Toulouse: Young, relaxed, colorful

Toulouse: young, relaxed, colorful, and loads of vintage and depots/vente!

I am now in Toulouse for the spring season, with another group of students and another city to explore.

It was at the Marché Saint-Aubain that I first realized that I was no longer in Lyon. This is the south, and in the south, there are many more markets per square foot, and more people to observe. Markets have clothes, loads of cheap clothes. Markets are also good places to wear cool clothes.

(am wearing the last purchase I made in Lyon at "Des Habits et Vous", machine washable silk skirt).

I could just sit at cafes all day and snap away at the movement, the flow, the lightness of people here.


I’ve discovered two vintages shops and a handful of consignment shops.

I spent a bit of time at one called “Au choix de Sophie” ("At Sophie's Choice," or "Sophie's Selection") located on the tiny rue des Gestes, on the back side of the enormous temple of books, Ombres Blanches.

I asked the owner if that was her name, and she said yes. I’m not sure I would choose that name for my consignment shop even if my name were Sophie. But once I began chatting with the owner, it occurred to me that her controversial choice of name for her shop, pardon more unfortunate punning, reflected her own persona.

We talked about over consumption and the pathology of women who can’t control their buying urges. It’s one thing to shop, it’s quite another to buy uncontrollably. Retail therapy vs. clothes bulimia.

On a second trip to her shop, we discussed the progress I was making in getting to know the city of Toulouse. The tiny little meandering streets; the used book shops (found the used bande dessinée store, the owner is a bit taciturn but his shop is well stocked); the ambidextrous bookseller on Place du Salin.

Sometimes, ladies, we must choose this one OR that one, or not to buy at all today, this week, this month. Yet I succumbed to temptation. But my rule of thumb is that it cannot exceed thirty euros. I bought a black skirt that was still considered a winter item, so it was half price. It has pockets and pleats, several fabrics mixed so nicely together, and a comfortable elastic waist.

The following visit to Sophie's Choice, I bought a cotton jacket, after having looked obsessively for one in new and used clothing shops. It was when I examined the washing instructions to a jacket at Zara (it actually read "do not wash") that I realized how some clothes are really made to be worn a few times and then tossed away. "Do not ever wash." Wear it until it smells really bad, and then throw it away. Or perhaps it's made of such cheap materials that the jacket is more likely to fall apart, perhaps even disintegrate, before it has a chance to reek.

So Chez Sophie, I succumbed once again, after having negotiated for a better price, because indeed, a pink leather bag from the previous owner had left some stains on the left shoulder and bottom right pocket.

Sophie asked me to make my blog readable for French readers as well. So in the next several weeks, I will attempt to do just that. A good exercise for my bilingual brain.