March 1, 2026 - Carnaval des deux rives

This morning being Sunday, our local bakery that we buy our bread from was closed so we went next door to the other bakery which is a chain. The difference in the quality of the bread is huge. The one from the chain bakery is like bread from home and nothing like the artisan one. We will finish our time here with the bread from across the street which is much better. 

We took the bus to the other side of the city, past the train station and did a few puzzle caches. This again was an area we had never been to yet. There wasn’t much to see it being more residential than commercial. There were a few very old buildings with carving on them as well as a few painted walls. We had planned on taking the bus back, but we decided to walk since by the time we had finished caching we were only a couple of km from home. We walked the whole of St. Catherine Street. It is 1.2 km long and is supposed to be the longest pedestrian commercial street in Europe. 

We passed the 200 km milestone of walking today. We will still get some steps in until Wednesday but then we will probably not get many steps while we are in Cussac for 5 days. It will give our feet a break. 

After lunch we decided to go line-up to watch the parade. We were about 45 minutes before it was to suppose to pass and it was already passing by. It is incredible what they can do with cardboard and pieces of netting and strips of material. Everything was made with recycled stuff. It was a good parade with lots of music, jugglers, people on stilts, costumes, decorated wagons, acrobats, bands and dancers. Many people watching the parade were also costumed and the kids had fun throwing paper confetti at the people going by. We stopped watching after more than an hour because we were getting tired of just standing. The carnival is a large, community-based carnival parade that brings together residents from both sides of the Garonne River (hence “Two Banks - deux rives”). The event celebrates creativity, cultural diversity, and neighborhood participation. The theme for this year is “Rivers and Seas” which celebrates water in all its forms - from the local Garonne River to the imagined vastness of the seas - and draws inspiration from myths, legends, aquatic creatures (like sirens and ocean beasts), maritime imagery and journeys, while also reflecting on the beauty and fragility of water environments.

The city is going to have fun cleaning this mess

We talked to Nathalie for a few minutes and were able to see Bianca and Danica long enough to say hi to them. Henri was still downstairs playing so no hello from there. Did a wash so I will have time to put it on the rack before supper.