Toulouse

Now all of us but Carol are at some stage of a cold.  Jake and I in the early to mid-stages, John, Margaret and Paul in the recovery stages.  Nevertheless, we had reservations today for lunch at a Michelin starred restaurant, Michel Sarran, in Toulouse and wanted to do some sightseeing before lunch.  We drove into the city pretty easily and parked in one of the many underground parking garages.  Downtown seems pretty compact, and the older parts of town had little traffic.  Of course on Monday all of the tourist attractions with an admission fee are closed.  But we took in the Basilica built in 1096 that contains the remains of the locally martyred St. Saturnin.  Around 250 he was condemned to death by being dragged by a bull through the streets of Toulouse. Many saints have reliquaries there, including St. Sylve! 

The bell tower of the basilica in Toulouse

Hanging model of the church I think

St. Sylve's reliquary

We walked past the Benedictine convent, the Ecole de Beaux Arts, across the Pont Neuf (a misnomer now), past an old hospital and through a little section of African shops, then back past the Hospital de la Grave (doesn’t sound like a hospital you’d want to go to!) and back over the river.  Then up through part of the University whose campus paths were not marked on our map, miraculously arriving in front of our restaurant at the appointed hour of 12:30. 

Everyone was seated in an outdoor covered patio behind the restaurant.  We were first presented with a trio of amuse bouches – tiny little pastries with different fillings – while we perused the menu. Once we had ordered a second amuse bouche arrived of a tiny portion of creamy scrambled eggs with a madeira sauce in an egg cup, a little crispy cigar of cheese, and a soft boiled egg that was somehow coated in crispy thin bits of pasta. Five of us ordered a fixed menu and Jake ordered off the a la carte menu.  My entrée consisted of sautéed mushrooms and onions served over buttery phyllo layers, a small poached egg and some greens dressed with a tangy vinaigrette.  I also find it amusing to identify the weeds in ones gourmet salad, in this case oxalis.  This was accompanied by a very nice viognier wine.

Jake’s entrée was foie gras soup with an oyster.  The soup was like foamed foie gras.  It was accompanied by an arrangement of little leaves and flowers and squares of foie gras.  I tasted the “oyster leaf”, which really did taste much like an oyster.  The waiter did not know the Latin name but apparently it is grown in gardens around Toulouse. (Mertensia maritima)

My main course was a fairly simple cylinder of rosy trout coated in crisp panko served over zucchini noodles with some other finely diced vegetables and a warm vinaigrette.  For the main course we switched to a robust red wine that I think was a blend but had the amusing name of Bur l’ es que?

Dessert was a triple layer concoction of cake and gelled passion fruit topped with chestnut ice cream and served in a pool of passion fruit puree.  Jake got a delicious looking chocolate confection but as it was pretty much gone by the time I had finished ooing and ahhing over my first bites of passion fruit I can’t tell you much about it.  Two people got a cheese course with an ample selection of very tasty cheeses from France, Italy and Switzerland. With our expressos the waiter brought out an amuse bouche of three dime size tarts.  One was orange, another fig, and the third caramelized banana with a tiny piece of gold leaf on top.

With the able help of Jacqueline, our car’s GPS, we were able to get out of the city and back home for a much needed rest with only one wrong turn,  one odd detour, and one operator error.