Another Relaxing Day

Had another good day doing close to nothing not much to talk about. Just hung around and practiced more French by conversing and had a great dinner this evening at the hostel.

Finishing a Book and Finding New Mantras

So, today was a lazy day and I just hung around and read the book The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime for most of the day. I did get a couple things at the shop for a dinner this evening, but I wasn't in the mood to take the 30 to 45 minute bus ride to the metro and then take the metro into town. It being the weekend, I doubted there would be much success with finding professors and I was feeling too tired. This is one of the few times I think it has less to do with sleep, although it was a bit of a struggle last night, and more to do with feeling outright weariness from 6 and a half months of travel. After a dinner of vegetable soup with bread and cheese, I looked into the mantras I had found through the Fractal Enlightenment page and started practicing them. They felt really good and I hope to do more soon when the room is empty once more.

An Exploration

Today turned out to be more of a tourist visit to Toulouse since the few people I've met who can help me were either sleeping in, not here yet, or not in contact at the moment. It was another sunny day and I saw most of the attractions today. Two churches, a cathedral, some lovely bridges, a basilica, and the outside of another Cloitre, which I might visit tomorrow. It's cheap since we are now in the off season. By the time I took the tourist train ride at 11:45, I had already walked quite a bit and it only took me through one street I hadn't seen.
Perhaps tomorrow will go better research wise.

Toulouse

After spending a morning seeing more of Moissac including spending an hour in the Cloître, I retrieved my things from the gite and made my way to the train station. It was a quick and easy train ride to Toulouse but a metro and bus from the station to my hostel. I chose the cheaper one outside of town and ended up I meeting another person who can help me get information about the universities in Toulouse (there are three). Since I got here at 4 pm, I didn't feel much like spending another 3 quarters of an hour going back into Toulouse to explore and plan to start fresh tomorrow right after breakfast. If it had taken less time to get here after the train, I would have been happy to see more than the SNCF.

Arriving in Moissac

Today was only about 22 km or 13 miles but most of it was on the road again and the hills got pretty steep at the end. Despite the painful experience, I successfully finished the trek with just fruit and bread as gas. I left after breakfast with an apple and a yellow kiwi but no protein until after 1:30 when I arrived. My knees are just as furious with me as my feet for taking the ridiculously steep variant, but when I heard it provided a good view of the town, I didn't want to miss out. Unfortunately for me it was just as bad on the way down as it was on the way up...not to mention, the gite I am staying in is another 5 minute climb up something that could use a ski lift. The town itself is wonderfully flat, I just happen to be right on the outskirt.
Anyway, enough about hills. I made it and now tomorrow I can make my way to Toulouse and try to do some research and networking. I happened to have met someone who has gone to the university in Toulouse as an international student while in Cahors so we might be able to meet up and make some headway.
When I arrived here, I took my shoes and socks off to enjoy the cool tiles and then called home and put my feet up. Once well rested, I went back into town to explore for a small while.

New Plans Emerging

If there is no WiFi tonight, I would rather write this post now. After the best 10 hours of sleep yet, I ate a nice tranquil breakfast and talked to the hostess about my plans. How I want to find a family who wants an au pair in order to apply for a work visa and to save money again & how after that I would be able to apply for a university in France as well. She surprised me with yet another great gift! She has a friend who can help me with those things and she mentioned how easy it is to visit Toulouse from Moissac (where I will be Wednesday night). Once I find a youth hostel there, I can stay and scope the place out for a few days. Then it's even possible for me to walk to Lourdes with another branch of the El Camino!

Cahors to Montcoq

Today was another perfect day! The weather was lovely; cool, breezy, and cloudy. That's not to say the sun never came out but there were equal parts sun and cloud for today's trek. This morning I had a leisurely breakfast, not wanting to move too fast. Not much luck with sleep last night, so after a forgetful morning involving walking 10 minutes across town to the start of the trail and turning around when I realized I was missing my sun protection, I ended up walking with a group of French people meaning I got to speak French 80% to 90% of the time and learned some new rules in the language. In fact, I think I learned five new things: the difference in pronunciation between "debout" (stand: vb) and "debut" (the start), how to say barefoot: "pieds nus", the word for moss "mousse", that "jeux" (game) sounds exactly like "je" and lastly the the feminine form of "fou" (crazy) is "folle".
Between 11 and 12, with only 6 km finished, I stopped to buy a sandwich...which someone else offered to buy. He had spoken to the French lady who was serving us and then she didn't look twice at my €5 bill. While walking the next piece, I was having a conversation with one of the French group and he was mentioning that a friend of his, whom I met at our previous stop, had a car parked ahead of us and that it would be possible to ask him for a ride towards Montcoq. After perhaps another 5 km or so, we stopped again at a restaurant and as I was pulling out what was left of my cheese sandwich they told me to put it away and that they would pay for that as well.
From there I got a ride that cut out at least a good 10 km and only walked about 5.7 more to the town I made a reservation in last night. I arrived here at around 4:00 and just before visiting the town a bit, I called my mother. We had a nice conversation and I sent here a couple more maps of the trail I'm walking.
I already have plans made for the next two nights so things should go smoothly tomorrow.