, of course). The second update is for a weekend trip to London to catch a couple plays and a few tours. We have a few more trips planed in February, so hopefully my next entry won't take a month!

Dec 23rd, 2023

I've been quite busy over the last few very rainy days and I've gotten quite a few blogs up and ready for you. We did a few quick trips, mostly just 2-3 days long. We did a trip out to the peninsula of Cap Ferret on the Atlantic Ocean for just a couple days to let Lucy run on the beach in the off-season. We came back and got the Christmas tree and decorations up to start the holiday season. Then a trip a bit further afield ... Salzburg, Austria for a Christmas Market and to check out the city, since we hadn't been there before. We finished up our end-of-year-travels with another off-season trip to the beach, this time to the bay-side resort town of Arcachon, which is famous for oysters as well as the Dune de Pilat, which is the tallest sand dune in Europe.

And to finish out the year .... we wish everyone a Happy Holidays and safe travels for everyone who is traveling at the end of the year. We plan on a quiet time over the next couple weeks, spending time with friends here in Toulouse, hopefully playing some golf (if it would ever stop raining!), and planning trips for next year.

Dec 11th, 2023

Without any further delay Germany 2023 Part 3 blog is now ready.

Nov 15th, 2023

I am SOOO behind ... but finally ... Germany 2023 Part 2 blog is now ready.

October 15th, 2023

It only took us 6 years, but we FINALLY made it on a driving trip to Germany! We did 2 weeks in SouthWest Germany along with a stop in Switzerland on the way out and France on the way back. I've broken the blog into 3 pieces, and my Germany 2023 Part 1 blog is now ready.

October 7th, 2023

We originally had planned a trip to the US to visit family in May, but we ended up canceling it due to Lucy's little medical scare. We replanned it for September to coincide with a wedding that we got invited to. After visiting with Susan's mom, brother, and uncle, we headed to Philadelphia. We had a great time at John and Erika's wedding and got to see all of Tom's siblings, nieces, and nephews. Then we spent a day walking around some of the historical sites of Philadelphia before heading back home.

September 27th, 2023

And last (but not least) ... the last episode in my Normandy 2023 trip (part 3 of the blog) is done. The last week we spent up at a beach near the city of Dieppe, and then a couple places on the way back home.

September 7th, 2023

This week was "la rentrée" in France, which is quite a big event here. It signals the end of the long summer holidays, and it’s time to return to work, to the office, to school, and normal life. Stores, restaurants, and cafés sometimes are closed during August for some amount of time if they are not "touristy". Tom listens to a set of French podcasts and they don't produce new podcasts during August and, like clockwork, they all have new episodes on the first day of la rentrée. And to celebrate la rentrée, I have gotten Part 2 of my Normandy 2023 blog done and posted. Enjoy! I should have Part 3 done shortly.

August 27th, 2023

SUMMER VACATION!!!! Here, the Summer Vacation takes on a whole new meaning, as does back-to-school. The summer break runs from mid-July to the first week of September and it isn't just schools, but people and businesses take anywhere between 1 week and 5 weeks off, including closing a small business. Toulouse is fairly hot and we prefer not to stay there (if at all possible), so we have been heading north to cooler temperatures during August. The last 2 years, we have stayed in various parts of Brittany, so this year we moved a bit east, and into Normandy. It was a long trip, and so I've broken it up into 3 parts (up and week 1, week 2, week 3 and home). It normally takes me several weeks after our return to get the blogs up and this year, I am trying to be a bit more timely. So, without any further delay ... I have my Normandy 2023 trip - Part 1 blog done, which covers the towns on the way up and our first week in Normandy.

August 8th, 2023

Another day of water sports for us ... this time, canoeing on a river about an hour north of Toulouse with a set of friends. I'm not sure which Lucy prefers ... CaniPaddle or CaniCanoe!

