I am an Aerospace Engineer and my work took me to Toulouse for 4 months. All of my work colleagues except one were French so it was total immersion. My ancestors were from France (near Lille) and even with my poor French, France felt like home. Toulouse is the aerospace capital of Europe so there are lots of foreigners who live and work there and the locals are very tolerant of poor French. The local accent is somewhat different from Paris. What a fantastic experience. I was accompanied by my wife and our teenage daughter and we had a small apartment a few blocks from St-Aubin. I must admit I never set foot in the church but the weekend farmers market nearby was our go to. Fantastic selection of cheeses, meat, vegetables, wine, and the absolute best rotisserie chickens I have ever eaten. Our Sunday ritual was to go to the market buy a chicken, bread, cheese and a bottle of wine and return to our apartment for a long lunch. The roti chickens are sold with wonderful potatoes They also sold roti rabbits and game birds but we always had chicken. I really miss the whole experience. read more