Too loose

It's been a while. I've been so caught up with visiting apartments around London I've hardly squeezed in enough time to write a short entry.

I was watching Les Poupées Russes by Cédric Clapisch today, which had to be one of the best films I've seen in recent years. It's the sequel to L'Auberge Espagnole, a rambunctious tale of a Parisian exchange student's life-changing year in Barcelona, and the odd cultural mixity he finds there. This sequel skips about ten years into his life, where he becomes a script writer for French daytime television, and narrates his experience of trying to make it as an author, punctuated with his complicated love life.

The film contrasts Xavier's expectations as a single Parisian male in his thirties with those of his British and Spanish friends and girlfriends. He seems uneasy around butch, testosterone-driven men and prissy, girly women, being much more comfortable around his lesbian best friend. A sentiment I can definitely empathise with. Too much of one hormone seems to really mess people up.

Being back in Toulouse, I've had the joy of being around my niece a lot, go running when I want to, cook meals with my sister and play badminton with my brother-in-law. It's my idea of the best sort of holiday. It contrasts nicely with the frenzied, money-fuelled, angst-driven existence of London life. I just can't imagine going on one of those package holidays full of drunks like my housemates seem to do.

While I was running along the canals in Toulouse yesterday, one of the barges was named "Too loose", which seems to summarise a foreigner's impressions of the city in a clever pun the locals probably don't get. The Toulousains are chilled out, not too bothered about things. Great for a holiday, but probably too loose for my liking, as a place to live.

Off to Avignon and the Dentelles de Montmirail in the morning. Let's see what that brings...