November 23 2011, Toulouse France

Day 2 I began by waking up late and Alexia told me she would be an honored to tattoo me, and I am no one to argue so we headed to Alexia Vegas Tattoos in Toulouse France for my first tattoo out of the states, but first we stopped by her very good friend Bertrand who owns a custom motorcycle shop, I had chatted with him a little on facebook and was looking forward to meeting him. When we arrived at his shop I was impressed with his creations, he is definitely a master bike builder. Bertrand spoke very good English and we talked for awhile about France and motorcycles.
 Next stop Alexia Vegas Tattoo Studio!!! When we got there I was amazed at the passion for art that she has, she takes pride in her work to say the least, and has a very clean and beautiful little shop. She got right to work preparing to do the tattoo from a drawing that I brought along with me, I am hoping to get one of her original pieces tattooed on next week. I am very happy with the tattoo she did for me.
 After the tattoo, we went to a small village so she could get us some croissant from the bakery..and they were delicious!!! Here where I am living, if you want meat you go to the butcher, bread from the baker...and they take pride in their work here. We went back home and got changed, She told me she was taking me to a restaurant that her friends owned, Marco and Manue. It was in a small little village very pretty, we walked in and they greeted me with a big smile and Manue came from behind the bar to give me my “hello kisses” and Marco followed with a big hello and handshake, I am not really used to who you kiss at what time but Alexia is explaining it to me...lol.
  It was a very nice little place everyone was friendly, I was unusually quiet, new people and I didnt speak the language..but they made me feel at home and went out of their way to make comfortable, they all spoke a little English and when we got stuck Marco had google translate on the ready. We had a glass of red wine and some h’orduerves and Alexia ordered for me since I could not read the menu, I just told her to get me something that was a local specialty, I had the Margret de Canard...aka duck.. and it was so  delicious!!! after dinner her she told me that her “Gypsy” friend David was coming to meet me, not I thought it was a kinf of joke, but boy was I wrong, he was a gypsy..lol, probably one of the funniest free spirit men I have seen, always laughing and joking. the night wore on and we drank Cognac, wine, and the occasional “shooter” ... turns out Jack Daniels is pretty popular over here!!! lol.  Check out my “Things I’ve Learned about France and the French” page !!! you may find some things pretty funny..lol.
  Had many good laughs and singing american songs, turns out they know a lot of words to a lot of songs they just dont know what they mean..:)   Time for bed.