Another Day in Toulouse, Plus a Search for Pottery – October 16th

It’s cleaning lady day, so we’re intending to get out so she can spend her 2 hours on the place.  We’re out in time to get to Toulouse by 11:45, find a parking place, and head over to today’s restaurant, Le Genty Magre.  We’re early and not as hungry as we’d like, so we poke our heads in and ask about coming back at 12:30.  Without missing a beat she says, "but of course" in French.  We wonder if people are nice here, nice to tourists, nice to people who speak French to them, or however else we can interpret this.  Either way, we head out to a store we’d been to in 2005 that had regional food souvenirs.  It’s where we got some violet liquor, which we still haven’t finished drinking 7 years later…

The store isn’t as interesting as either of us remembered -- more of a concentration on wine and less on regional products.  We do see a possible interesting purchase, Armagnac.  It’s the same (yeah sure!) as Cognac, but from the adjacent region in France.  One of the differences though is that Armagnac typically has a vintage date on the bottle.  So, we think about buying one to commemorate our wedding anniversary.  But, it’s so long ago that bottles of *that* age cost over $125…

Toulouse isn’t a very big city so we easily make our way back to Le Genty Magre in time for lunch.  Maxine found the restaurant through Tripadvisor and a NY Times article.  The chef worked at Daniel Boulud’s restaurants and in Japan so the food sounded innovative and interesting.  Again, we planned lunch since Le Genty Magre (like most others) has a reasonably priced lunch menu. 

We started with sausages and potatoes in a mustard sauce (more German than Japanese or French) which was delicious and could have been our entire lunch at home.  Tom had pork cutlets in a mustard sauce with polenta gnocchi (delicious!) and Maxine had duck with a berry sauce (also delicious).  Duck is really the traditional protein here in SW France and Maxine has eaten it at least four times since we arrived.  The other thing we both remember about the restaurant was the hearty, crusty brown bread.  And, yes, we did have dessert and coffee too.  We didn’t have wine with lunch since we had a lot of driving to do this afternoon.  But, the three businessmen sitting next to us finished two bottles over their lunches.  Our friend Bill says that the French adopt American attitudes 20 years late.  Does this mean that the wine consumption at lunch is analogous to the 3-martini lunch and will fade over time?

Afterwards, we decide to take another stroll through the city, to the retail streets north of Place Capitole this time.  The walk takes us to Eglise St. Sernin, which is a cathedral and one of the ‘sights’ of Toulouse.  It is very grand inside.  I’d never been despite having passed it dozens of times when I’d been here in 2000.  We pay 4E to see the crypt which contains relics, including a piece (small) from the True Cross.  (Albi  has a piece as well).  No, I don’t think it was really from the True Cross – I’ve read about the mid centuries having had a market in religious souvenirs like that…

After our walk we make our way out of town to one about 1/2 hour further west (away from Broze).  It’s called Martres Tolosane and is an ancient center for painted pottery called faience.  Before we left LA, we had the idea that we would go there and buy replacement dishes for our house.  But, the prices are huge and make that idea unrealistic.  We leave with a lovely coffee mug as a memento.  From there, it’s a 1 ½ hour drive home to Broze for dinner and a quiet evening.