Toulouse – A Walk Along the Garonne and Dinner at Aligot Bar

After spending the morning in Albi and returning to Toulouse, we did a bit of window shopping, then returned to the hotel for a nice nap.

Upon waking we relaxed a bit and then decided to take a stroll. The Christmas Market, right outside our hotel was going strong.

We decided to take a stroll before finding a place to have dinner. As to where we were headed; well, that was answered when we got downstairs. There seemed to be some kind of "walk" going on. 

Folks were having such a great time….singing, laughing, it seemed so wonderful that we just kind of followed along.

They headed over to the Garonne, the river that flows thru the city and then crossed on Pont Saint-Pierre. Just having a joyous time waving those light sticks.

After doing a bit of "Googling" on my phone, I found that this was the Course des Lumières a Cancer walk/run. It was really great seeing a community come to together like this.

Instead of heading across the bridge, we decided to walk along the Garonne. It was such a clear evening, the reflections on the river were striking.

It was so beautiful…..

We walked to the Port de la Daurade area, then decided to head back to find a place for dinner.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, because of how busy things were and because most places in the city don't do online reservations, we weren't able to get dinner reservations even when we dropped by a restaurant several days before. So……we just walked around a bit looking for a place to eat.

Close to Notre-Dame du Taur, which we had visited earlier on the trip, was this little place named Aligot Bar.

This Bistro/Fast Casual-ish restaurant served food from the Aveyron region just east of Toulouse. I had been wanting to try Aligot, but the Missus, after taking a look at the gooey-stringy mashed potatoes had always declined. But I noticed the "Salade de Occitane" on the menu, which seemed much like what the Missus enjoyed in Carcassonne earlier in the trip, so I managed to talk Her into it.

We were seated and placed our order. Soon, a young lady sat on the table next to us. She was Asian and we started talking. She's Japanese, from the area right outside Heathrow Airport! It was a fabulous conversation about growing up Asian, the meshing of cultures and all of that.

The Missus enjoyed Her salad.

The Farci au Foie Gras was nice and gamy, though it lacked the nice, offal richness of foie gras. The duck proisciutto was cut too thick, therefore making it really chewy. A decent salad for the price of 13€….actually a bargain if you think of it costing $14/US!

I went for it, ordering the Aligot Classique with Duck Confit and Toulouse Style Sausage (19,5€ – $21.50/US)

And guess who enjoyed the cheesy-gooey Aligot? Yep, the Missus! It was stringy. though smooth, love the flavor….it's like potatoey cheese fondue-pudding if you will. The duck confit wasn't very good; it hadn't been heated properly, the skin was rubbery, the flesh tough and stringy. I did enjoy the Toulouse sausage though. The casing had a great snap, the flavor galricky-porky and this had a bit of pepperiness to it. 

Overall an ok meal and chatting with the young lady was wonderful.

Aligot Bar
35 Rue du Taur
31000 Toulouse, France

Needless to say, we didn't leave hungry!