Toulouse continued

Raymond IV is an old fashioned hotel with old fashioned keys.

We ran into the Carnival pour les Lycées. We were surrounded by happy kids in costumes.

A lunch that started off with a wonderful paté...

And ended with a café gourmand. Coffee and wonderful little treats. I had been tempted to order a fruit salad, but had I watched the others eat these goodies, I would have turned green. More important was the reunion with Alexandrine who is here to participate in and arts festival.

She used an old film then did a second film that had the noises from modern times to synchronize with the old film. She was calm as she fought to get the two working together. It was so good to see her again.

I admit I'm superstitious that I walked around the ladder on my way to the Metro Jeanne D'Arc. As I did it I fell stupid. I did it anyway.

I spent a good part of today with my Sister sans Frontier. This woman, an artist who rescues old books and turns them into works of art. When I lived in Toulouse in the late 1980s she was a neighbour. My French was as limited as her English but there was a spirit of sharing that helped me through a difficult period.

Her daughter visited me in Môtiers CH and her son visited me in Boston. She made a loved recipe as a gift for a friend of me as if it were a medieval parchment. I still use a notebook cover she made me.

So after too long a time, I took the metro that didn't exist before to where she lived. We stopped at her son's successful business. He makes frames for everything from individual to museums. The space he has set up is beautiful. He has his mother's artistic eye.

Then she showed me her daughter's home.

Unlike before we could communicate thanks to my increased use of French.

We had lunch and it was too soon that I had to leave. Only this time I want to see her and hers more often. Sisters sans frontiers are to precious to not share more with.