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Gearing up to head back home, I decided to stop in Toulouse again. I needed a place to stop on my way back to Madrid, so I decided to come back here. I really enjoyed this city and logistically it was the easiest spot to leave from. 

Upon arriving I got a quiche from a local bakery and ate it at a nearby city park/ plaza. I can recall the serene moment of the breeze in the air, the salty salmon in the quiche, and the crying child on the playground calling for his dad because he was afraid to climb higher on a passage of netting. 

After, I went to the jardin des plantes, my favorite napping spot in the city. There were chickens running about this time. 
My first host was Eric. He was great. He made a good “rice salad”, which I’d never heard of. 
My second host was Raul from Mexico. He was also great. We shared some good chats about meditation and the nature of reality. 

I spent my days visiting my favorite spots and exploring new places around the city.

One day I met up with Dominique who I had met on my previous trip to Toulouse. He took me to a spot on the Garonne river south of Toulouse. We swam and had an improv bbq. 
Later that evening we went to a nearby town that was having a local music festival. 

On another occasion, I met up with Kehli, a girl that I had met in Marseille a few weeks earlier. We spent the day walking around the city and shopping for shoes. She was fun and a little chaotic. 

In summary, what I can say about my time in France and the big lesson learned:

My heart is full. I’m glad to have come and I am glad to return.

After Grenoble, I started to make my way back to Madrid for my flight back home, so I stopped in Valence. There wasn’t anything in particular I wanted to do/ see here.

Valence is small, 62K. It can easily be seen in half a day.

There is a lovely park at the center of town that has an operational kid’s train.

There were also other little charms about the city that were fun and surprising. You can get a bottle of organic wine for less than $10! The lemon tarts here were amazing.

There’s a canal network that runs throughout part of the town.

The best part of my stay was hanging out with Emi, my host, and her roommates. We shared meals and games.

After Lyon, I headed to Grenoble. I met up with Noemi, a friend I had met at a workaway gig, at a sustainable home, 5 years previously. She was 3 hours late to meet me/ respond to my messages. I was close to leaving. 

I’m glad I didn’t though, this place is like a hidden gem.

The day that I arrived was the French national day. We went out to see a firework display.

The next morning we headed out to the Drac river which runs by the city. It’s such a luxury to have a clean river nearby to go swimming in. Pity this phenomena is so unusual these day. 

That night I headed out to the yearly Cabaret Frappe festival. 

The next day I had a bike ride around town. This is a really cool town. They are generous with their bike lanes. On one main street, the centre of the road is reserved for bikes, instead of cars. There is lots of art throughout the city. I came across a park that was hosting public tango lessons. 
Later I met up with Noemie who showed me the local University, a building made out of mud bricks, and another river. 

When I was at the the Cabaret festival the previous evening, I had met a girl from Venezuela named Ari. She invited us to meet some of her friends for brunch and games. That was fun, and the first time I had met someone from the Congo.

The next day Noemi took me to the nearby village of Sassenage. We stopped by a chateau whose grounds had become a public garden. I sat under a tree that was 200 years old.

After we heading into the mountains to look at the waterfalls. 

The pictures don’t do these places justice. There is a serenity that pervaded the area. 

My first stop back in France was Lyon. 

My bus ride there was met with scenic views of the Alps

I’ve been to Lyon before but it was more than 10 years ago. I remember that I liked it, and I wanted to see if if it would be a likely candidate for me to live in, in the future.

While here I stayed with Xavier and Nicholas. They were great. I think the most striking quality about them was their silence. Its not common to find people who don’t needless fill the space with idle chatter and at the same time don’t feel a sense of awkwardness from the emptiness. It was nice.

They lived in a section of the city that was reputed for its cinematic history. I love that public screenings are so common place around France.

I wouldn’t say anything super eventful happened while here, but it was nice to have a look around. 

Below are some pictures of the old town and the Saône river. I love that most of the cities here have rivers that run through them. (and they’re relatively clean!)

I only went to Italy to visit Roberta. After my visit, I was tasked with getting back to France, but how and where were somewhat flexible. I met Matteo at the Sherwood festival in Padua. He invited me to Turino (Italy) which was on my way back to France, so I decided to check it out.
I’d never been this far north west in Italy. I really enjoyed it. Perhaps because of its proximity and influence from France, but it had other lovely qualities too.
As soon as I arrived, Matteo showed me around the market place. Its open daily and has inexpensive food and clothes. I love these cities that have this kind of scene.

Turino used to be the capital back in the day, so there’s quite a bit to see. There are many plazas. There are old Roman ruins.

That night we met up with Matteo’s friend, Alexis. Later, we went to this live music performance at this …. place. I don’t know exactly how to describe it. It looked like the parking lot of an abandoned building. It was now a bar/ community events place, with what looked like college furniture, the kind you find on the sidewalk and decide to give a 2nd life to. There was a free clothing exchange next to the bathrooms.

