Winter holidays in Toulouse and by the sea part 1

Winter in Toulouse is so festive thanks to lights and Christmas trees decorating nearly every street. And the Christmas markets complete with carnival rides, ice skating, sweet treats, savory indulgences, and of course vin chaud make it so easy to get into the Christmas spirit. I went to the markets several times just in the first weekend that they were open, and we continued as a family throughout the season.

I was so excited to bring our first Christmas tree home in Toulouse, actually this might be Mara’s first ever actual Christmas tree at home. I got to do one of my favorite things about city life… buying big stuff then figure out how to get it home on foot. I carried our Christmas tree plus, tree stand, lights, and misc decorations for the 1 km walk home. Of course I awkwardly ran into someone I knew along the way, and his reaction was “oh wow, you’re really getting into the Christmas spirit!” True true. I was sore the next day as though I had worked out, but it was totally worth it. I set out a few more sentimental Christmas decorations like my grandmas music box, the tree skirt my mom made when I was a kid, and Mara’s Christmas stocking that her Auntie Marie had made for her in Thailand.

On the home projects front, we did our first little staining project on a cube storage box to hold the router and other electronics. I would NEVER stain something indoors in the US, the fumes would be awful. But here, the paint and stain smells are barely noticeable, so staining furniture in an apartment is no big deal. Wylie and I also installed a light over our dining table which sounds simple enough except it required putting a hole in our concrete ceiling… without a powered drill. It took us about 2 hours to make a 1.5cm deep hole with a hand drill and masonry bit! Again though, totally worth it. Also we could probably just borrow a drill from a friend next time.

We decided to spend our first winter holiday as French residents by the sea. We rented a car and drove down to our first stop of Gruissan. The south west of France by the sea is known to be quite windy and that reputation sure held up, especially for the first couple of days of our trip. Still, we enjoyed a day trip to Narbonne where we spent a few hours at the charming beachy Christmas market. I promised Mara we’d go ice skating again only to realize that there was no ice, just plastic coated plywood to ice skate on. It was dreadful for me, but Mara loved it! C’est la vie. After that experience we were sure to avoid anything that proclaimed there was “ice skating” available. We wrapped up the day trip with Mara jumping her little heart out on a bungee trampoline seemingly made for toddlers.

We were very proud of our whole family because on Christmas Eve we went out for a really nice dinner at a pretty fancy restaurant, with a 3 year old! The server was so nice and accommodating and even helped Mara discover her new love of apple juice (from in-season and locally sourced apples of course). Very shortly after we arrived another family with little kids came along and we quickly realized that we didn’t really have anything to worry about, bringing kids to a nice dinner is just what people do.

We visited a cute playground on Christmas Day then went to Wylie’s colleague’s holiday house for afternoon tea and cake. It was a nice day, but I definitely missed being with family all day. Even though we were in a beautiful place, that even felt a little like Ventura being right on the water, I was still a little discontent being away. I suppose that’s not uncommon or unexpected given our big move, it’s all part of the adjustment.

We wrapped up the first half of our winter holiday in Gruissan on Dec 26th. It was a beautiful morning and we got to explore a bit of the village, including a walk up to the old fortress. The views were really amazing, I’m glad we got to experience Gruissan like this, I can imagine it being quite the summer destination when the weather warms up.