August 1st, 2023

Happy August!! A few updates before most of France heads off on their August vacations. We have a July Lucy Blog update which includes a second CaniPaddle session with Lucy, which went much better than the initial one that I posted below (I also included a link to the first session in case you missed it). It also includes a walk along the Garonne River with her "mini toutou" friends, some pictures from a couple Agility sessions, and her playing with her puppy friends in the park and swimming in various places.

The second item is a very short blog on the Musee Augustins, which is closed for renovations for 2 years but is "exceptionally open" during the summer with a subset of artwork.

July 20th, 2023

We are always looking to find nice ways to keep cool in the summer here in Toulouse, and this year, we decided to try out a couple sessions of "CaniPaddle" that are offered by our puppy school in the summers. This was the first time for both Susan AND Lucy on a paddle board and while both did okay, more practice is required! The boards are inflatable paddle boards and they had the session in a small lake just North of Toulouse. We had a nice time and Lucy seemed to be not too freaked out on the board, although (as you will see), she basically faced me the entire time waiting for treats ... my little piglet. Anyway ... here is our First CaniPaddle session blog.

July 14th, 2023

Another few steamy days in Toulouse, so I have another blog entry :-) This one covers a 2-night trip out of France, but only 2 hours away ... to the Principality of Andorra. Most people I know of go there either to ski (not us) or buy alcohol and cigarettes without all of the taxes that are added in France (not us either). We went to try to see if it would be a good place in the future to "escape" the heat of the city. On the way down, we stopped a couple of times, once to tour the bastide of Mazères and once to hike up to see the ruins of the Chateau de Lordat. We then headed across the border and into the Principality of Andorra, staying for a couple nights in the capital Andorra La Vella. The views were great, and the weather quite nice, but it wasn't really our cup-of-tea, so to speak, so we will continue to look for a escape-the-heat place.

July 14th, 2023

Happy 14 Juillet (Happy 14th of July .. otherwise known as Bastille Day)! It is wickedly hot today, so I've had time to catch up on a bunch of blogs. First, I made a quick update to our Agility Friendly competition blog that I posted on the 6th, with 4 new pictures at the very end, which were done by a professional photographer that was there.

Next, a few towns that are nearby that we have visited lately. First, we did a Lavender festival called "Un air de Lavande" at a local Lavender producer, and I have a few pictures of the afternoon. We also headed out for a 1-day road-trip to the 13th century bastide of Lisle-sur-Tarn and the 13th century bastide of Castelnau-de-Montmiral. It is still weird for me to say "13th century" in association to a town that we go to.

July 6th, 2023

I know ... so long between entries! Well ... I'll have a few coming quickly after this one. But I wanted to get this one up as soon as I could. On Sunday, our puppy school had a "Agility Friendly" competition that we went to. There are pictures and videos (spoiler alert: Lucy finished 3rd out of 15!!!) on our Agility Friendly competition blog.

May 22nd, 2023

Summer has definitely arrived in Toulouse! After a month of semi-cool weather where it seemed to rain every day, it has turned hot and dry. With that, we decided to pop out of town for a weekend trip to the Mediterranean. We rented a great apartment at the Narbonne Plage and headed down one Friday afternoon. We made a stop at the Plus Beaux Village of Lagrasse before making it to the apartment in time for dinner and a relaxing walk along the beach. The next morning, after Lucy got to play on the beach and in the water, we dropped her off to sleep and we went to the city of Narbonne for lunch and a guided tour of one of the archeology museums, the L'Horreum which is a set of underground Roman tunnels. We weren't able to see them last time in Narbonne because dogs aren't allowed.

May 22nd, 2023

Time for a Lucy update ... this update contains a little bit of everything .... a couple walks with friends (both our friends and Lucy's friends) in a couple different forests North of Toulouse ... some agility (including a perfect run!) ... and a little bit of a medical scare (spoiler alert ... she is fine) ... All of that in Lucy's May Update blog.