After we rode our bikes to this party in the park. I felt like the DJs were amateurs, as the beats were predictable and bit rough, but it was still a novel experience. I asked about the legality of the party. Matteo said they were definitely illegal, but the cops don’t do anything about it. These are regularly occurring parties AND they happen in the parks all over the city! I was/ am truly jealous of this city.

The next day, Matteo took me to the weekly antiques market. Like other places in Italy/ France, there are public drinking fountains set up around the city, but this place had the water coming out of a bull, one of the city’s symbols.

Later I had a walk around the city.

That evening, we took Matteo’s motor bike to a park to watch “Only Lovers Left Alive”.

My last day in Turino, I walked around town again. I went up to the Basilica of Superga, the church in the hills, to get a view of the city. My highlight of the day was watching a guy sing “Take on me” (A-ha) on accordion. He was hitting all the high notes. This guy was living the dream.

After Marseille I headed to Montebelluna, outside Venice, to see Roberta, an old friend. I seem to find myself here for some duration in all my travels to Europe.

I headed to Padua on one evening with Roberta’s boyfriend and friend Mattia, to find a party. We winded up at the Annual Sherwood Festival. It was surprisingly fun. Normally the electronic music scene out in this area is a bit lagging, but it was actually ok this time. We met up with Mattia’s friend, Matteo.

The next day we headed to the mountains at Pian Cansiglio. We went to a restaurant where the main dish were 4 pieces of gnocci. Roberta asked if I was still hungry, maintaining a straight face, I said, “I could eat more”. The second dish was a piece of fried cheese. I could’ve had something else, but it was the best sounding out of the other options, “pig” or “pig in milk.” (Roberta is a good translator.)

After lunch we started our “hike,” which kind of consisted of driving to different parking spots and walking in the close vicinity to those spots. There seemed to be some tension among my hosts surrounding the issue of planning, but I was quite content to sit/ lay anywhere as I was dragging from the all the dancing into the wee hours from the previous night.
On the way back home, we stopped in Vittorio Veneto to have a drink.

While in Montebelluna, I like to frequent this one ice cream shop, Ducale. They make a special vegan ice cream made out of the Lupini bean. I’ve only ever seen this at this one shop. I met owner, Francesco, the last time I was here. This time he offered to show me how to make ice cream. One evening he invited me to have dinner with him and his partner.

The nature surrounding Montebelluna is pretty.

I spent my 40^th birthday here. The day before was like some kind of existential groundless limbo, with all powerful emotions existing at once at various parts of the day. My actual birthday was more grounded. I did have one epiphany, thanks to help from Roberta, about a subconscious anger I hold toward a loved one concerning the matter of listening.
I feel like what makes a good listener is someone who takes into consideration the other person’s perspective. Sometimes a person’s communication can be overbearing and can involve talking in such a way that ignores important information from past encounters. I was able to recognize and acknowledge this relationship, which was an important first step in working to improve it.
Roberta and I also spoke on the matter of death at length. I feel like turning 40 is some kind of milestone that brings up a sense of what life has amounted to up until that point. I don’t think we can properly talk about living fully without taking death into consideration. Death is so rich. It calls to mind subjects of renunciation, impermanence, and urgency. I once heard from some unmemorable source that the reason things have value is because they end/die.
Contemplating this, I felt a surge of energy that evening to celebrate life.

My stay in Marseille was short, just 3 days. I came to this seaside city to catch a plane to Venice. Again my expectations were low, but I found some pretty cool things.

Upon arriving, I met with my couchsurfing host Jean-Alain. Jean is a personal trainer originally from the Caribbean.
We met up with some of his friends and went to dinner. The dinner was overpriced and underwhelming but there was some interesting art in the area.

After we went to this “Old School Hip Hop” party.
I would never go to a party like this of my own accord, but being the first night with a CS host, I felt obliged to express interest in his musical taste and venue preference. I felt like this was a good practice in loosening up and getting out of my music cocoon. As far as music goes, my preferences are pretty narrowly exclusive to the newest varieties of the ever evolving electronic music scene.
There was a sense of letting go underlined by an atmosphere of pressure to have a good time under predictably upbeat tedious beats.
I left the party with a sense of not knowing who I was. Refreshing.

There is a story I once read ” The well of madness”. It talks about a king whose subjects all went mad from drinking poisoned water. He tried to rectify the problem but was hindered by all the crazy people. Finally he gave in and drank the water too.

The next day I had a walk around town. I went to the Palais de Justice.

The city center is next to the water front. They have this mirror installation thing that acts as a shade.

Part of the old city is on hills.
That evening, Jean took me the Marseille ballet company performance in the park. I love France. Where else would you find this? We met up with some of his friends and had a picnic. The performances started with kids and progressed into adults. There were themes of androgyny, domestic abuse, sexuality, aggression in the dance studio, and unicorns.

