EUROPEAN ODYSSEY PART 2 - TOULOUSE

  One of the best away trips we have done in recent years was to Toulouse (and as Toulouse was the most popular “away” ground to visit in last season’s End of Season Poll I don’t think we were the only ones to enjoy a few days in South West France. Although it was January, the sky was blue and the sun felt vaguely warm.  

The City of Toulouse is capital of France’s Midi Pyrenees Region. It is the 4^th largest city in France and spans the river Garonne. Its nickname is La Ville Rose (the pink town) because of its unique architecture built of pink terracotta bricks. Toulouse is home to 2 World Heritage Sites:- The Canal du Midi, a 150 mile long canal linking the Garonne with the Etang de Thau on the Mediterranean Sea, & the Basiilica de St Sernin, the largest Romanesque Church in Europe and an important stop for pilgrims on their way to Santiago di Compostela. Toulouse is rich in big churches: there is also Toulouse Cathedral, the Durade Basilica and the fascinating Church of the Jacobins which boasts a huge mirror allowing you to look down and see the dome above! ( And various bits of St Thomas Aquinas for those who like that sort of thing).

The centre of Toulouse is the Place du Capitole. It is a vast car-free square modelled on a similar square in Madrid. Three sides of the square are lined with bars and restaurants while the fourth is dominated by the Capitole itself, which houses the National Theatre and the Town Hall. There is an arcade opposite – look up and you will see the history of Toulouse painted on the arched roofs (including a section dedicated to Stade Toulousain). The nearby Tourist office runs regular walking tours of the city (although we were lucky because my cousin lives in Toulouse and did a bespoke tour for us)

Of course Toulouse’ main claim to fame is the Space industry and of course it has a Space Museum, Citie de l’Espace where you can climb aboard the MIR space station or look at the Ariane rocket & visit the Airbus factory.

The banks of the river Garonne provide a lovely walk down to Pont Neuf – the “new bridge” (although it is actually the oldest bridge in the city – it took 88 years to complete it!) In summer you can take a cruise along the river (although there isn’t a lot to see) but in winter the boats are mostly having their bottoms de-barnacled!

In Toulouse we found some of the best food and wine we have enjoyed anywhere. I would highly recommend La Gourmandine (which won the contract to feed us because it had a table at 10.00pm). It wasn’t cheap but it was fabulous. And the Armagnac menu boasted at least 30 different choices! The other gem is to be found in what looks like a multi-story car park above the indoor market (Victor Hugo) - well worth a visit in its own right just to oggle at the amazing foodstuff the French have access to. There are 5 restaurants in a line which you walk along until you find one you like. Mind they get very busy – be there by 12.00 or you’ll be out of luck. I can’t remember the one we visited but it was full of Stade Toulousain supporters who were delightful and the bottle of “house wine” (Anne Fleur) on the table was to die for! The local delicacies include Cassoulet (a meat & bean casserole), Toulouse sausages and of course Fois Gras.

Although you are in France, many of the locals don’t speak French as such, they speak Occitan, an interesting Romance language dating from the Cathars with no single written standards (which makes reading it pretty interesting!) Apparently it was the first language of Richard the Lionheart! The Red Cross of Toulouse originates from the first crusades and is sometimes called the Occitan Cross. It is probably why red is one of the colours of Stade Toulousain.

Stade Ernest Wallon, home to Stade Toulousain, sits on the edge of the city and is a bit of a pain to reach. It requires a journey on the Metro to Barriere de Paris where a free shuttle bus takes you most of the way to Stade Ernest Wallon. You then follow the crowd along the canal, through a tunnel under the A62D and on to the stadium. It is a lovely stadium though, standing in its own grounds and with training pitches alongside. Shame we lost.<

But my abiding memory of Toulouse will always be the taxi ride back to the airport. My cousin called early on Monday morning to say that there was a general strike in France involving the taxis in the big cities so leave as soon as we could. We had pre-booked ours and had no hope of getting an earlier one, and we had just about given up all hope of it arriving when 30 minutes late, a very battered Citroen pulled up driven by a rather grumpy Frenchman. However when we explained that we needed to catch a flight in around 90 minutes, he ran into the nearest phone booth and reappeared as “Super-Taximan”. Off we sped through back streets down roads which didn’t look wide enough to drive a car along, dodging the horrendous rush-hour traffic. Finally onto the motorway and barely an hour until take-off (and we all know easyJet waits for no man) only to find an almighty tail-back for the airport turnoff. Phones out we were looking for another flight to rebook on but we reckoned without Super-Taximan. He flew up the outside lane past the queue then just as we reached the turn-off, the cars parted and a space magically appeared (why does it never happen for me?) and through we sailed reaching the airport with a good 45 minutes to spare. Super-Taximan departed with a handsome tip and we even had time to pop into the duty-free shop.

A return trip looks tempting – hopefully this time with a different result! Save the Day - 22-24 January 2016