May 8th, 2023

It has been awhile but I have an update, and I'll have another entry shortly. We did a quick long weekend trip over May 1st, which is Labor Day in France. Part of the catalyst for the trip was that we didn't want to be in Toulouse on May 1st, since the noise from the protests, which go just by our apartment, really bothers Lucy. So we wanted to get away and decided on Bordeaux, which is just a few hours away. We didn't actually go into Bordeaux at all, but we did a couple of towns on the way out and back, as well as taking a couple golf lessons at a golf resort there. All the details in my Bordeaux Golf Trip blog.

March 23rd, 2023

Today is supposed to be another nationwide strike to protest the passing of a retirement reform by President Macron using a specific article within the French Constitution called "49.3". I'll try to write up a blog to talk about this ... but today ... I'm posting my Côte d'Azur Blog. It was a fairly short trip, only about a week. We have been to several places along the Côte d'Azur already and we drive through the area every time we have driven to Italy. It was a fairly relaxed trip and the weather was not really that good because the weather didn't really cooperate much. It was cool, as expected, but quite rainy.

March 3rd, 2023

Been a busy couple of weeks ... we did a trip to the Côte d'Azur just to get away for a few days (I'm working on that blog although it is rather short). We also were selected for the "package draw" for the Paris 2024 Olympic games and were able to pick up tickets for 3 events. Lodging is always a concern but we also were able to pre-book a B&B that we had stayed in before and really liked! We would still like a few other events, but we will wait to see if we also get pulled in the "single ticket" draw, since the package draw requires you to purchase tickets for 3 events and we really only want a couple others. We are also hoping that some of the other event tickets are available since not all of the events we wanted seemed to be available in this first round of ticketing. I have also now finished the second part of our Tanzania Safari Blog. At the top of the page you can click directly to Part 2 if you have already read Part 1. I hope you enjoy the rest of the animals.

February 18, 2023

Most of the past month has been rather uneventful ... just normal life happening. We played some golf, went through a cold snap in Toulouse, and enjoyed time with Lucy and our friends. We also were busy finalizing a few vacations that we plan to take this year. Our first major vacation of the year started the end of January (literally on the 31st), when we flew to Tanzania for a week-long safari. We had done a vacation in South Africa a few years ago that included a couple partial days on safari, and we decided that we really wanted to try a safari-only vacation. After a bit of research, we decided on early February in Tanzania. I've split the blog initially into 2 parts, so that I can go ahead and put up some of the pictures while still writing the second part. Hope you enjoy the pictures in our Tanzania Safari Blog.

January 13, 2023

Happy New Year to everyone! It was quite a busy holiday season here ... we had multiple dinners/parties to celebrate both of our birthdays as well as Christmas Eve, Christmas, and New Year's Eve. There was also just recently the Epiphany, which is celebrated here with a Galette de Roi, or cake of the king. There are a couple different kinds of Galette: one made of puff pastry filled with an almond creme (here they call that type a "frangipane") and another one that is a brioche made in the shape of a crown (called a "Limoux" or just a brioche). Inside is always a little "feve", a little toy. Whomever finds the feve is the King and gets to wear the crown.

It has also been a busy time for doctors for me. I had made an appointment at a newly-opened eye center just around the corner from our apartment to have my eyes checked. I was going to get a new pair of glasses since I didn't like the progressive lenses that I got last year.In addition, I had a mammogram this week, which I get here every 2 years under the French healthcare system. They do pretty good here with the early cancer screenings, sending letters that you just take to the appropriate place and everything is covered. Then I went to my general practitioner because I had a pain in my knee with certain movements. She looked at it, gave me a prescription for an anti-inflammatory, and referred me for an MRI. I was able to get that appointment for next week. One thing I don't miss about my US health insurance is the deductible! Every year, with the exception of preventive screenings, I had to handle my deductible (a couple thousand $$) before the insurance would cover anything.

I have moved the older entries (2022 back to the restructuring in 2017) to separate pages, since this main page was getting a bit long. You can continue with the blog entries for 2022 and 2021 and then also the blog entries from 2017 to 2020. **Please note** that the city entries that are normally on the right-hand side have been REMOVED from the older pages and are only on this main blog page.