The next day, Jean couldn’t host me, so I found a hostel. I headed up to the Notre Dame Cathedral that overlooks the city. Later, I met my roommates, Luca, Romanian, and Kheli, Parisian. Kheli and I walked around the center in evening. She’s fun! I had to wake up early the next day to catch a flight, but she insisted we drink wine and walk the evening streets. We found this spontaneous party by the waterfront. I can only guess it was some kind of Arabic pop. Marseille is a big immigrant entry point.

I headed to Montpellier because I decided to take a plane from Marseille to Venice to visit a friend, so it just happened to be on the way. I’m not a beach person, so my expectations were pretty low.

They have cool, open air bus/train station.

There is a big open plaza in the center of the city. The buildings are close together, so even during the mid afternoon hours, you can still walk through and be cool.

I went to visit the city aqueduct and the park next to it. The park towers above the city.

During the equinox, the whole country celebrates Fete de la Musique. Throughout the cities there are musicians of various kinds performing.

There are people dancing in the streets into the wee hours. This festival is so great.

While in Montpellier, I stayed with Djulian, his roommates, Nicole and Francois, and Nicole’s guests, Idehi and Alice. We went to the beach one day. After, we stopped by a supermarket. There was an entire aisle dedicated to just tuna.

Idehi has a unique instrument, there is only one of its kind. His friend made it for him.

I had a good time here, largely due to some genuine interactions with Nicole and Alice.

Before I left Toulouse, I stayed with another host in the countryside. His name was Herve. He was a circus teacher. He lived in a rotatable round house. He had 5 cats. 

This was a pretty unique experience. I’ve had an aerial silk for a while now, but I’ve never had formal instruction, so I was very excited to come across Herve.

The day after I arrived, he received another guest, Lea, from Germany. She was sweet, mild mannered, and wore a discreet necklace of a vagina. She was the yin to Herve’s yang energy.

Lea and I walked the area and discovered an Abbey and a cute town centre with a baguette vending machine. 

During the days I was there, this region was experiencing a heatwave. The norm in many areas in Europe is to close all the shutters in the house after around 9 a.m. in order to keep in the cool air, as many homes don’t have air conditioning. I sometimes experienced a sense of  claustrophobia during the hot afternoon hours. 

The day before I left, we rotated the house. I guess it was for temperature reasons. Herve did this twice a year.

 

After Madrid, I headed over to Toulouse. It’s called the Pink City because of the colour that shines from the setting sun on the red bricks on many of the old buildings. I had a suspicion that I would find something beautiful here.

The subway is one of the cleanest I’ve seen.

The town is lovely. It’s about 200,000 in population.

You can drink the tap water here! There are fountains set up throughout the city, however finding a public restroom can be difficult as in many other European cities.  

There are old time carousels near the center of the city! 

The Garonne river cuts through Toulouse. There are lovely river walks on either side. I love that people actually come out and hang out in the parks all the time, eating, smoking, drinking wine, reading. Some people even look you in the eye and say hello and good day. 

My first couchsurfing host was John-Paul. I always like staying with locals when I travel. During my time there I explored the city. I visited the various gardens near the centre. 

I visited this one cafe called Ash. They ran out if the gluten free option so I got the vegetable pie instead. Everything on the plate broke some kind of dietary restriction I was on but I ate it anyway. Two bites into the pie, I was savoring this beautiful moment. It represented an allowance of some kind. Memories of my recent past, dealing with my dietary intolerances and the frustration/isolation/sadness that came with it, came flooding into my body, mind, eyes, and throat. It was a reflection of the debilitation I lived with. A picture of my aunt Hopie, who suffers from a major physical debilitation, flashed in my mind. I was getting choked up. I felt like a baseball was in my throat, the sensation you might get when you are at the peak of some emotional turmoil  that desperately needs to be voiced. But the only other people around were the French speaking waitress and the couple at the next table. I suppose I could have yelped out in my teary eyed state, “This pie is so good” but I’m sure it wouldn’t have been anything the waitress hadn’t already heard. The sensation past. I was genuinely happy to be alive.

I’m happy to report that I didn’t have any negative repercussions due to that meal! The following days, I was having on average one pastry a day without consequences. It was like a miracle. One day I got particularly ambitious and had a Nutella crepe, that was pushing the boundary a bit.

One day I went to a contact improv jam. It’s been ages since I’ve been to one. I miss physical dialogues. I met Dominique there. After, we ate by the river and he showed me some places in town. There was a musical event happening by the river. 

The next day I got a new host, Georges, from Lebanon. I introduced him to Dominique and we went to a Shambhala meditation meet up. It was nice to be amongst the Sangha again. 

I love it here.