Haven't updated this in nearly a week. There's an annoying irony with blogging while travelling - whenever you have lots to write about, you generally don't have enough time to write about it.
Let's see..
The next day I went busking again - this time in the hope of making lots of money so as to do all the touristy things/relax around in Cafes drinking coffee. Time for a proper French holiday. It went well - got 70 euro in total that day and only stopped because of rain. A guy came up to chat who was half Irish and half Swedish. Joachim was his name. We didn't speak much as he was in a rush but we arranged to get a coffee the next day. This doesn't sound very interesting does it. But you're wrong. This character will appear again at a later paragraph. The next one, probably. I'm introducing a character you see. Building personality. Being an author. Winning the Pulitzer prize. Winning the Booker prize as I'd actually prefer that to the Pulitzer. All the fame. All the girls.
It was a great day actually, come to think of it. In between busking sessions I went to the natural history museum, which was nice but none of the information was in English. Kinda had to come up with my own explanations for the strange African tribal masks. They were big into theatre, you see. Thriving drama scene. Bit pretentious. Also sat for an hour drinking a coffee on my own in a busy Toulouse cafe. This was on my list of things to do. It was nice, not as exciting as I'd imagined it though. It always looks more fun in the movies. Or when Tom Waits does it.
So on Thursday I went to meet Joachim after a little busking. He showed me a few of the sights and we got a beer. Finbar joined and we spent the day walking around what felt like the entire city of Toulouse. It's so much better to have a local guide. We saw all the bridges, a few churches, loads of gardens. Even Japanese gardens.
We failed miserably to find any restaurant open before 7 so settled on a giant Subway. Don't judge us. I paid with a voucher someone gave me busking - 8 euro food voucher, but apparently people pay 4 euro for them; one of these employee discount things. Don't believe me? ...I'm sure you do believe me, but that's a good way to introduce a photo. Author. Here's Joachim holding said food voucher.
We decided we should visit the Irish bar, as apparently this one is actually really good. Went in and ordered a Guinness. It wasn't great but we figured we'd have one or two drinks anyway, it felt like a good atmosphere, bad Guinness aside. A few minutes later I thought I recognised a bartender. He looked just like Chris Hurley's brother. One of our best friends from home....and it kinda made sense - I knew Alex was living in France. I just had no idea where. I thought about it but figured it would be kinda ridiculous; very unlikely that he's a bartender, let alone a bartender in Toulouse, working tonight.....but fuck it, I asked one of the girls working, and lo and behold it was him. Couldn't believe it.
We ended up drinking a load of Guinness and getting hammered with Alex. Luckily he lives right in town so we all went and passed out in his flat. When I told him I was busking around France he said he'd love to come out and try it, so we resolved to play together the next day. We were pretty damn hungover so it didn't go as well as it could have, but he's got a great voice so it was great for him to get out and build up some confidence. Hopefully he'll keep it up now that I'm gone.
Took it easy that night with the hangover and all - we decided to move the van closer to the city. The hippy festival take-down had finished so there were no more free showers to steal, and all the vans having left the car park meant it probably wasn't too safe. Also had a chat with the manager of the same Irish bar and they said they'd give me a meal and free booze if I played there the next night. Not as good as a paid gig, but fuck it - 4 pints and a meal in France is worth about 40 euro anyway (6e for a Guinness).
The next day I went busking one last time. Had to finish early as I could feel my voice going and throat getting sore and knew I'd have to play again that night. Two girls had been watching/videoing me play earlier and came up when I finished. They had just arrived in Toulouse on holiday (from northern France, Lille), and asked me would I like to get a beer. Being finished anyway I thought it'd be fun so I agreed. We met Finbar on the road and invited him along too. It was a nice day, just drinking beers and chatting beside the river (they have toilets beside the river in Toulouse, how very thoughtful!). The girls brought us for French macarons as we'd never tried them - very tasty!
Dara and Alex showed up around then too, but I had to head off to play in the Irish bar shortly after. I was pretty tipsy if I'm honest - but I don't think anyone noticed. It's funny, in Galway if I even had one drink I'd hear the difference but I practice singing so much now I don't think it's a big deal. Not a good habit, mind, but nice to know! I played about two hours and had a massive burger. A few people offered to buy me pints/shots so I stuck around for an hour or two until Alex came by to pick me up and bring me to where everyone was drinking. A girl working there knew one of the guys who come in selling roses. So I got a rose.
Second rose I've been given in France actually. Someday I'll find that special guy. It gets a little hazy then - I definitely made 15 euro playing music outside; a fiver from one guy and a tenner from another. The tenner was from playing a request that I happened to know really well, and the guy was over the moon to hear it, but I can't even remember what song it was. Oh Guinness. It was a pretty messy night - the lads had been drinking the whole time I was gone so by the time I arrived they were as bad as I was. Good fun though - first proper sort of normal-night-out. Drinking in an apartment and getting hammered with English-speaking people.
The next day we regrouped and met Joachim at the van. He had invited us out to his parents house for the evening. We didn't know what to expect - we knew it was on a fairly big area of land with a swimming pool (they host wedding receptions there). But man, I can't describe how beautiful this place was. We got a beer from the keg that they just....had....and took a walk around. I mean it really is paradise.
We met his parents and they instantly became some of the nicest people we'd ever met. They were just so genuinely welcoming and lovely. They invited us to come drink with them at the reception - it was a friends wedding this weekend so they had all been invited. That's when the fun started. Once word spread that I was a musician I was pushed up to play. My throat was killing me but I could hardly say no, standing in this paradise.
It went down really well - later some of the French people asked me would I be playing in Toulouse again over the next few nights, as they'd like to hear me another time. Which was lovely. It's up to Lyon next though, so I had to say no. Do you see the fish water feature/fountain thingy behind me? That's not water. That's a rum fountain. Rum mixed with pineapple juice. So you don't have to go to the bar. You just carry your cup back over and let the magical fish fill you up. Amazing.
It was a fantastic night. We got chatting to tonnes of great French people, who even given that they didn't speak English or us French, the rum fountain seemed to allow us to communicate with perfectly. Everyone was so nice to us that we wanted to give back as much as we could. So I played plenty of music (my throat not being very happy with this choice today), Dara and I did a little fire show and Finbar did a sketch for the married couple.There was plenty of music from others too. This guy had a great line - "I don't speak very good English...but I speak very good French!",
We went for a drunken swim in the heated pool, where we nearly killed ourselves standing ontop of one another's shoulders and fighting. Near the end of the night the bride and groom insisted that we join in for one last game of Pakito (apparently their 5th that day). It's kind of like rock the boat in the way you sit but then everyone crowdsurfs along the line. So much fun.
What a night.
In the morning Joachim woke us up for a special Foie Gras market nearby - famous in the region as they go through about a tonne of fresh foie gras in under an hour. By fresh I mean the actual duck livers. He was right too - we got there 40 mins after it opened and just about managed to pick up the last 3. For dinner that night apparently. We visited the rest of the market - very oldschool french market, full of live animals mostly.Birds, rabbits, piglets, everything. Not really my cup of tea, but nice to see.
We went back to the house and hung around for the day, sleeping and later chatting with the family. They have a pretty cool story - both Motorola engineers in Toulouse but they both quit to just live the good life and rent out their wedding place. They really do seem to have it all figured out. They have two pianos too - one grand and one upright, so it was awesome to hit the keys after 40 days away. I avoided practicing any singing with my voice being completely gone, which left me some time to start writing the duet I mentioned a few weeks ago with the Paris girl, Cristina. We've decided we'd try and write it remotely, then meet up to put it together. Tricky project but who knows, I'd really like to do a duet and she has an amazing voice (and has promised icecream) so it's definitely worth a shot! Watch this space I guess.
At around 9, after lots of preparation we all sat down to eat the fresh foie gras. I didn't know what to expect - I don't like pate at all. But I tried to stay open. I'm telling you though, that stuff is the bomb. It melts in your mouth, and is just so very very rich. One of the best meals I've ever had, without a doubt.
We stayed up chatting 'til all hours. But the paradise world had to end sometime. After one last lunch (and cleaning our van/washing our clothes), we've taken to the road again. This time toward Lyon. As I drove the whole 5 hours down to Toulouse the lads are taking this one, leaving me some time to write this giant blog and catch up on some e-mails with my granny. Hi Granny! Seriously though - this last week has been full of highlights of the trip so far. I think we're all on a high. If we all had to go home tomorrow for whatever reason I feel like we've gotten so much out of the trip that it'd be okay. All the money we put into the camper has been completely paid off already in my eyes. If I hadn't been busking I wouldn't have met Joachim, if we didn't have a camper we couldn't have gone to stay with his parents so easily. Life just works out perfectly sometimes.
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